Details

Release year: 1988

Storyline

An anthropologist goes to Haiti to research a drug that makes someone appear dead by suspending all vital signs.

Top credits

Directors

Wes Craven

Writers

Cast

Bill Pullman — Dennis Alan
Cathy Tyson — Marielle Duchamp
Zakes Mokae — Dargent Peytraud
Paul Winfield — Lucien Celine

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Did you know

• Newly wed, Bill Pullman's wife was invited to be an extra and appears on screen as the blonde who pushes a long needle through a willing man's cheek.

• Due to political strife and civil turmoil in Haiti during the production, the local government informed the film crew that they could not guarantee their safety for the remainder of the shoot. The crew subsequently relocated to nearby Dominican Republic to complete filming.

• The character of Christophe Durand was based on Clairvius Narcisse, who was stated to have died in 1962 and was later risen as a zombie by a local Haitian witch doctor. Narcisse was poisoned by Datura, a drug which caused memory loss, and forced to work as a slave on a sugar plantation. He escaped 16 years later, after his captors had died. He had apparently been weaned off the Datura by eating salty foods containing bromide, which counteracted it.