Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

The Lair of the White Worm Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 25, 2017

Ken Russell’s films are an acquired taste, at least according to many who find the director’s work offensive and/or excessive, but I have personally always admired the sheer lunacy of a lot of Russell’s work. There’s probably no greater shorthand to understanding the breadth of Russell’s output than to realize that over the course of the next month, two radically disparate films from Russell’s oeuvre are coming out on Blu-ray, this 1988 horror outing loosely culled from a Bram Stoker novel, and The Boy Friend, Russell’s 1971 film version of the beloved Sandy Wilson musical (one that helped to catapult Julie Andrews to stardom in its original stage version). It’s sometimes hard to find any through line other than visual overkill in the vast array of Russell’s films, which include everything from supposed composer biographies like The Music Lovers, Mahler and Lisztomania to literary adaptations like Women in Love, The Rainbow and The Devils to science fiction outings like Altered States to uncatergorizable fare like Crimes of Passion. Even this abbreviated list should be more than adequate proof that Russell was an intellect of vast proportions, but he also seemed to have a cheeky if unabashedly provocative sense of humor, and a lot of his work seemed design to poke and prod stodgy types who considered themselves to be intellectually prodigious, and therefore superior to the everyday rabble. The Lair of the White Worm doesn’t really have any outsized ambitions, though, and in that regard it might be thought of as second string Russell, but the film has a kind of fun and unapologetically trashy ambience that kind of makes it Russell’s version of a Hammer horror entry.

Anyone who doesn’t feel Russell has a sense of humor about his work need only listen to the often laugh out loud comedy of his commentary included on this Blu-ray. Russell seems to understand the film is a bit outré, but you can fairly hear his tongue bursting through the side of his cheek as he repeatedly calls it a “masterpiece”, while also congratulating actors like Hugh Grant for doing much better work in The Lair of the White Worm than in any subsequent films (Russell also comes up with some funny faux titles for subsequent Grant films). One has to take The Lair of the White Worm with an understanding of that sense of humor in order for the film’s unique charms (snake based or otherwise) to really resonate.

The film begins with the discovery of a huge fossil of a snake skull, made by an archaeologist named Angus Flint (Peter Capaldi, later to become lionized as Doctor Who). The skeletal remain has been dug up on the site of a bed and breakfast run by Mary (Sammi Smith) and Eve Trent (Catherine Oxenberg), sisters who don’t seem all the concerned that their domicile has a certain Poltergeist-esque history in terms of what may lie underneath everything. They are concerned with the disappearance of their father, however, and when a local policeman named Erny (Paul Brooke) finds a watch belonging to the missing man, the girls feel like there may be at least a little hope that he’s still alive somewhere.

That mysterious disappearance plays into two simultaneously unfolding subplots, a regional folklore tale involving the so-called “d’Ampton worm” (meaning giant snake in this case) and the arrival of Lady Sylvia March (Amanda Donohoe), a local legend of sorts who seems to have an undue interest in the snake skull. The tale of the d’Ampton worm includes its demise at the hands of a heroic d’Ampton warrior generations ago, something that kind of bemuses current d’Ampton heir James d’Ampton (Hugh Grant).

Suffice it to say that the myth may have a bit of reality underlying it, and that Lady Sylvia’s fascination with the skull is akin to religious fervor, though fervor based in paganism as opposed to any more “decent” modern belief like Christianity. Russell’s longstanding flirtations with Catholic iconography get a fascinating workout in this film, albeit within the context of Christianity supplanting something more ancient and decidedly more atavistic.

The Lair of the White Worm is just flat out silly a lot of the time, but its delirious energy is quite enjoyable, especially if things are not taken seriously (an appropriate response, at least given Russell’s own ruminations on the project in his commentary). There’s the typical Russell visual excess in a couple of hallucinatory sequences, and performances, while a bit on the campy side (especially Donohoe, who vamps it up pretty spectacularly), are largely enjoyable as well.

The Lair of the White Worm Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Lair of the White Worm is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Film's new(ish) Vestron Video imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a somewhat variable looking presentation that understandably pops best and has the most convincing fine detail levels when lighting regimens are adequate. In brightly lit or outdoor daytime moments, sharpness and clarity are very good and fine detail levels are similarly commendable (see screenshot 2). Elements have faded a bit, though, and even in the brightest moments things can look just a bit on the brown side. Darker moments struggle at times, and there are very minor but noticeable compression issues that pop up on occasion. Some of the special effects work, especially some of the matte work, shows its age and the increased resolution of the Blu-ray tends to only make the "seams" show even more, with many of these sequences looking fairly soft (see screenshot 1). Grain is fairly chunky but generally resolves well, especially in the more brightly lit sequences. There's a bit of wobble throughout the presentation at times, as well as fairly regular occurrences of age related specks and flecks, none of which I personally found really seriously distracting.

The Lair of the White Worm Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Lair of the White Worm features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which offers pretty robust low end, especially in some of the musical elements (there's a fun band sequence that evidently utilizes a real life folksong about a "worm"). Dialogue and effects are both rendered effectively and with good prioritization, and there are no problems with regard to damage, dropouts or other issues.

The Lair of the White Worm Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Ken Russell is often hilarious, with biting self deprecation but a nonstop defense of the film's more hyperbolic elements.


• Audio Commentary with Lisi Russell, in Conversation with Film Historian Matthew Melia is considerably more restrained than the Ken Russell commentary, but provides a lot of biographical and production data.


• Worm Food - The Effects of The Lair of the White Worm (1080p; 27:08) features great interviews with SFX artists Geoffrey Portass, Neil Gorton and Paul Jones.


• Cutting for Ken (1080p; 9:32) is an interview with editor Peter Davies, one that's kind of interesting when one considers Russell states in his commentary that he doesn't really need an editor since he edits in his head before he even shoots.


• Trailers from Hell Featuring Producer Dan Ireland (1080p; 2:45)


• Mary, Mary - An Interview with Actress Sammi Davis (1080p; 15:42) has some fun reminscences of the shoot.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:11)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 2:59)

The Lair of the White Worm Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're not a diehard Ken Russell fan, my hunch is you probably won't be overly impressed with The Lair of the White Worm. It's hard to take the film's "scare tactics" very seriously when so much of the film is so resolutely ridiculous, but at the same time it's hard to accept the film's anarchic humor without a contextual understanding of Russell's tendency to poke and prod the powers that be (religious and/or otherwise). If you are a Russell fan, my hunch is you'll be willing to overlook the film's deficits and simply delight in the hallucinatory ambience Russell weaves, as well as the wonderfully over the top story the film has to tell. One way or the other, this is another release where the supplementary material may be of as much and maybe even more interest than the actual film. Technical merits are generally very good, and The Lair of the White Worm comes Recommended.