REVIEW OF THE DVD RELEASE

Once again I am indebted to Rob Ellis of London (he was also the provider of my VHS copy) for his deep commitment to both this site and Lair in general. Here, for your reading pleasure, is his review of the new American DVD release with the Ken Russell commentary.

Pioneer Special Edition "The Lair of the White Worm by Ken Russell

That's me folks. Set in deepest Derbyshire and we are looking at Thaw's Cavern. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is where our story has its beginning and its end. And in that cave is something that I hardly dare discuss for fear of putting you off watching this masterpiece……" Ken Russell from his DVD commentary.

It's hard to imagine a film less likely to deserve a special edition for DVD than this one. Surely DVD is designed to show off the cutting edge ‘‘bullet-time'' technology of The Matrix or the aerial taxi dogfight of The Fifth Element? What can be so special about a low budget vampire snakes camp-fest? Certainly not the effects, which failed to convince me, even on my fuzzy ex-rental VHS.

Thanks to a crystal clear picture it's more obvious than ever that Lady Sylvia's uncanny ability to spit hallucinogenic venom at any passing Christian icon has less to do with her worship of Dionyn and more to do with a clearly visible tube attached to the side of her face. But if you already love Lair of the White Worm then I guarantee you'll find Ken Russell's commentary very special indeed.

Take for example this extract which runs during Eve's vision, "Nuns, nuns, nuns, nuns –– nothing but nuns as far as the eye can see. Maybe they've strayed from another film of mine……The Romans invaded Britain two thousand years ago and behaved abominably to the nuns that were there. Actually there were none. There were no nuns in the Roman occupation! Later on there were plenty"

And so it carries on for the full 93 minutes, uninterrupted, full-on Ken Russell voice over, ably mixing technical information, gossip, half-truths and outright lies with equal enthusiasm. Since this is a disc primarily for an American market the director deliberately misleads them over our police force, scout movement and B&Bs amongst other things! He can't even stop talking when the end credits come up. Other disc extras include cinema and television trailers for Lair and one for Salome, plus some interesting behind-the-scenes information and photos.

The film itself is split into 12 chapters; the menus are scored and look suitably garish. This film is anamorphically coded so Amanda Donohoe looks even better in widescreen, if that's possible. Unfortunately this film is only available as on a Region 1 (i.e. American) encoded disc. This means to play it you'll need a multi-region DVD player. Of course maybe one day this will be officially released in Britain, but there's no guarantee that fantastic commentary would make it over here. British discs are notoriously short of extras.

In case you need any further convincing I'll leave you with a final snippet from mad Ken, but I'm not telling you when in the film it's from…… "There I am in the background by the way. Like Hitchcock always showing off in my own films. I thought the acting for that part was transcendental!"

Rob Ellis, Hackney, London 26/2/00