Film

The Lair of the White Worm

Name: The Lair of the White Worm
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Released: 1988
Cast: Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi, Sammi Davis

Ken Russell's delirious 1988 adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel is a fever dream of gothic horror and camp comedy, all snakes, sexual menace, and Hugh Grant looking bewildered. It's visually outrageous—less interested in scares than in sensory overload and transgression. For those who find conventional horror stuffy and want their thrills with a wink and a leer.

TMDb rating

3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy gleefully over-the-top British horror-comedy, where a camp villainess, a giant worm and a wildly loose tone are the whole point and nobody is taking it seriously.

Skip it if you want frights that build with restraint or a coherent, carefully paced plot; this one lurches from set piece to set piece and its effects show their age.

What it asks of you: Ninety-odd minutes of deliberate excess, asking you to meet its absurdity halfway rather than settle into any steady rhythm of suspense or sense.

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If you liked this

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The wildcard

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