Movies Like The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1988 horror, thriller film from Wes Craven with a MovieMagicScore of 6.4/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with The Premature Burial and Hatchet II.

Horror Thriller

The Premature Burial

1962

An artist grows distant from his new wife as an irrational fear of premature burial consumes him.

6.2

MagicScore

Hatchet II

2010

Picking up right where the original ended, Marybeth escapes the clutches of the swamp-dwelling killer Victor Crowley. After learning the truth about her family’s connection to the hatchet-wielding madman, Marybeth returns to the Louisiana swamps along with an army of hunters to recover the bodies of her family and exact the bloodiest revenge against the bayou butcher.

5.5

MagicScore

Jungle

2017

In 1981, an enthusiastic young adventurer follows his dreams into the Bolivian Amazon jungle with two friends and a guide with a mysterious past. Their journey quickly turns into a terrifying ordeal as the darkest elements of human nature and the deadliest threats of the wilderness lead to an all-out fight for survival.

6.7

MagicScore

Wide Sargasso Sea

1993

In the wake of Jamaican emancipation, French colonist Annette Cosway falls into poverty and marries racist Englishman Paul Mason. But when Annette's young son dies in a fire started by former slaves, Mason flees to England, leaving his grief-stricken wife and her Creole daughter Antoinette behind. Soon Antoinette learns she must marry to claim her inheritance and sets her sights on Rochester, an Englishman eerily similar to Mason.

4.7

MagicScore

Enemy

2014

A mild-mannered college professor discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man's private affairs.

6.9

MagicScore

Cannibal Holocaust

1980

A New York University professor returns from a rescue mission to the Amazon rainforest with the footage shot by a lost team of documentarians who were making a film about the area's local cannibal tribes.

6.3

MagicScore

Possum

2018

A disgraced children's puppeteer returns to his childhood home and is forced to confront his wicked stepfather and the secrets that have tortured him his entire life.

6.2

MagicScore

The Relic

1997

A homicide detective teams up with an evolutionary biologist to hunt a giant creature that is killing people in a Chicago museum.

6.0

MagicScore

Macabre

1958

After his wife and her blind sister have died under his care, a doctor's young daughter is kidnapped and reported as buried alive, leaving him with mere hours to find and rescue her.

6.0

MagicScore

#10

The Last Wave

1977

A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal Persons in a ritualised taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing truths about himself and premonitions.

6.7

MagicScore

#11

Dust Devil

1992

A woman on the run from her abusive husband encounters a mysterious hitch-hiker.

6.3

MagicScore

#12

Weird Woman

1944

After bringing his beautiful new wife Paula home to America from a remote island on which she was raised, Professor Norman Reed begins to feel the clash between his world of rational science and hers of bizarre dancing and freaky voodoo rituals. Norman's stuck-up friends also sense Paula's strangeness, and soon their meddling gossip and suspicious scheming push the poor woman to use her magic to defend herself and her husband – and maybe even to kill! Or is it just the power of suggestion...?

5.9

MagicScore

#13

Mulholland Drive

2001

Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.

7.8

MagicScore

#14

Lost Highway

1997

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

7.5

MagicScore

#15

Call of the Blonde Goddess

1977

Susan arrives in Haiti to live with her husband Jack, who lives with a lesbian housekeeper and Olga, a nymphomaniac platinum blonde, introduced to her as Jack's sister. Susan begins to have nightmares about voodoo ceremonies and murder.

5.5

MagicScore

#16

By the Pricking of My Thumbs

2005

The Beresfords investigate mysterious deaths at an old people's home.

6.2

MagicScore

#17

The Phantom Carriage

1921

An alcoholic, abusive ne'er-do-well is shown the error of his ways through a legend that dooms the last person to die on New Year's Eve before the clock strikes twelve to take the reins of Death's chariot and work tirelessly collecting fresh souls for the next year.

7.8

MagicScore

#18

Zombi Child

2019

Haiti, 1962: A man is brought back from the dead only to be sent to the living hell of the sugarcane fields. In Paris, 55 years later, at the prestigious Légion d’honneur boarding school, a Haitian girl confesses an old family secret to a group of new friends - never imagining that this strange tale will convince a heartbroken classmate to do the unthinkable.

6.1

MagicScore

#19

White Zombie

1932

In Haiti, a wealthy landowner convinces a sorcerer to lure the American woman he has fallen for away from her fiance, only to have the madman decide to keep the woman for himself, as a zombie.

5.9

MagicScore

#20

Tales of Terror

1962

Three stories adapted from the work of Edgar Allen Poe: 1) A man and his daughter are reunited, but the blame for the death of his wife hangs over them, unresolved. 2) A derelict challenges the local wine-tasting champion to a competition, but finds the man's attention to his wife worthy of more dramatic action. 3) A man dying and in great pain agrees to be hypnotized at the moment of death, with unexpected consequences.

6.6

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like The Serpent and the Rainbow?

The top films similar to The Serpent and the Rainbow by MovieMagicScore are The Premature Burial (6.2), Hatchet II (5.5), Jungle (6.7). Each shares horror/thriller themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is The Serpent and the Rainbow worth watching?

The Serpent and the Rainbow holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.4/10 from 530 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is The Serpent and the Rainbow?

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) is a horror, thriller film directed by Wes Craven, starring Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae.

Where can I find more recommendations like The Serpent and the Rainbow?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more horror recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like The Premature Burial Movies like Hatchet II Movies like Jungle Movies like Wide Sargasso Sea Movies like Enemy Movies like Cannibal Holocaust

About movies like The Serpent and the Rainbow

This ranked list pairs The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), a horror and thriller film from Wes Craven, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Bill Pullman take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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