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The Lair of the White Worm
The high priestess of Dionyn about to bite a victim.
Release Date	October 21, 1988
Genre	Dark Fantasy, Camp
Director	Ken Russell
Screenwriter	Ken Russell
Stars	Amanda Donohoe Hugh Grant Catherine Oxenberg Peter Capaldi Sammi Davis
Studio	Vestron Pictures

Lair of the White Worm is a campy 1988 movie directed and written by Ken Russell based on the novel of the same name by Bram Stoker, the last novel from the writer. It stars Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi, and Sammi Davis.

Plot

The story takes place in early spring in and around a rural England on the D'Ampton estate. And a local legend of the D'Ampton Worm (worm and wyrm are early English word variants of what is now known as a dragon). According to legend, hundred of years ago, the local dragon was slain by a brave Sir John D'Ampton.

Here, Angus Flint, a young Scottish archeologist (played by Peter Capaldi) is excavating an area of the yard of a local boarding house.

He discovers what appears to have been an early convent from the Roman Empire era. The boarding house is on the D'Ampton estate and run by the two Trent sisters (played by Catherine Oxenberg and Sammi Davis), who were presumed orphaned when their parents went missing some years back.

He also finds the skull of a creature—that looks like it could be a dinosaur. Could it be the remains of the legendary D'Ampton Worm?

The sisters became wards of the D'Amptons until they became adults and took over the boarding house. Young Lord D'Ampton (played by Hugh Grant) takes a shine to Eve, the older of the two sisters (Oxenberg).

News of the archaeological find spreads. When the young Lord D'Ampton returns home from a trip abroad he throws the annual D'Ampton Worm party. It is accompanied by a folk song:

John D'Ampton went a-fishing once, a-fishing in the weir,

He caught a fish upon his hook he thought looked mighty queer,

Now what the kind of fish it was John D'Ampton couldn't tell,

But he didn't like the look of it, so he threw it down a well.

Now the worm got fat and growed, and growed an awful size,

With great big teeth and a great big mouth and great big goggle eyes,

And when at night it crawled about all looking for some booze,

It fit fell dry upon the road, it milked a dozen cows.

This fearful worm would often feed on cows and lamb and sheep,

And swallow little babes alive when they lay down to sleep,

So John set out and got the beast and cut it into halves,

And that soon stopped it eating babes and sheep and lambs and calves.

So now you know how all the folks on both sides of the weir,

Lost lots of sheep and lots of sleep and lived in mortal fear,

So drink the health of brave Sir John, who kept the babes from harm,

Saved cows and calves by making halves of that famous D'Ampton Worm!

Meanwhile, another member of the local nobility, Lady Sylvia Marsh (played Amanda Donohoe) returns from her yearly escape to warmer climes. It soon becomes apparent that Lady Marsh is not human, but some sort of venom-spitting vampire-like creature in she visits the boarding house and spits a vile venom on Eve Trent, who is alone in the house, causing Eve to have violent hallucinations of nuns being raped and sacrificed to a snake god.

While Eve is incapacitated, Lady Marsh steals the skull and takes off to her home at Temple House.

It turns out that Lady Marsh is actually the last priestess of the snake cult and has been nursing the wounded D'Ampton Worm back to health. Apparently, like a real worm or like the mythical Hydra, the worm was able to re-grow its head.

Lady Marsh has been kidnapping villagers for years and feeding them to the worm, the god Dionyn, which is almost strong enough to emerge from its lair and wreak havoc on the countryside again.

Lady Marsh is convinced that a virgin sacrifice is what needed for Dionyn to once again be strong enough to rule.

External links

• The Lair of the White Worm - a novel by Bram Stoker (Full text online)
• IMDb listing
• The Lair of the White Worm Fansite
• The Lair of the White Worm at MRQE.com

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