Synopsis
When an archaeologist uncovers a strange skull in a foreign land, the residents of a nearby town begin to disappear, leading to further inexplicable occurrences.
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Cast
- Amanda DonohoeLady Sylvia Marsh
- Hugh GrantLord James D'Ampton
- Catherine OxenbergEve Trent
- Peter CapaldiAngus Flint
- Sammi DavisMary Trent
- Stratford JohnsPeters
- Paul BrookeP.C. Erny
- Imogen ClaireDorothy Trent
- Chris PittKevin
- Gina McKeeNurse Gladwell
Recommendations
- 80
Variety
Donohoe as the vampire seductress projects a beguiling sexuality that should suck the resistance out of all but the most cold-blooded critics. She is also hilarious, a virtue shared by everyone and everything in The Lair of the White Worm. - 75
Slant Magazine
Cheap effects and gratuitous displays of nudity only heighten the film’s delirious demeanor. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
Given a distinctly playful treatment by Russell, who crams some kind of phallic imagery into almost every frame, THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM is solid, campy fun--much more entertaining than any of the director's "serious" films. Russell (who also scripted) enjoys himself with all kinds of fetishistic images, from a naked Amanda Donohoe slithering around in green body paint, to a white bra- and panties-clad Catherine Oxenberg suspened over a pit as a sacrificial offering to the great white worm-snake--whose flickering tongue is, no doubt, firmly in his cheek. - 70
The Guardian
Ken Russell's phallic farce starring Hugh Grant and Peter Capaldi is drearily sexist, accidentally absurd and undeniably a stinker. But its defiant disrespect for plot and taste win me over. - 70
The New York Times
Not a worm is left unturned in Ken Russell's buoyant, mischievous and predictably overwrought new film. - 60
Washington Post
Say what you will about Ken Russell, his films are usually bonkers. His latest, Lair of the White Worm, will do nothing to alter his reputation as the champion of camp thrash, but at least it's a step or two -- if only short ones -- above such recent efforts as "Salome's Last Veil" and "Gothic." - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
It has everything you want: shadows, screams, feverish scientific speculations, guttering candle flames, flowing diaphanous gowns, midnights, dawns and worms. Russell was once, and no doubt will be again, considered an important director. This is the sort of exercise he could film with one hand tied behind his back, and it looks like that was indeed more or less his approach. - 50
Orlando Sentinel
Though the film does contain a few other humorously erotic moments, it's mostly a listless exercise in intentional camp.
