Ken isn't really known for making stomach-churning horrors, so how does this rate against other gore-fests of the same
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btodd2001 — 16 years ago(November 04, 2009 07:40 PM)
Ken isn't really known for making stomach-churning horrors.
http://www.imdb.com/board/10066993/
The Devils, from 1971, sure makes a run for its money.It's definitely one I would recommend only if you have a strong stomach!!!
If possible, find the DVD with the extras on it, that includes the long-banned and thought to be lost "Rape of Christ" scene.
I'm not even religious and it was pretty extreme.
"You know what Stewie, If you don't like it, go on the internet and complain." -
GeneticSugarKane — 12 years ago(February 09, 2014 04:37 PM)
I think you may be thinking of a different film.
My IMDb lists:
www.imdb.com/user/ur5570856/lists -
Mark_a_Wood — 10 years ago(August 20, 2015 03:50 AM)
No monsters. Nothing supernatural.
Apart from the huge white wyrm - that is an ancient god, the immortal serpent-woman high priestess, people being bitten by said serpent-woman turning into serpent people.
Just your average Derbyshire stuff really.Sparks Moran: "It was dusk. I could tell 'cause the sun had gone down" -
CMRKeyboadist — 15 years ago(May 12, 2010 11:28 AM)
Interesting blog.
Lair of the White Worm is a horror/fantasy. It does have some strong horror elements but mixes in some very old school mythology in a bizarre and sometimes hypnotic way. It's not Russell's best film (Altered States anyone?) but is certainly an entertaining film that should please most horror fans that are looking for something outside the slasher and gore genres. -
bradjanet — 15 years ago(May 17, 2010 08:16 PM)
The definition of a burlesque is as follows:"Burlesque is a humorous theatrical entertainment involving parody and sometimes grotesque exaggeration". Given this definition, I would call "Lair of the White Worm" a horror-burlesque. and along with Russell's other trashterpiece, "Salome's Last Dance", it makes half of a very entertaining double-feature.
But you ARE Blanche and I AM. -
snes4u — 12 years ago(August 03, 2013 02:05 PM)
I would not try to rate this against gore-fests. I do not even see the point of asking a question like that on the IMDB board of a movie you have not seen.
It is a much different sort of film.
You can try to rate it against dark horror comedies. In that regard, I think it does quite well. It is one of the finest examples of horror comedies. Though, how many horror comedies actually exist? -
rogerscorpion — 12 years ago(November 26, 2013 03:02 AM)
How about Bela Lugosi's Dracula? I think people misunderstand what horror films are.
I recently had a disagreement, with a person, who thought 'The Wicker Man' is a horror film ( the original). I disagree. It was very creepy & atmosphericyes, but not horror.
This one has giant white wormsno? Tremors had giant worms.
Carpe Noctem! -
Little_Korean — 12 years ago(December 02, 2013 03:03 AM)
How would you define a horror film, then?
I'd consider Wicker Man to be a horror film, at least in part (it could also be in the suspense, mystery, etc, genre).
It's not obvious until the very end, but it seems safe to assume that the intended result was for the audience to be horrified at what comes. Hence, horror.
When darkness overcomes the heart, Lil' Slugger appears -
stuartwhyte300 — 12 years ago(January 22, 2014 04:38 AM)
The film is based on a story by Bram Stoker and involves vampire snake-people, is that horror credentials enough?
I don't really see 'gore fest' films as truly, generically horror as they are straight out exploitation really.
Anyway, Lair of the White Worm strikes me as a bit of a gothic horror, lots of allusion, metaphor and suspense. It is also a touchy hammily acted in places like 70s hammer horrors but I believe this is intentionally camped up.
The obvious, over-riding factor is that this is a Ken Russell film, almost a genre of it's own.
There are a few, almost a Russell trademark, lurid hallucinatory/visionary scenes (as were also present in The Devils and, to an greater extent Altered States), but there is also a nicely compelling dream sequence (Grant's character), which is styled in a rather Kubrick-like manner, with fixed camera perspectives but depicting quite suggestive, freudian action.
Moreover the film has a playful tongue-in-cheek, knowing humour that gives an enjoyable levity and irony to the more heavy-handed demands that the story makes on the audience's suspension of belief.
Another Russell trope is an overt, expressionistic undercurrent (if not a contradiction in terms) of broad sexuality throughout the film. There is some clanging phallic symbolism, some slightly perverse and flirtatious wordplay in the script and also Donohoe is literally hypnotic in most of her two-handed scenes, seducing all and sundry.
There is also a little censor-baiting blasphemy (again very Russell) but nothing too sinister and there is arguably some plot integrity to it's inclusion.
All in all a well executed and highly enjoyable if, at times, fantastical film. -
zharth — 11 years ago(October 10, 2014 10:44 AM)
Gore is not necessary for horror. It may not be a subtle atmospheric or psychological horror, either. But it's a good monster movie, with religious and occult themes, so I don't see any problem with categorizing it as a horror.
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waswasere — 11 years ago(November 05, 2014 12:23 AM)
There's a reasonable amount of gore, in the stle of a Hammer Horror film, but as a horror film it's pretty poor. Terrible acting, dated video effects inserted into film, cliche ridden plot
but once I realised that it was Ken Russell having a laugh and switched mid-film to viewing it as a pre-Scream kitsch parody it became quite entertaining.
"I know it looked like I fell but it was all part of my plan!" -
snes4u — 11 years ago(November 17, 2014 12:40 PM)
This is an old question/thread, but I'll revisit it for fun.
The film is not a unigenre film. It knows that it is silly, and it has fun with it. I call them "horrorspoofs." That is to say, it is not an "unintentionally bad" feature (e.g. Troll 2). I have a hard time recalling film titles, but I can remember some films which do the same (with massively varying degrees of subtlety):
-Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man) (1994)
-Beetlejuice
-Army of Darkness
-Evil Dead 2
-Cockneys vs. Zombies
-Doghouse
-Wolfcop
-Zombeavers
-Doghouse
-The People Under the Stairs
-Housebound (2014)
-Severance (2006)
-Grabbers