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Lair of the White Worm
Der Biss der Schlangenfrau
UK 1988
produced by Ken Russell, Dan Ireland (executive), William J. Quigley (executive) for White Lair
directed by Ken Russell
starring Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi, Sammi Davis, Stratford Johns, Paul Brooke, Imogen Claire, Chris Pitt, Gina McKee, Christpher Gable, Lloyd Peters, Miranda Coe, Linzi Drew, Caron Anne Kelly, Fiona O'Connor, Caroline Pope, Elisha Scott, Tina Shaw, Paul Easom, James Hicks, David Kiernan, Matthew King, Ross Murray, Andy Norman, Bob Smith, Jackie Russell
screenplay by Ken Russell, based on the novel by Bram Stoker, music by Stanislas Syrewicz, special effects by Image Animation, special makeup effects by Simon Sayce
review by Mike Haberfelner
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When an archeologist's (Peter Capaldi) find of a giant snakehead in
rural England coincides with a mysterious lady (Amanda Donohoe)
repossessing her abandoned mansion & some clues of the missing
parents of Sammi Davis & virginal Catherine Oxenburg suddenly
turning up, there's definitely something strange in the bushes. Soon, it
turns out Donohoe is something of a half-reptile, & the only people
between her & her virgin sacrifice to the worm god living in a hole
beneath her house are those meddling kids(in this case Capaldi, Davis,
Oxenburg & Hugh Grant), who do their best to destroy the snake woman
(one great scene has her lured of her house by snakecharm-music via
giant speakers planted atop Grant's mansion). Problem is, she has
already turned Davis' & Oxenburg's mother into a snake-woman, ready
to bite her daughters, plus she needs Oxenburg for her virgin sacrifice
... which is almost completed, wouldn't Capaldi - thought dead - throw
Donohoe into the pit of the snake-god, followed by a handgrenade ...
Ka-Poom !
This movie is every bit as wild as you would expect from duirector
Ken Russell, but unfortunately his exaggerated, camp directorial style
does not go all that well with the rather mediocre genre-story by Bram
Stoker, which might have benefitted more from a more mundane,
conventional, subtle approach to the subject (in all fairness, the movie
could have turned out much worse that way). This way, Russell's
very own cinematic language & intentional camp more often than not
stand in the way of old fashioned shock & suspense. Maybe Russell
should have been more careful about which source-material to choose.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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