Latex Movie Review - Lair of the White Worm

Here was a movie I was so looking forward to seeing. Not because of the promise of fetish outfits but because it was based on a Bram Stoker novel. I had wanted to see this movie years ago but for many reasons never got around to it. Stoker is best known for his novel Dracula which has been adapted for at least 16 movies and countless sequels, notably from studios like Universal and Hammer which turned Dracula into a franchise. And lets not forget the countless comedies featuring Dracula such as Love at First Bite and Dracula: Dead and Loving It, or the countless hundreds of films where the Dracula character makes a guest appearance. Dracula was not Stoker's sole novel. He wrote 11 others as well as over 20 short stories, most which has been ignored by the movie industry. One of the few exceptions was his novel Jewel of the Seven Stars which was adapted into three movies, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb ( 1971 ), The Awakening ( 1980 ) and Legend of the Mummy ( 1997 ). Not only was Lair of the White Worm a rare adaption of a Bram Stoker horror novel not related to Dracula, but was filmed by cult director Ken Russel who was responsible for three of my favorite films; Tommy, Altered States and Gothic. When it was brought up that Lair of the White Worm was one of the movies sought after by fetish fashion fans I jumped at the chance to finally see it.

The film has one huge drawback. It is silly. It is unintentional silliness, but when you get scenes like the hero donning a kilt and playing a bagpipe to charm a half woman half snake creature it is hard to take the movie seriously. Another huge problem is how Russel chose to deviate from the source novel by adding a plot that the snake creatures were able to bite their victims and turn them into snake creatures, just like vampires do. It was as if Russel was more interested in making yet another retread of Dracula and showed little interest in the novel the movie was based on. Amanda Donohoe plays Lady Sylvia Marsh, a mysterious woman who lives in a manor deep in the woods. Her neighbor is the new Lord of D'Ampton ( Hugh Grant ) who has just inherited his families property. One of D'Ampton's ancestors is part of a local legend, supposedly slaying a dragon known as the "D'Ampton Worm" which was cut in half by Sir John D'Ampton during the medieval ages. Or so everyone thought. A Scottish archaeologist named Angus Flint ( Peter Capaldi ) was excavating the ruins of an old Roman temple and uncovered the skull of a dragon like creature. Angus is staying in the boarding house of two sisters ( Catherine Oxenberg and Sammi Davis ) who's parents vanished a year earlier. When the watch of their missing father is found in a cave the Lord of D'Ampton takes interest and decides to investigate, eventually deducing that Lady Sylvia Marsh has a dark side to her, and that maybe the D'Ampton Worm was never really killed. While this movie is silly it is also entertaining besides it's faults. True, it is a cop out for Ken Russel to have ignored the source material and written a script that was half Dracula and half Sherlock Holmes. But the finished story works. Sure it is never actually scary, but it is fun.

THE SCENE:
Despite the cover of the VHS and some DVD releases ( taken from the original movie poster ) showing Amanda Donohoe rising out of a basket wearing a black shiny body suit and matching jacket top, this movie has very little to offer in the way of fetish fashion. The scene in question, beginning at 1 hour 4 minutes, takes place at night in a dark mansion. So dark that I can not identify the material the costume is made from, but I suspect it is actually metallic sequin made to resemble snake skin. The scene is very brief as Amanda, awaken by the sound of a snake charmers tune played over a loudspeaker system, dances out of the house within 30 seconds, never to be seen again in the same outfit. Another brief scene takes place at 52 minutes and has Amanda lying on a limb in a tree wearing hip high brown leather boots and a brown coat of unidentified material. Amanda tells Catherine Oxenberg that she had gotten stuck in the tree while trying to rescue a kitten and asks to be helped down, spending the majority of the scene in a closeup where her boots can not be seen. The one salvageable scene starts at 30 minutes and has Amanda seducing a Boy Scout wearing thigh-high black latex boots, black panties, black bra and black sheer top. She wears this outfit for a decent amount of screen time in a scene that is well lit.