The Serpent and the Rainbow (film)

The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1988 American horror film directed by Wes Craven and starring Bill Pullman. The script by Richard Maxwell and Adam Rodman is loosely based on the nonfiction book of the same name by ethnobotanist Wade Davis, wherein Davis recounted his experiences in Haiti investigating the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was allegedly poisoned, buried alive, and revived with a herbal brew which produced what was called a zombie.

Seven years later, Dennis Alan an ethnobotanist and anthropologist from Harvard University narrowly escapes the Amazon Jungle and returns to Boston after acquiring rare herbs and medicines from a local shaman. During his ordeal, Alan drinks a hallucinogenic potion and experiences a horrifying image of the same black man from Christophes funeral, surrounded by corpses in a bottomless pit. Alan also sees his totem jaguar spirit which leads him out of the jungle to safety.Back in Boston, Alan is approached by a large pharmaceutical corporation looking to investigate a drug used in the Voodoo religion of Haiti to create zombies. The company wants Alan to acquire the drug for mass production and use it as a type of super anesthetic. The corporation provides Alan with significant funds and sends him to Haiti where the country is in the middle of a revolution. Alans exploration in Haiti to find the drug, assisted by the doctor Marielle Cathy Tyson, locates Christophe who is alive again after having been buried for dead seven years before. Shortly thereafter, Alan is taken into custody by the Haitian authorities, with the commander of the Tonton Macoute Captain Dargent Peytraud Zakes Mokae the same black man from both Christophes funeral and Alans vision in the Amazon warning Alan to leave Haiti. Alan is at first not harmed by Peytraud, due to Alans status as a U.S. citizen. ........

Source: Wikipedia