Dumpster Raccoon: THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM

This Halloween season, after eight years of Dumpster Raccoon Cinema, we are FINALLY celebrating the jester-king of British electro-trash, the one and only KEN RUSSELL with his howler bizarre horror comedy (???), THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (1988)!

When young archaeologist Angus Flint (Doctor Who’s own PETER CAPALDI!) unearths an enormous serpent skull at his friends Mary and Eve’s (Dynasty star Catherine Oxenberg and Sammi Davis) bed and breakfast, he unwittingly discovers the first clue to the mysterious disappearances plaguing the local community and vexing the waggish lord of the manor James D’Ampton (a young HUGH GRANT!). Could the skull be connected to the mythic D’Ampton Worm – an enormous serpent of legend, and could they ALSO be connected to the VERY INTENSE AND SULTRY Lady Sylvia Marsh who is OBVIOUSLY A SNAKE-LADY (the legendary AMANDA DONOHOE, chewing every bit of scenery with sinuous fangs) ALSO very obviously murdering everybody??? Will our plucky heroes save the day – or will everyone in town be eaten in progressively unlikely and ludicrously snaky ways???

Loosely adapted by Ken Russell from Bram Stoker’s second-best novel (and it is a STEEP decline after Dracula), Lair of the White Worm was roundly panned by critics and its own stars (Hugh Grant remains befuddled about it to this day – “when I saw it, I roared with laughter”) – but has been reclaimed as a cult classic, finally recognized as wildly funny on its own knowing terms, a quality perhaps disguised by Russell’s outre style. As he himself put it, “Audiences don’t realize my films are comedies until the last line has been delivered, and even then, most people don’t appear to get the joke. I would like to state that I actively encourage the audience to laugh along with White Worm.”

See this half-forgotten disasterpiece by the master of the form as it was MEANT to be seen – with an audience in on the joke! (Anthony Oliveira) 

With video preshow, cocktails by the Shameful Tiki Room and media from our sponsors Bay Street Video!

Part of the Dumpster Raccoon series!

Cast/Crew Info
Director: Ken Russell | Cast: Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi, Sammi Davis