Incompetence begets camp in this adaptation of Bram Stoker's last novel. That's camp Ken Russell style -- with nudity, sexual hyperbole, and, of course, religious (or is that sacrilegious?) imagery. To be clear, Russell's script only nods occasionally at Stoker's book -- yes, it's still about a snake-woman (Amanda Donohoe) and the band of people who want to destroy her -- but all the details have been changed to suit Russell's own irreverent vision of the story. Some of it even works: it's funny, for instance, when Donohoe is drawn irresistibly from her wicker basket (!) by the musical strains of the snake charmer (actually a Turkish recording being blasted from the hi-fi system next door). Before things get out of hand -- with scenes like those of nuns being raped while Christ on the cross is menaced by a huge snake and Hugh Grant's symbolic dream in which he raises a pencil on his lap while watching a cat-fight between two women -- that is, for the first 15 or 20 minutes, Lair is actually quite promising. One thing: even with all Russell's nonsense, the story is more comprehensible than was Stoker's. Well, at least it gives us a great "new" song for Halloween: "The D'Ampton Worm." Also with Peter Capaldi, Catherine Oxenberg, and Sammi Davis.
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Incompetence begets camp in this adaptation of Bram Stoker's last novel. That's camp Ken Russell style -- with nudity, sexual hyperbole, and, of course, religious (or is that sacrilegious?) imagery. To be clear, Russell's script only nods occasionally at Stoker's book -- yes, it's still about a snake-woman (Amanda Donohoe) and the band of people who want to destroy her -- but all the details have been changed to suit Russell's own irreverent vision of the story. Some of it even works: it's funny, for instance, when Donohoe is drawn irresistibly from her wicker basket (!) by the musical strains of the snake charmer (actually a Turkish recording being blasted from the hi-fi system next door). Before things get out of hand -- with scenes like those of nuns being raped while Christ on the cross is menaced by a huge snake and Hugh Grant's symbolic dream in which he raises a pencil on his lap while watching a cat-fight between two women -- that is, for the first 15 or 20 minutes, Lair is actually quite promising. One thing: even with all Russell's nonsense, the story is more comprehensible than was Stoker's. Well, at least it gives us a great "new" song for Halloween: "The D'Ampton Worm." Also with Peter Capaldi, Catherine Oxenberg, and Sammi Davis.
2 Comments
Bookstooge
10/14/2016 04:00:07 am
Capaldi, eh? I've never seen the latest Dr Who in anything else but it doesn't sound like this is the place to start :-)
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Brian
10/14/2016 11:12:42 am
Was lucky when I lived in Austin: the PBS station replayed all the Doctor Who episodes, starting with the very first one. I got up to a few episodes of Colin Baker before I moved, and I haven't seen any Doctor Who since.
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