The Lair of the White Worm (1988) - Has to be seen to be believed

For a horror fan it's hard to believe that I've only just seen this film in 2023.  It's one film that I actually find hard to describe.  I guess it's definitely a horror movie, but is it scary?  Not really.  So is it a farce, or a comedy?  No, definitely not.  It's somewhere in the middle, never completely going full 'self aware,' but at the same time definitely not as serious as other classic tales from the genre.

It's about a pair of archaeologists who discover evidence in the British countryside of a giant worm that's the basis from some local folklore.  The two men are played by Hugh Grant (who hasn't really changed much!) and Peter Capaldi (who it took me a while to actually recognise as he's one of those actors who somehow you find it hard to picture as ever being 'young!'). 

Their discovery leads them to get to know a particularly curious member of the gentry, one Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe).  Naturally, it turns out that she knows more than a little about the fable of the 'white worm.'

It may sound like a fairly generic horror movie, but I can assure you that the way it's shot and the vivid and unsettling imagery will stick in your head long after the credits have rolled.  There are parts that are trippy and just plain weird and sometimes you won't know whether to be scared, disgusted or simply laugh out loud.

It's sort of like an old British Hammer horror film, but with a higher budget and filmed while high on certain substances.  Grant and Capaldi are good in the leading roles, but it's the scenery-chewing Donohoe that steals every moment she's on screen.

If you're a fan in general of quirky horror films then you really should see it the way it was meant to be before some Hollywood producer decides to remake it and it becomes a shadow of its former self. 

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that