In a remote corner of England’s Peak District, a mysterious skull is unearthed. But even weirder is that Lady Sylvia steals the skull for use in worshiping – very erotically – her pagan god, The White Worm, who hungers for the taste of virginal flesh.

With this delectably lurid adaptation of Bram Stoker’s final novel, Ken Russell more than lives up to his reputation as Britain’s high priest of gothic excess. With an early role for Hugh Grant, The Lair of the White Worm is a barnstorming monster movie that matches ripe symbolism with fevered camp.