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Sadly Over-hyped

Excellent but underrated film

Well written and acted. Its probably more of a mystery with supernatural theme than horror, until the end. Very sexy performance by Amanda Donahoe too which made it all the more worth watching. A fun trip back to the 80's with snakes. Stop reading, go watch.

The Lair of the White Worm is principally geared for those between the ages of 13 and 40. It is a horror movie with the worm being the monster. If you don't like snake movies, don't watch. If you don't like British movies, don't watch. The film is best enjoyed either on rainy afternoons or late at night -- other films are better for prime time. The film moves along at an okay pace, a little slow. Hugh Grant is less than amazing in this film, however, the acting in this film is truly atrocious. The storyline is okay. It is a decent horror film. There is no real blood and guts, at least not much at all. But, the movie is entertaining and provides a good movie to watch with friends if you would like or a perfect movie for teen get-togethers. Enjoy.

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.

Ken Russell meets Bram Stoker. And the result is a Victorian horror story, adapted to be played as "Carry On White Worm".While it has a nice period feel in terms of look, it is absolutely over the top in delivery. Amanda Donohoe, in particular (during her "If the money is right, I will consider keeping my clothes on in this film" phase), has her tongue so firmly in her cheek she can barely utter her lines. While there are undoubtedly some valid horror movie moments, there are considerably more moments which are hysterically funny.It is interesting to see Hugh Grant, pre Four Weddings, playing pretty much the same character he has played in every film since, albeit his straight playing suits the piece - there is something endearing about at least one of the characters taking everything seriously at face value, albeit with an air of slight bemusement at having seemingly wandered into something from a parallel universe.It is worth observing that the other female cast members are dreadful: Sammie Winmill acts away for all she's worth, at a standard which wouldn't pass muster at a primary school Nativity play, and Catherine Oxenberg doesn't even act, possibly because she can't.This is one of the daftest, most extravagantly enjoyable horror films out there, and is well worth catching. Just don't take it seriously, and you won't be disappointed.