| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Ken Russel
Starring: Amanda Donohoe,
Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi
and Sammi Davis.
Screenplay: Ken Russel
from the novel by Bram Stoker
Music:Stanislas Syrewicz
Country: UK |
Based on the novel of the same name by Bram
Stoker (creator of Dracula) the story opens
with Angus Flint (Peter Capaldi) uncovering a
strange looking skull in the grounds of a rural
British farmhouse where he is engaged in an archaeological
dig. The farmhouse is home to the Trent sisters,
who have granted Angus permission to conduct his
research on their grounds as he believed it to
have once been an old Roman settlement. The finding
of the skull was not something he expected and
he starts to investigate the local legend of the
White Worm - which is actually more akin to a
serpent or dragon rather than the common earthworm.
Enter Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe) who,
upon learning of the discovery of the skull, goes
to the farmhouse and steals it. Apparently she
is a worshipper of the worm god and wants the
skull in order to conduct a ceremony to revive
the legendary worm, which lays dormant in one
of the nearby caves. But she has a nemesis in
the form of Lord James D'Ampton (Hugh Grant),
whose ancestor is the worm slayer of local legend.
A battle of wits ensues, with Lady Marsh kidnapping
the Trent girls in order to perform her heinous
rituals, leaving a kilted Angus Flint (who plays
the bagpipes to charm the vampire-creatures!)
and Lord D'Ampton to rescue the girls, slay the
resurrected White Worm and its mistress, and generally
save the day.
Ken Russel directs with his usual flamboyance,
but somehow seems to completely miss the mark
with this one. He directs with far more convention
than usual, but still manages to throw in some
of his trademark surrealism at various points
throughout the film. Sadly, the film as a whole
just doesn't work. The acting is stilted (and
not very good really) with only Donohoe bringing
any credibility to her role. Overall I found the
characters rather shallow and one-dimensional
and by the finale couldn't give a toss what happened
to them, to be honest. Would you trust a bag-piping,
kilt-wearing Scot and a lame-looking Hugh Grant
to save you from the powers of evil? Not me!
The uneasy mix of English whimsy, vampirism,
folklore and surrealistic imagery just never come
together as a cohesive whole. The film does have
its moments, however, particularly the sequence
where Lady Marsh takes home the Boy Scout and
offers him oral sex - not an offer you should
take up from a snake-like vampire creature.
It's an odd film for sure, but I found it tedious
for the most part, despite the fact that the subject
material should have made for a genuinely unique
and interesting film. Ken Russel is definitely
not suited to the horror genre, what with this
and the appalling Gothic, I think we can
safely say that Ken should leave well alone.
I'm not going to say this a bad film, as such,
because I think many people will find much to
enjoy here, but I really didn't like it at all
unfortunately. Possibly one for Hugh Grant completists..? |
