MovieChat Forums > The Lair of the White Worm (1988) Discussion > Worst death? SPOILERS

Worst death? SPOILERS

posted 17 years ago by Little_Korean
15 replies | jump to latest

Jeez, this film is chock-a-block with weird and not-so-wonderful ways that the characters meet their makers. What's people's opinion on the worst of the lot?

Mr Trent - fed to worm
Kevin - paralysed, drowned
Peters - bite to the neck
Mrs Trent - vamped, sliced in two
Ernie - vamped, spike through the back of the head
Sylvia - hand hacked off, fed to worm

I'm going with Sylvia's as the worst. That hand took a friggin' long time to come off, and what could be worse for a true believer than to be eaten by one's own god?

When darkness overcomes the heart, Lil' Slugger appears...

[–] BoyScoutKevin 17 years ago

I would agree with you, except you forgot about Eve's death, which was being raped then impaled. Sometimes it can take as long as three days to die from being impaled. I'd had to put that one down as being the worst among the worst.

Of course, only thinking as a male, I'd have to put down Kevin's death. It's the way that he was paralysed that hurts the worst.

[–] Little_Korean 17 years ago

Well, I was going for actual deaths, and Eve would have been fed swifly afterwards to the worm but yeah, had it actually happened, it would have been the worst.

As for Kevin's, I don't think the actual bite was as bad (after all, he didn't feel pain for long - in fact, soon enough he didn't anything at all) as having to sit there while Sylvia outlined his fate to him.

When darkness overcomes the heart, Lil' Slugger appears...

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] BoyScoutKevin 17 years ago

After something like that, you may not feel pain for long, but the pain you do feel is excruciating. Actually, it is the most painful place she could have bit him, which is why she probably bit him there.

[–] Varboro 17 years ago

WHat ? In your list you forgot the death of Jesus Christ. Crucified and biten by a snake is Horrible !

For the kevin guy I Think of some piercing like prince albert, adadravya or ampallang. I don't think this place is particularly painful to bite. Of course I've never been biten there, so I admit you must know better.

[–] Little_Korean 17 years ago

I was counting the Jesus bit as pure fantasy. After all, the last time I checked, the Gospels don't mention a giant snake.

When darkness overcomes the heart, Lil' Slugger appears...

[–] BoyScoutKevin 17 years ago

I presume that in a case of piercing, a local anesthesia would be used, to lessen the pain. For the male genitalia is one of the most sensitive parts of a man, and any bite or blow there, would cause some physical anguish. But we are not only talking about physical anguish, we are also talking about mental anguish, or "adding insult to injury." Sylvia could have bitten Kevin almost anywhere, but she bit him on his genitalia, because she not only wanted to injure him, she wanted to insult him as well.

The same could be said about Sylvia's death, "adding insult to injury." She could have been killed almost anyway, but how insulting it is to be killed by one's god. If she is indeed dead.

She was killed by her fall, but the fall was shortened by being swallowed by her god.

She was killed from being swallowed by her god, but the god was killed by a hand grenade.

Thus, if she was not killed by the concussion from the hand grenade, and could find some way to stop the loss of blood from having her hand hacked off, there is a slim possibility, she is still alive at the end of the film, if missing her hand. "But what happens when you cut a worm in two?" Maybe she grew a new hand.

[–] Little_Korean 17 years ago

Sylvia surviving? Unlikely. The grenade went to the same place as her - the worm's stomach - so the grenade would have taken them both out, assuming she wasn't dead already from the acidic stomach juices.

When darkness overcomes the heart, Lil' Slugger appears...

[–] BoyScoutKevin 17 years ago

Actually, acidic stomach juices are not that harmful to a human. While I have never heard of someone being taken from the stomach of a worm, we do have something similiar.

A couple of centuries ago, while a whale ship was hunting a whale, one of the crew members disappeared. They looked for the man, and not finding him, gave him up for lost. Now a day or so later, they came across the same whale and killed it. And when they cut the whale's stomach open, what did they find? Lo and behold! The missing crew member. While he was unconscious, he was revived with little ill effects, except his skin was bleached white from the acidic juices in the whale's stomach.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] allie_sleeps 14 years ago

@BoyScoutKevin

Actually, that story about the whale (and the sailor James Bartley)is an urban legend. I was fascinated by it so I did some research, and yeah, it's totally untrue. How disappointing.

[–] BoyScoutKevin 14 years ago

Thanks for the correction, alliesleeps. Yes, how disappointing the story is not true. Not that I've had any experience with it, but one does wonder how powerful of an acid the digestive acid in the stomach is. It can't be too powerful, or it'd eat through the lining of the stomach.

The thing about the deaths in "Lair of the White Worm," is that they are so unique, there is something memorable about most of them.

The Death That May Not Be a Death
Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe)
Yes, she is proably dead. Her hand cut off, dropped down into the belly of the worm, and a grenade dropped in after her, all of which could have been fatal. But, somehow, if there is ever a sequel, I can't believe she won't show up alive with a regenerated hand.

The Longest
Eve as a nun (Catherine Oxenberg)
It is known for people who have been impaled on a blunt stake to last up to three days before they die.

The Messiest
Dorothy Trent (Imogen Claire)
After she was cut in half, can you imagine the slimy trail of blood and guts she left as she crawled across the floor.

The Most Grotesque
P.C. Erny (Paul Brooke)
Falling backwards, hitting his head against a stone sundial, and killing himself by putting out his one good eye.

The Most Mysterious
Joe Trent (Christopher Gable)
Everyone in the film presumes he's dead, but no one seems to know how exactly he died.

The Most Painful (Mentally)
Kevin as a scout (Chris Pitt)
To be emasculated, while receiving oral sex, then while you are writhing in the tub with pain, to have your body ordor and breathe criticized . . . That is painful beyond words.

The Most Painful (Physically)
Mary Trent (Sammi Davis)
One wonders if her death by dildo wielding witchdoctors is not the worst physically, because she is--apparently--the only victim in the film who is screaming as she she is killed.

The Neatest and Quickest
Peters as the butler (Straford Johns)
Unless he left his brains on the hallway floor, his death by broken neck, would probably the neatest and quickest of the deaths seen in the film

The worst? After some consideration, they all sound pretty bad to me.

[–] zachlen48 13 years ago

Eve at the end tied up was meant to be totally nude. She refused and it was off to Marks and Spencer to get her bra and panties.
Ken Russell thought that even though he intended for her to be naked , In the end putting her in under ware worked well for her character.Thought you would like that info.

[–] Strazdamonas 12 years ago

paralyzed and drowned is the worst.
also in some cultures offering your body as a sacrifice to a god is a great honour.

---------------------------------------------
Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] Melton (5018) a year ago

This. He gets his dick impaled by two gigantic fangs then is paralysed, knowing he’s about to be killed by this vile she-bitch, and then she casually treads on his head until he slips underwater where he must suffer one of the most agonising and prolonged deaths - drowning, his lungs filling with fluid with every desperate gasp for air.

The other deaths are a picnic compared to that.