The Lair of the White Worm (1988)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Upon the discovery of a strange skull nearby, a local finds the link between it and a demonic vampire queen from local folklore who's attempting to sacrifice a friend to resurrect a hideous creature and must find a way of stopping it from occurring.This one was quite enjoyable and really had a lot to like here. From the beginning, there's a really strong build-up along the way with the slow reveal of the cult and their existence giving this a strong start here with the unearthing of the skull and the remnants of the society left along the way there, along with her muttering on about all the different incidents that happen around her house that continually bring them into contact with the queen which continually keeps the mystery building here. The more spectacular scenes, from the initial hallucination showing the flashback of the soldiers' orgy with the followers of the cult while the roaring snake wrapped around the crucifix as the surroundings become covered in flames to the secondary dream of him entering the cave from the past to the investigation into the caves which manages to be the most significant part of putting the clues together and solving the mystery which turns this into the fun and enjoyment found here in the final half. Utilizing the fine encounter at the house where the captivating music is used to lure her out as the brawling in the main living room couples nicely here with the concurrent investigation at her house as they confront the abandoned parents in another freaky hallucination of the worm appearing which masks the vampires' attack, the confrontation in the garden of her house the next day which features some nice stalking around the statues and the set-up for the big finale here where the naked, blue-bodied vampire appears and drags him into the ritual chamber below the surface allows for the snake to appear of the pit as there's the fun rescue attempt to finally end the threat nicely. Along with the rather weird imagery present here with the pagan relics and a nice back-story here tying the snake lore together, there are some great points here which give this enough to hold off the flaws. The main element against this is the act that there's so many talking scenes in here talking about the history and legacy that there's hardly any action scenes along the way. The slow- building mystery here is based on how the different events come together based on their piercing the clues together after she's already accomplished something, and that does make for a rather dreary pace here. The only other flaw here is the series of apparent low-budget-looking special effects here which give this quite a distracting look as the cheep hallucinations and the snake-god puppet the end is quite lame as it bounces around flimsily. Beyond this, there's a lot to like here.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language, Nudity and sexual scenes.

I always thought that "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was the best Ken Russell film ever made without the actual involvement of Ken Russell, so I was terribly disappointed when this film came out, as it was so clearly meant to be Russell's chance to capitalize on the sensational success "Rocky Horror" was having as a midnight movie, but just not making it. It's "Lisztomania," which came out the same year as "Rocky Horror," not "Lair," that turned out to be the closest Russell ever got to making his own version of the cult film that imitated his unique razzle dazzle style so profitably. It's even got Nell Campbell in it. But that was just Russell being Russell, of course.I recently snagged "Lair" again as part of my "Doctor Who" hiatus summer of Capaldiwatching and found that I like it a lot better now that I'm 27 years older and have seen a lot more of both Russell's work as well as the classic Hammer horror films that both "Lair" and "Rocky Horror" pay tribute to. It used to drive me up the wall that Amanda Donohoe's Lady Sylvia failed to be as sensational a sex villain as Tim Curry's Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Now I think she's pretty sensational in her own right. And of course her mission isn't to give herself over to absolute pleasure, but to bring the evil ways of paganism back to Christian-era Britain. In that way she's closer to Willow MacGregor in "Wicker Man" than to Frankie. And the climax of "Lair" is very much like an Art Deco version of the "Wicker Man" sacrifice. Maybe that's why Russell sent in the Glaswegian Peter Capaldi in his tartans and hand grenade-filled sporran to save the day and restore the "Wicker Man"-besmirched honor of the land of John Knox. The fact that Hugh Grant's Lord D'Ampton is completely upstaged by Capaldi's Angus Flint, I now realize, is not a fault at all but an intentional strategy of Russell's to make the intrepid Scotsman with literal dirt under his fingernails the true hero of the piece, while the handsome filthy rich young English nobleman is just literally a tosser (notice the girly magazine on his bedside table.) I recently read the never-produced screenplay of Ken Russell's adaptation of "Dracula," which Russell had hoped to make as part of a package deal with "Lair," and it gave me a lot more insight into this film. It's a surprisingly good script, definitely the highest quality "Dracula" adaptation I've run across. Russell clearly knew how to structure a good Hammer-style Gothic story that's stronger on character, plot development and atmosphere than juvenile cheap thrills, and though "Lair" is no classic it's as entertaining and absorbing as the average Hammer film (i.e., incredibly.) Russell also wrote an unproduced sequel to "Lair," "Revenge of the White Worm," as yet unpublished. There aren't many details out there about it but I have to believe Russell brought Angus Flint back in it. You'd miss him if he wasn't there.

.. that is probably getting a bit of renewed attention because Peter Capaldi was in it.The plot is that a Scottish Archaeologist finds the skull of a dragon like beast on the site of an old convent. Meanwhile a Noblewoman is in charge of a cult that runs the local castle, while the descendant of knight who slew the worm in the middle ages fights her.The film was made on the relative cheap, but had a lot of quality. Donahue, Hugh Grant (pre-Scandal) and Capaldi (Pre- Malcolm Tucker/Doctor Who) all ham it up appropriately without quite chewing the scenery.Awesome amounts of nudity you'd never see in a movie today. Yes, we have become more prude, and it's not a good thing. Some freaky dream sequences.

I still recall this film's local theatrical release but never got around to watching it until now (not even as a VHS rental), due to my personal phobia of snakes! Actually, I did acquire a copy of it some years ago sourced from the Artisan DVD and, subsequent to this satisfactory viewing, presently also got hold of Ken Russell's cheeky Audio Commentary (where he states that the garden of his home, where this was partly filmed, is crawling with snakes and also that, as a child, he had been "hypnotized" by an adder but was saved from certain death by his brother!) culled from a previous Pioneer edition! Although there are indeed reptiles involved – including the giant titular one – there is, thankfully, a curious restraint on display here on the part of the notoriously in-your-face director…so much so that it is often dismissed as a minor effort of his in some circles. Curiously enough, I have also seen it acclaimed as his "ultimate" achievement in others: maybe it was the fact that he was venturing once more into the realm of the fantastic (in almost a decade) and combining it with the erotic that instigated the hyperbole or perhaps merely that he was adapting for the screen a Bram Stoker property (only the third novel to receive this treatment but, unlike the others, just this once)! The film proved the first teaming of Amanda Donohoe and Sammi Davis who would be reunited as one pair of lovers in Russell's next film, THE RAINBOW (1989), that I watched earlier this month; here, however, the typically (and quite literally) vampish Donohoe is more interested in the latter's equally virginal sister Catherine Oxenberg (from TV's DYNASTY) – while she used to be a striking presence in that long-running soap opera, she is decidedly the weakest link in the cast that also includes a pre-stardom Hugh Grant and Peter Capaldi. At times, Stanislas Styrewicz's eerie electronic score was very reminiscent of the unnerving Bernard Parmegiani one for Walerian Borowcyk's DOCTEUR JEKYLL ET LES FEMMES (1981); the evocative cinematography of the English countryside, Gothic mansions and prehistoric caverns by Russell's regular lighting cameraman Dick Bush was another big plus – although the tackiness of the nightmare sequences (that look forward to the harshness of camcorder images!) were a bit jarring if effective nonetheless.The reptilian-cum-phallic imagery was unsurprisingly rampant – from Donohoe's car slithering out of nowhere to a hosepipe or a piece of rope suddenly springing into life, to the Concorde in Grant's nightmare (complete with his erectile pencil at the sight of a catfight between air hostesses Donohoe and Oxenberg!). Admittedly, the unnecessary twist ending was a bit lame but this was compensated for by a reprise of the worm's wittily catchy theme tune sung by a folk-rock band over the end titles; they had earlier performed it at Grant's annual 'beggars banquet' commemorating (with a shoddy re-enactment) his ancestor's heroic slaying of the mythical dragon (by the way, it is baffling how the script seems to think that dragons, worms and snakes are one and the same thing!). As I said, THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM was only Grant's fourth theatrical feature but, in a case of life imitating art, at one point his character is said to have been jailed (in an unsuccessful ploy to abduct the heroine)! Among the film's highlights are: Donohoe spewing venom on the crucifix; a vision of Christ on the Calvary cross being entangled by the white worm as Roman legionnaires are gleefully raping a host of nuns (including Oxenberg herself); Donohoe's bath-tub murder of a boyscout (following a game of "Snakes & Ladders"!); the girls' mother cut in half by Grant via his ancestral sword (incidentally, it was amusing to see the snake people like the former watching TV programmes about this form of reptile). However, the camp quotient is at its highest in Donohue's costumes and in a sequence depicting her slithering out of a snake-basket over to Grant's mansion to the stereophonic strains of a Turkish "snake charming" tune blasted over his sound system (even if Scottish Capaldi uses the traditional bagpipe just as effectively but, while 'afflicted' policeman Paul Burke answers the 'call' and is eventually disabled by a graphic piercing right through his left eye, Donohue has cleverly put ear-plugs in advance and she also swiftly eliminates the threat of a mongoose, reputed to be the snake's deadly enemy!); the climactic confrontation in the cavern with a naked, blue-painted and snake-dildo-sporting Donohoe attempting to assault a tied Oxenberg before the White Worm makes its untimely appearance (the sacrificial victim it receives is not quite the one that was intended, with Capaldi then resorting to a hand-grenade in the mouth to put the monster to rest). Apart from the two female leads, of Russell's stock company, Christopher Gable (as the girls' missing father – in fact, he turns up only in photos and in Grant's nightmare!) and Stratford Johns (as Grant's butler who, asked about the whereabouts of the all-important snake-charming tune, helpfully suggests that his master try the B-side of a disc boasting "belly-dance music") also put in an appearance.