Lair of the White Worm
| Year: | 1988 |
| Production Co: | White Lair |
| Director: | Ken Russell |
I was never very familiar with Ken Russell's work, but I gather he was like a British cross between Tinto Brass and Roger Corman - all schlock horror and tits.
Riffing heavily on the little-known North England mythology of the Lambton worm, it tells the story of an archaeologist (Hugh Grant way before fame as an actor) who finds a mysterious skull at a dig. At the same time, a foxy local socialite (Kristel) arrives in her stately home, and the carnage starts. The archaeologist, together with the virginal heroine, discover that the woman is the modern conduit to an ancient cult that worshipped a giant snake as their deity, one she intends to bring back to life.
Full of phallic symbology and with the notorious glimpse of the Roman soldier/nun rutting orgy, all overseen by a bad rubber model of the titular monster wrapped around a giant crucifix, it's more funny than scary and in an earlier era without the ubiquity of the internet it would have been porn for an army of teenage boys. Pretty Catherine Oxerberg's only appearance of note outside US rich trash soap Dynasty, and it was also based on a Bram Stoker novel.
Riffing heavily on the little-known North England mythology of the Lambton worm, it tells the story of an archaeologist (Hugh Grant way before fame as an actor) who finds a mysterious skull at a dig. At the same time, a foxy local socialite (Kristel) arrives in her stately home, and the carnage starts. The archaeologist, together with the virginal heroine, discover that the woman is the modern conduit to an ancient cult that worshipped a giant snake as their deity, one she intends to bring back to life.
Full of phallic symbology and with the notorious glimpse of the Roman soldier/nun rutting orgy, all overseen by a bad rubber model of the titular monster wrapped around a giant crucifix, it's more funny than scary and in an earlier era without the ubiquity of the internet it would have been porn for an army of teenage boys. Pretty Catherine Oxerberg's only appearance of note outside US rich trash soap Dynasty, and it was also based on a Bram Stoker novel.