Sunday, April 11, 2010

Guilty Pleasures Dept - Ken Russell adaptations of Bram Stoker novels

ok, ok, so it was a boring TV night, even for the desultory drill I peruse. So I went to On Demand, and browsed the free movies, and there was "Lair of the White Worm" (1988) starring Hugh Grant and other people no one's ever heard of, at least I haven't. It rang a bell, and not just because of the obvious "white worm" gag, promising sex. The other bell it rang had long black hair and went by the name of "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark." I was pretty sure I'd seen this flick back in Elvira's heyday, so I looked it up & sure enough it was as I'd remembered, a cheesy Ken Russell (is that redundant?) adaptation of one of the many novels that fall into the category of "Bram Stoker's work that isn't Dracula"

It's a cheesy flick alright, but the allusions to genuine British folklore are pretty comfortable (look up The Lambton Worm for pretty much the entire backstory), and there are some funny bits (well it is Ken Russell, so there were bound to be some funny bits, but some of them I think were even intentional).

I don't recommend this film if you've a better idea, which includes a "My Mother The Car" marathon of all eleven episodes. But barring that, if you've nothing to do with your evening and you have access to it, what the hey, I've spent more on worse.