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DVD The Lair of the White Worm
Wittily updated from one of Dracula author Bram Stoker's lesser-known horror novels, The Lair of the White Worm is a camp classic that only Ken Russell could have delivered. It's got all the perversity one expects from the bombastic director of Tommy and Altered States: sensible plotting, intelligent dialogue laced with double entendre, graphic imagery with Boschian intensity, and a mischievous disregard for good taste and decorum. In other words, it's heretically hilarious, especially when skeptical Lord D'Ampton (fresh-faced Hugh Grant, in one of his earliest films) begins to suspect that seductive neighbor Sylvia (Amanda Donohoe, game for anything) is connected to the local legend of a monstrous serpent that feeds on sacrificial virgins. Evidence mounts with the help of a local archaeologist (Peter Capaldi) and two endangered sisters (Catherine Oxenberg, Sammi Davis), and Russell infuses Stoker's grisly plot with his inimitable brand of blasphemy, including a gouged eyeball, a venom-splattered crucifix, Roman soldiers raping nuns (in a delirious hallucination sequence), and some of the funniest one-liners since Young Frankenstein. Prudes beware; everyone else…enjoy! --Jeff Shannon
Loosely (to put it mildly) based on a Bram Stoker novel, this is the tale of the town of D'Ampton, where once there was a monster (a clear reference to the Lambton Worm of legend). Archaeologist Peter Capaldi digs up the skull of what appears to be a giant snake. He and aristocrat Hugh Grant come to realize that a snake-worshipping cult is active in the area, and they suspect Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe). They're right: Donohoe is a snake-woman intent on sacrificing a virgin to her giant snake god. Ken Russell never takes his material seriously, and the film plays like a grisly parody of a Hammer gothic. The film emphatically belongs to Donohoe, who, tricked out in leather fetish gear and clearly having the time of her life, is the ultimate embodiment of The Woman Your Mother Warned You About.
The sound is in 2.0. The music wavers a bit during the opening credits, but otherwise has a strong, expansive mix. The sound FX are very solid. In fact, the overall effect is surprisingly strong for 2.0. (Very nice use of the calls of night birds).
Given how many fullscreen discs Artisan hits us with, it's a pleasure to encounter a widescreen ratio (1.77:1), even if it isn't anamorphic.
A VERY bare bones disc, but the movie is A LOT of silly, sexy, gory fun. To prove it with a quote...
Kevin says "I'm not really into headbanging."
Lady Sylvia Marsh askes "Are you into any kind of banging?"
Can we stop for a bite?
Angus Flint (Peter Capaldi), archaeologist is rooting around an old convent when he finds a rather toothy skull of a supposedly unrecorded beastie. He may have uncovered a lot more.
Some times legend is based on more than facts. And what you don't know may bite you.
I have to admit I did not read the book. I have seen other Ken Russell movies; but I do not recognize his style. However wyrmen works as well if not better than bats in that part of the world. This movie has everything that makes up a good horror film. There are victims, unaware good guys and even a few "stay in the car" scenes. There is even a song and a tune to go with the story.
As with most good DVD's the goodies are almost as good as the film is.
Not bad, but not good either
This film has most of the hallmarks of a Ken Russell film (bizarre halucinations, weird eroticism, etc.) It has been a while since I've seen this film and the fact that I've forgotten most everything about it doesn't speak to highly of it. Nonetheless there are some quite amusing scenes in this film that definitely make it worth watching (and some that many might find quite offensive). This is a good film for those who are looking for something different.
Lurid, kitschy, over the top--what more does one expect from Ken Russell, director of The Devils, Tommy, and Altered States? Gothic purports to tell the story of a night that Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and the future Mary Shelley spent at a country estate and decided to write ghost stories--a night that ultimately resulted in Mary writing the novel Frankenstein. These three and a couple of friends romp around the mansion, freaking out at shadows and the sounds of a storm, getting increasingly hysterical and hallucinatory as the night progresses. Thrown into the mix are a mechanical belly dancer, nudity, walking suits of armor, an orgy, séances, grotesque masks, leeches, a pig's head, stigmata, snakes, and God-awful dialogue like "We are the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gabriel Byrne - Julian Sands - Natasha Richardson Director(s): Ken Russell DVD Release Date: Released the 26 February 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie are rich, beautiful, and oh-so chic as denizens of the night. Dressed in sleek outfits and stylish sunglasses, they haunt rock & roll clubs on the prowl for young blood, whom they bring home to their impossibly luxurious mansion for a late-night snack. Being a vampire never looked more sexy, but there's a price: Bowie starts to age so fast he wrinkles up in the waiting room of a doctor's (Susan Sarandon) office. The agelessly elegant Deneuve, evoking Delphine Seyrig's Countess Bathory from Daughters of Darkness, is perfectly cast as a millenniums-old bloodsucker who seeks a new mate in Sarandon and seduces her in a sunlight-bathed afternoon of smooth, silky sex. Tony Scott's (Ridley's brother) directorial debut, adapted from the Whitley Strieber... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Catherine Deneuve - David Bowie - Susan Sarandon Director(s): Tony Scott DVD Release Date: Released the 05 October 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It's easy to understand why the late, great screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky removed his name from the credits of Altered States and substituted the pseudonym Sidney Aaron. After all, Chayefsky was a revered dramatist whose original source novel was intended as a serious exploration of altered consciousness, inspired by the immersion-tank experiments of Dr. John Lilly in the 1970s. In the hands of maverick director Ken Russell, however, Altered States became a full-on sensory assault, using symbolic imagery and mind- blowing special effects to depict one man's physical and hallucinatory journey through the entire history of human evolution. It's a brazenly silly film redeemed by its intellectual ambition--a dazzling extravaganza that's in love with science and scientists, and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): William Hurt Director(s): Ken Russell DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Kate Beckinsale plays an art restorer. While working on her current commission, she discovers a previously hidden inscription, which points to a murder conspiracy 500 years ago. As she tries to solve the mystery, whose key lies in the paintings depiction of a chess game, people around her, connected in one way or another to the painting, begin to die. Is the past reaching out to wreak vengeance on the present? And who is the Black Queen?
I won't tell you, except to say that the answer is painfully obvious. Based on The Flanders Panel, a novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte, author of The Ninth Gate, this is a much less successful film than Roman Polanski's effort. The premise is intriguing, but the resolution is deeply disappointing. Beckinsale's character, furthermore, is so... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jim McBride DVD Release Date: Released the 16 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A rarely screened cult favorite from Paul Verhoeven, this story of medieval war and revenge should please action fans and admirers of the director and his semi-regular leading man, Rutger Hauer, but its graphic scenes of sexual violence earmark it for mature viewers only. Hauer stars as a 16th-century mercenary hired by a Western European ruler (Fernando Hilbeck) to assault a neighboring kingdom; when the king reneges on his promises to Hauer and his men, they kidnap his son's fiancee (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and hole up in a nearby castle. Hauer and Leigh are standouts in a strong cast that includes Tom Burlinson, Bruno Kirby, the late Brion James, and Susan Tyrrell; Verhoeven's realistic approach to the down-and-dirty facts of medieval life and the bloody aftermath of warfare offers a... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Verhoeven DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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