User Reviews

Ken Russell meets Bram Stoker. And the result is a Victorian horror story, adapted to be played as "Carry On White Worm".

While it has a nice period feel in terms of look, it is absolutely over the top in delivery. Amanda Donohoe, in particular (during her "If the money is right, I will consider keeping my clothes on in this film" phase), has her tongue so firmly in her cheek she can barely utter her lines. While there are undoubtedly some valid horror movie moments, there are considerably more moments which are hysterically funny.

It is interesting to see Hugh Grant, pre Four Weddings, playing pretty much the same character he has played in every film since, albeit his straight playing suits the piece - there is something endearing about at least one of the characters taking everything seriously at face value, albeit with an air of slight bemusement at having seemingly wandered into something from a parallel universe.

It is worth observing that the other female cast members are dreadful: Sammie Davis acts away for all she's worth, at a standard which wouldn't pass muster at a primary school Nativity play, and Catherine Oxenberg doesn't even act, possibly because she can't.

This is one of the daftest, most extravagantly enjoyable horror films out there, and is well worth catching. Just don't take it seriously, and you won't be disappointed.

Even by the lactose standards of cheesy movies, this is one deliriously kinky Casu Marzu. A Ken Russell spin on the Lambton Worm legend, this has a smorgasbord of tasteless fun and slumming stars.

Peter Capaldi (looking about eighteen years old) digs up a mysterious lizard skull, while harbouring the hots for Sammi Davis. Meanwhile, Sammi's sister is falling for the charms of a young Hugh Grant, who seems to be having a lot of fun with his incredibly fruity aristo role. Stratford Johns, as his butler, could have had more screen time, because he's excellent.

Enter Amanda Donohoe, as an immortal snake goddess, who wants to use the magic powers of the skull to supplant the impostor religion of Christianity. She's naked or nearly naked a lot of the time, but you expect that from a combination of her and Ken Russell, really. Early on, she bites a boy scout on his, ahem, woggle, so we can be reassured that good taste is right out of the window.

Chuck in flashbacks to the crucifixion, with added naked nuns plus Donohoe in blue body-paint, fellating a scrimshaw dildo, and we are under way. The bagpipe v vampire battle is a classic of the genre and much fun is had by all.

How does the mythical beastie get deaded in the end? Well, a true Scotsman always has something useful in his sporran. But will the future of Christianity be doomed by an NHS paperwork mix-up after all?

This is an hilarious, kinky mess. Watch it!

Being one of the few who has read Bram Stoker's original-novel, I can say without reservation that Ken Russell's vision of the story is far-superior. Why? You would have to read the novel, but I can vouch that it is unfilmable, and would put any audience to-sleep. It's not bad, and it has some excellent-ideas, but that's really what sums Stoker up-best--he had good concepts and a background-story, but a boring execution. Stoker went to great-lengths to show us how much he hated the aristocracy, just as in Dracula, but it gets tedious and too-talky. Also, the Irishman was dying of some brain-disease, so the story is pretty fragmented. He died shortly after completing it in 1912. But the general-ideas are great, and the story predates Lovecraft's similar-obsessions with cosmic-horror. A faithful-version on film would not be very exciting. Russell, being Russell, intuited the sexual-subtext of the story, and takes it to realms of comic-transcendence.

Russell saw the exquisite-potential in the story, and even spiced-it-up further with his wonderful blend of sexual-obsession and high-camp. He also lends the story a very-serious mysticism. It's ripping! Amada Donohoe stands-out as Lady Sylvia Marsh, an acolyte of a once-dead "sect" of vampiric serpent-worshippers, and she shines here. It is probably her best-performance in a movie. There are so-many great-moments in this film, and many are very witty and funny, with plenty-of sex-jokes (this is a Ken Russell film, after-all). Russell wisely let the film be campy and tongue-in-cheek, since he wanted the audience to laugh with the story rather than at it! Characters practically wink at the camera after delivering their witty-lines, and Hugh Grant is pretty funny, he gets it. This has to be the first time most American audiences saw Grant in a starring-role, and it left a big-impression on me.

The theme I enjoyed-most was the idea of pagan-religions being dormant for Centuries, and then reasserting-themselves in our modern-world (in many-forms, like folklore, songs, and even in physical-manifestations), it's an exciting-concept with all the sexual-implications Russell loves trotting-out. There's also atmosphere-galore, and some very pointed-jabs at Orthodox-Christianity that the cynical will enjoy. What I really loved, though, was how campy the whole-affair is, since much of this is for laughs. The film also has an interesting new take on a kind-of serpent-vampirism. Sex was the basis in most Victorian-literature, so Russell has a field-day with it, and why not? He lays-bare Stoker's sexual-obsessions, and has them out-in-the-open, not really a major-shift from the original-novel! The title says-it-all, doesn't it?

Lesbianism, paganism, mystery, religion, archaeology, humor, murder, monsters--how can you lose? This was part of a three-picture deal that director Ken Russell had with Vestron pictures, and included the excellent "Gothic" (1986) and D.H. Lawrence's "The Rainbow" (1989). The 1980s was possibly his purest period where he had a very free-hand in his productions. It should be noted that Russell is a great adapter of D. H. Lawrence, and has done some justice to Aldous Huxley with "The Devils" (his only political-film that surely ranks as horror), so literature is no problem for this most-controversial director. His infatuation with Britain's folklore is so apparent in this and his other films! In-fact, there is a scene where a genuine folk-song about the "Dampton Worm" is sung, since the legend is a real one from an old Anglo-Saxon kingdom.

Pioneer actually got this one right for-once. The film is widescreen, and has a very-good transfer. The sound is stereo, and it is fairly active. Now, if they can get the rest of the catalog right...