Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Jason Voorhees 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.

JoeB131 .. 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.

TheLittleSongbird The Lair of the White Worm is not going to please everybody, people will be thoroughly entertained throughout, others will find it ineptly done. Very like the controversial opinions for director Ken Russell too. For all its faults I fall into the former category. The special effects are not very good, the worm looks laughable and doesn't seem that much of a threat. Sammi Davis is embarrassingly bad too, veering towards both shrill and disengaged. And the ending is very abrupt, in all honesty though so was the book's ending. Even with those flaws, The Lair of the White Worm still improves hugely over the book. Odd to the point at times of incoherence and overly wordy with an ending that suffers from the cutting down the book got, it was a shock that Lair of the White Worm(Bram Stoker's least well-known book and for a reason) was from the same author who wrote Dracula, one of the most iconic pieces of horror literature. People will disagree with this though and that's fine. Back to the film, the locations are beautiful and atmospheric, it's decently shot and even the costumes are not bad at all, Donohoe's actually were pretty amazing. The music will entice even the least slithery of snakes, the dialogue is smart and hilarious(a campy element to it but considering this is a Russell film that shouldn't come across as too much of a shock) and the story is briskly paced with the fun factor rarely diminished. There are a lot of components brought in, but not in a muddled way thankfully like Lisztomania and Gothic were. Lair of the White Worm is not a scary film, but there is the odd moment that will make you jump. Russell's direction pulls no punches with a sense that he was having fun while knowing what he was aiming for, and the trademark excessive imagery is in abundance, luckily though apart from the rape scene- which will leave people disgusted- these images are not distasteful. The acting is not great but it's not that bad either apart from Davis. Peter Capaldi and Stratford Johns fare the best in support while Catherine Oxenberg is charming and even Hugh Grant in an unlikely role acts in a way that is not out of kilter. Best of all is Amanda Donohoe, whose brilliantly sexy performance is what makes the film. In conclusion, Lair of the White Worm not a great film but an enjoyable one while not pleasing all. 7/10 Bethany Cox

tomgillespie2002 The recently late Ken Russell is arguably Britain's greatest auteur. Although his works are very rarely seen in Great Movie lists (or even Great British Movie lists), I cannot think of any British director whose work is so distinctly and definitively their own. He has juggled genres - period piece (Women in Love (1969)), horror (The Devils (1971), Gothic (1986)), science-fiction (Altered States (1980)), musical (Tommy (1975)) - yet his fingerprints are all over them. It seems death has brought him legendary status, as his work has seen a recent resurgence, namely by British critic Mark Kermode, who described his work as "every bit as flamboyant as Fellini." He had a trademark obsession with religion (or the criticism of it) and sexual imagery, And although I've only seen a handful of his films, these themes have seemingly never been more prominent than in The Lair of the White Worm.Based on the novel by Bram Stoker, it tells the story of an ancient mythical legend, the slain white 'worm', in a rural Derbyshire village. Archaeologist Angus Flint (Peter Capaldi) unearths the large skull that appears to be of a giant snake outside the Bed & Breakfast ran by two sisters, Mary (Sammi Davis) and Eve (Catherine Oxenberg). James d'Ampton (Hugh Grant) tells him the story of the d'Ampton Worm, a giant snake that was apparently slain by one his ancestors. When Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe) hears rumours of this skull, she steals it and spits venom onto a religious picture. She later kidnaps Eve in order to sacrifice her to re-awaken the White Worm, while James investigates the strange events happening around the village.Imagine Hammer handing the novel of The Lair of the White Worm to Russ Meyer and asking him to take some acid and make it into a film, and you'll have an idea into what this film is like. On many levels it does not work - it is utterly ridiculous, outrageously camp, and features some dodgy effects and model-work. Yet Russell has his tongue firmly in his cheek, and often I expected the actors to wink into the camera after delivering their double-entendre lines. And for this reason, I was completely powerless in enjoying the film. The actors completely buy into it, namely an extremely sexy Amanda Donohoe, whom Russell places into some outlandishly vampiric and dominatrix-esque costumes. It is also unbelievably (yet satisfyingly) offensive to Christians and the religious. Most people will hate this film, but fans of B-movies and camp trash will lap it up, as did I.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com