a coffin

At 1.15am On May 2, 1962, a Haitian man called Clairvius Narcisse was pronounced dead by two doctors after weeks of an excruciating, mystery fever. His corpse was identified by his two sisters, Marie-Clare and Angelina.

Narcisse's family buried him in a small cemetery near the dusty town of l'Estere the next day in what should have been the end of his story.

Eighteen years later, in 1980, a heavy-footed, vacant-eyed man approached Angelina at the village market and introduced himself as her brother, the man she buried in 1962.

Narcisse explained to her that he had been resurrected by a witch doctor who had enslaved him on a sugar plantation. 


Local villagers, like most Haitians who believe in the magical power of Voodoo, accepted the story - but Western scientists were obviously sceptical of his apparent resurrection.

Narcisse's outlandish tale prompted Harvard professor Wade Davis to trek deep into the Haitian jungle where he met Max Beauvoir, who would later become the king of witch doctors - known as the 'Pope of Voodoo'.

Beauvoir introduced the Professor to a 'bokor', or sorcerer, who gave him a magical ‘zombie powder’ recipe with the power to resurrect the dead.

Davis was so convinced by the wonder powder that he wrote the cult book 'the Serpent and the Rainbow', which was turned into a a movie blockbuster directed by Wes Craven, starring Bill Pullman – and sparked a new genre of zombie movies, myths and horror stories. 

The ‘Godfather of Voodoo’, Beauvoir, who passed away on Saturday, was the head of Haiti’s 6,000 'houngans', or witchdoctors.

As their spiritual leader he was credited with the weird and the wonderful from halting a US invasion to saving thousands of voodoo priests from an angry lynch mob, who blamed them for a cholera outbreak.

The charismatic voodoo king was even said to have bewitched former US President Bill Clinton, who fell under his spell at a chance meeting in 1975 and wrote about their encounter in his memoirs.

But to millions of horror fans, Beauvoir’s legacy is the day he and his daughter Rachel led Davis to the witchdoctor and magical voodoo powder, which spawned 'The Serpent and the Rainbow' and inspired a generation of zombie movie obsessives.

Donald Cosentino, Professor of World Arts & Cultures at UCLA and Beauvoir’s friend, told MailOnline how that fateful meeting led to a global fascination with the living dead.

'The Serpent and the Rainbow had a huge influence on the rest of the world. It reignited a lot of discussion about zombies.

'It made real waves in Euro-American society and it began the re-emergence of other zombie movies.'

He added: 'Without Max, Wade could never have written this book. And it wouldn't have been written and there never would been the craze about zombies that ensued.'


 credit: Mailonline