Post by tav7623 on Aug 1, 2010 22:56:52 GMT -5
Hey everyone tav here with another movie review, this weeks review is the 1988 movie The Lair of the White Worm. The movie was written and directed by Ken Russell based on the novel of the same name written by Bram Stoker one year before his death in 1911. The movie stars Hugh Grant, Peter Capaldi, Catherine Oxenberg, and Amanda Danohoe and is about a Sottish archaeology student named Angus(Capaldi) who is excavating the site of a former convent located by a modern day bed and breakfast in Derbyshire. Which is run by two sisters , Angus during his excavation discovers a unusually large animal skull and later that night hears the local legend called the tale of the d'Ampton worm (large snake...and is told as a song that makes me think of Cotten Eye Joe) which according to legend was slain by James d'Ampton's (Grant) ancestor John d'Ampton. On the way back to the bed and breakfast one of the sisters and Angus spot the mysterious Lady Sylvia Marsh(Donohoe) who lives at the nearby Temple House during the spring and summer. Shortly after her arrival people start disappearing along with the skull Angus excavated....upon further investigation they discover a deadly secret about Lady Marsh.
This is the part where I usually write down the cons and pros of this movie but in the case of the Lair of the White Worm it at times is beyond description some of the stuff that happens in this movie which makes it almost impossible to list the cons and pros.
Overall I give The Lair of the White Worm a 6 out of 10 for it's trippy dream sequences (which include sequences such as the rape and murder of nuns in front of a guy nailed to a wood cross while a giant snake wraps around him and watches, two women in airplane stewardess outfits having a cat fight while Hugh Grant is strapped to a chair while wearing a pilots outfit, and then there's the barrage of naked blue people (men and women ... the women are wearing large wooden strap on dildos) dancing in front a wall of flames), a new take on the vampire (the vampires are very very snake like and can come out during the day but hate the cold and certain kinds of music), decent blood/gore effects (one scene in particular freaked me out the first time I saw it, its the scene with the vampire that is cut in half and is still wiggling around on the ground), and scene with a kilt wearing bagpipe playing Scottish archaeologist/vampire slayer. This movie is a B movie in the classic sense ( Ebert in his review for this movie writes that this movie would have fit perfectly with the Roger Corman AIP 60's b-movies if it wasn't directed by Ken Russell) and from what I've learned about the movie's controversial writer/director/producer Ken Russell this movie is tame compared to his other movies which are "adult" themed exploitation movies that often mix sexuality/nudity and church/christianity issues such as Women in Love,Altered States, The Devils, and Whore (which came out the same year as Pretty Woman but was given a NC-17 by the MPAA) to name a few. This movie is for the most part a pure British exploitation b-movie and I feel is best enjoyed/watched when chillin, getting drunk and definitely not in front of/with the girlfriend ( unless she doesn't mind all the blood, nudity and trippy dream sequences then it should be alright).
I hope you enjoyed the review, I will be back next week with a review of the 1970 cult classic The House That Dripped Blood.
This is the part where I usually write down the cons and pros of this movie but in the case of the Lair of the White Worm it at times is beyond description some of the stuff that happens in this movie which makes it almost impossible to list the cons and pros.
Overall I give The Lair of the White Worm a 6 out of 10 for it's trippy dream sequences (which include sequences such as the rape and murder of nuns in front of a guy nailed to a wood cross while a giant snake wraps around him and watches, two women in airplane stewardess outfits having a cat fight while Hugh Grant is strapped to a chair while wearing a pilots outfit, and then there's the barrage of naked blue people (men and women ... the women are wearing large wooden strap on dildos) dancing in front a wall of flames), a new take on the vampire (the vampires are very very snake like and can come out during the day but hate the cold and certain kinds of music), decent blood/gore effects (one scene in particular freaked me out the first time I saw it, its the scene with the vampire that is cut in half and is still wiggling around on the ground), and scene with a kilt wearing bagpipe playing Scottish archaeologist/vampire slayer. This movie is a B movie in the classic sense ( Ebert in his review for this movie writes that this movie would have fit perfectly with the Roger Corman AIP 60's b-movies if it wasn't directed by Ken Russell) and from what I've learned about the movie's controversial writer/director/producer Ken Russell this movie is tame compared to his other movies which are "adult" themed exploitation movies that often mix sexuality/nudity and church/christianity issues such as Women in Love,Altered States, The Devils, and Whore (which came out the same year as Pretty Woman but was given a NC-17 by the MPAA) to name a few. This movie is for the most part a pure British exploitation b-movie and I feel is best enjoyed/watched when chillin, getting drunk and definitely not in front of/with the girlfriend ( unless she doesn't mind all the blood, nudity and trippy dream sequences then it should be alright).
I hope you enjoyed the review, I will be back next week with a review of the 1970 cult classic The House That Dripped Blood.