The greatest movie ever made..!

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Well written and acted. Its probably more of a mystery with supernatural theme than horror, until the end. Very sexy performance by Amanda Donahoe too which made it all the more worth watching. A fun trip back to the 80's with snakes. Stop reading, go watch.

I always thought that "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was the best Ken Russell film ever made without the actual involvement of Ken Russell, so I was terribly disappointed when this film came out, as it was so clearly meant to be Russell's chance to capitalize on the sensational success "Rocky Horror" was having as a midnight movie, but just not making it. It's "Lisztomania," which came out the same year as "Rocky Horror," not "Lair," that turned out to be the closest Russell ever got to making his own version of the cult film that imitated his unique razzle dazzle style so profitably. It's even got Nell Campbell in it. But that was just Russell being Russell, of course.I recently snagged "Lair" again as part of my "Doctor Who" hiatus summer of Capaldiwatching and found that I like it a lot better now that I'm 27 years older and have seen a lot more of both Russell's work as well as the classic Hammer horror films that both "Lair" and "Rocky Horror" pay tribute to. It used to drive me up the wall that Amanda Donohoe's Lady Sylvia failed to be as sensational a sex villain as Tim Curry's Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Now I think she's pretty sensational in her own right. And of course her mission isn't to give herself over to absolute pleasure, but to bring the evil ways of paganism back to Christian-era Britain. In that way she's closer to Willow MacGregor in "Wicker Man" than to Frankie. And the climax of "Lair" is very much like an Art Deco version of the "Wicker Man" sacrifice. Maybe that's why Russell sent in the Glaswegian Peter Capaldi in his tartans and hand grenade-filled sporran to save the day and restore the "Wicker Man"-besmirched honor of the land of John Knox. The fact that Hugh Grant's Lord D'Ampton is completely upstaged by Capaldi's Angus Flint, I now realize, is not a fault at all but an intentional strategy of Russell's to make the intrepid Scotsman with literal dirt under his fingernails the true hero of the piece, while the handsome filthy rich young English nobleman is just literally a tosser (notice the girly magazine on his bedside table.) I recently read the never-produced screenplay of Ken Russell's adaptation of "Dracula," which Russell had hoped to make as part of a package deal with "Lair," and it gave me a lot more insight into this film. It's a surprisingly good script, definitely the highest quality "Dracula" adaptation I've run across. Russell clearly knew how to structure a good Hammer-style Gothic story that's stronger on character, plot development and atmosphere than juvenile cheap thrills, and though "Lair" is no classic it's as entertaining and absorbing as the average Hammer film (i.e., incredibly.) Russell also wrote an unproduced sequel to "Lair," "Revenge of the White Worm," as yet unpublished. There aren't many details out there about it but I have to believe Russell brought Angus Flint back in it. You'd miss him if he wasn't there.

Scottish archaeologist Angus Flint (Peter Capaldi) discovers an odd skull amid the ruins of a convent that he is excavating. Shortly thereafter, Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe) returns to Temple House, a nearby mansion, far earlier than expected.Reviews on the film are mixed, though generally positive. Roger Ebert gave it two stars out of four and called it "a respectable B-grade monster movie". Variety called it "a rollicking, terrifying, post-psychedelic headtrip".I do find it interesting that Ebert says, "Every one of Russell's films has been an exercise in wretched excess. Sometimes it works. Russell loves the bizarre, the Gothic, the overwrought, the perverse." He follows that up by saying this is the exception. Indeed, one must agree.Russell is also known for his phallic imagery, and that does not fail here. Aside from the snakes (a stretch) and a very pointy airplane, the villain even ritualistically employs a false phallus. Nothing subtle about that.

Ken Russell is an acquired taste at best, but here his patented over- the-top religious hysteria finds an appropriate muse with Amanda Donohoe as the last member of a snake cult who kills passers-by to feed her pet Reptile God. Hugh Grant and Catherine Oxenberg co-star as a young couple caught up in her web. Hugh is charming and atypically serious, with none of the stammering, gibbering silliness that later became his trademark, and Amanda Donohoe shifts gears beautifully from evil seductress to seemingly innocent neighbor, creating great comic moments when accidentally caught between gears. The movie has a great dreary look thanks to its setting in rural northern England, which creates a wonderful visual contrast to Amanda's exotic, white marble vampire's nest. The movie deftly mixes scary visuals and winking silliness as the movie's twin horror plots start to entwine one another (like snakes in a caduceus) - locals go on the hunt for the monster snake, while victims of Donohoe's bite start turning into undead zombies! Kooky fun; this is a very unusual movie that can be watched again and again and still enjoyed.