The Lair of the White Worm

The Lair of the White Worm is a 1988 supernatural horror comedy film written and directed by Ken Russell, and starring Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, and Peter Capaldi. Loosely based on the 1911 Bram Stoker novel of the same name, it follows the residents in and around a rural English manor that are tormented by an ancient priestess after the skull of a serpent that she worships is unearthed by an archaeologist. A co-production between the United Kingdom and United States, the film was offered to Russell by the U.S. film studio Vestron Pictures, who had released his previous film, Gothic (1986). Russell, an admirer of Stoker, loosely adapted the screenplay from the source novel, and incorporated elements of the English folktale of the Lambton Worm. Filming took place at Shepperton Studios and in Wetton, Staffordshire, England in the spring of 1988. After screening at several North American film festivals, The Lair of the White Worm was released theatrically by Vestron Pictures in New York City on 21 October 1988, and expanded to other U.S. cities over the following months. The film was a box-office flop, grossing $1.2 million, and received largely unfavorable responses from critics, though it later developed a cult following. Plot Angus Flint is a Scottish archaeology student excavating the site of a convent at the Derbyshire bed and breakfast run by the Trent sisters, Mary and Eve. He unearths an unusual skull which appears to be that of a large snake. Angus believes it may be connected to the local legend of the d'Ampton 'worm', a mythical snake-like creature from ages past said to have been slain in Stonerich Cavern by John d'Ampton, the ancestor of current Lord of the Manor, James d'Ampton.