Ken Russell has fun with fang-in-cheek parody

Estate summary

Hans Petrovic enjoys Ken Russell’s The Lair of the White Worm as an extravagant parody whose success depends on an audience accepting its absurdity. He finds little narrative logic but recognises a deliberate excess of snake imagery, religious provocation and grotesque humour. Amanda Donohoe’s Lady Sylvia Marsh dominates an account of the film’s modern Derbyshire setting and loosely adapted plot. Petrovic calls Bram’s underlying novel weak, while treating Russell’s eccentric transformation as entertaining on its own terms. This is a contemporary New Zealand review of the 1988 film, published in July 1989; its judgements belong to the reviewer. The accompanying cover identifies the novel being adapted, rather than showing a scene from the film.

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