Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A Harvard anthropologist is sent to Haiti to retrieve a strange powder that is said to have the power to bring human beings back from the dead. In his quest to find the miracle drug, the cynical scientist enters the rarely seen netherworld of walking zombies, blood rites and ancient curses. Based on the true life experiences of Wade Davis and filmed on location in Haiti, it's a frightening excursion into black magic and the supernatural.
Wes Craven's Haiti-set horror draws on Wade Davis's genuinely lived anthropological research, giving it an unusually grounded and culturally specific premise that stands out from generic zombie fare. The location filming and voodoo ethnography lend the film a distinctive, almost documentary-adjacent texture rarely seen in mainstream horror. The cinematography captures an authentic sense of dread and tropical unease without being especially stylish. Acting is serviceable — Bill Pullman is credible as the conflicted scientist but the supporting cast is uneven. The plot holds together reasonably well in its first two acts, blending thriller and horror with anthropological inquiry, but the climax devolves into a conventional nightmare-logic showdown that undercuts the film's grittier, more grounded qualities, making the ending the weakest link.