Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

The Lair of the White Worm (1988)

Director: Ken Russell

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

This Russell rigmarole, nominally based on the Bram Stoker novel, seems to have been made up as it went along, possibly inspired by props left over from his last. The function of much of the writing (Russell again) is to throw rickety pontoon bridges between the yawning set pieces, and you can hear it ticking. Everywhere lies the evidence of carelessness. Davis and Capaldi cower in terror, babbling about a car without its headlights on. The standard crucified Christ and raping Romans round out a nightmare. High Priestess Lady Sylvia Marsh (Donohue) paralyses a boy scout with a bite to the willy, after leading him on in leather stockings and suspenders over snakes-and-ladders, then fits a giant dildo for an assault upon the virgin Eve (Oxenberg). Archaeologist Angus Flint (Capaldi) produces a mongoose from his sporran, and later a grenade, to combat the ancient evil of the white worm. Tiresome.

Author: BC 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Ken Russell

Producer: Ken Russell

Cast: Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi, Sammi Davis, Stratford Johns, Christopher Gable full cast

Genre(s): Horror

Duration: 93 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.