RAWHEAD REX (1986)

DIRECTED by George Pavlou.

SCREENPLAY by Clive Barker based on the short story "Rawhead Rex" by Clive Barker.

STARRING  - David Dukes as Howard Hellenbeck,  Kelly Piper as Elaine Hellenbeck,  Ronan Wilmott as Declan O'Brien,  Niall Tobin as Reverend Coot,  Niall O'Brien as D.I. Gissing,  Hugh O'Connor as Robbie Hellenbeck,  Cora Lunny as Minty Hellenbeck,  Heinrich Von Schellendorf as Rawhead Rex,  Donal McCann as Tom Garron.

PLOT - American journalist Howard Hellenbeck is on a working holiday in rural Ireland with his family. Howard is researching religious artefacts for a book he is working on.

That night, a thunderstorm rages across the land. In a nearby field an ancient standing stone is struck by lightning. From out of the earth crawls an ancient beast - Rawhead Rex - a savage monsterous "King" hailing from Pagan times. 

Rawhead Rex goes on a murderous rampage, killing anyone unfortunate enough to encounter him. However, when Rawhead kills Howard's young son he goes a step too far...

DIALOUGE  - Declan O'Brien  - "He was here before Christ, before civilisation. He was King here !"

-

Reporter - "Are there any connections between the murders ?"

D.I. Gissing  - "Yes. They're all dead."

PERFORMANCES  -  None of the acting in this movie is particularly bad but it doesn't stand out as being that great either. 

Case in point is David Dukes as the film's central character Howard Hellenbeck. He's perfectly fine in the earlier scenes of the film where his character is just pottering around tiny Irish churches doing his research. He's also OK when he's acting alongside his onscreen wife - Kelly Piper as Elaine (in fact the two have a pretty good chemistry together and make a believable married couple). He's also perfectly believable when he witnesses Rawhead and tries to convince the cynical local police chief D.I. Gissing (Niall O'Brien) that theres a murderous monster on the loose.

The problem comes when he has to portray Howard after his young son has been killed. He gets slightly angry that's all. He acts more like he's caught somebody letting thier dog shit on his nice clean driveway than a father who has just seen his little boy be dragged to his death by a carnivorous monster. His son's death just seems like a mild inconvenience to him rather than the heartbreaking life shattering event it would be. This is partly down to the script which massively undersells his reaction (I'd expect better from Clive Barker but this was early days for him). It's a shame as it undermines what is otherwise a perfectly decent and functional central performance.

The rest of the cast are all perfectly fine as well. Nobody is absolutely outstanding but they all play thier parts well enough. Probably the best is Ronan Wilmott as the deranged verger Declan O'Brien. Declan is driven mad by Rawhead in the early part of the film and becomes the Pagan "King's" acolyte. It's a very shifty, twitchy and crazed performance and is a definite highlight of the film.

Also good is Niall O'Brien as D.I Gissing - the hard bitten police inspector who is assigned the task of solving the brutal murders, he too ends up losing his sanity to Rawhead and becomes another brainwashed thrall.  He goes out in an explosive manner taking most of the local police force with him. He also gets most of the best lines.

SFX  - We're in full-on "man in a rubber suit" mode here. Rawhead is a strange looking creature. He looks like he belongs in a Finnish death metal band. Sometimes he looks really effective...

Whilst othertimes he looks a bit silly...

It's the googly eyes that do it I think. Having a boz-eyed monster severely undermines the fear factor. Especially when his eyes start glowing bright red. It makes him look like a cheap Halloween mask with battery operated L.E.D. eyes...

Another problem is that Rawhead's head/mask doesn't look like it's secured onto the actor properly in some scenes. It just sort of flops about and it looks like the actor can't see where he's going at times. It's pretty shitty but it does add a level of unintentional humour to the movie.

We also get some typically 80's visual effects in the film's climax when a mystical stone temporarily transforms Elaine into some kind of "Earth Goddess" to battle Rex...

It all starts to look a bit like an 80's pop video.

SEX & VIOLENCE  - Theres some pretty decent gore effects in this film as Rawhead butchers his way through the village's population.

After murdering an unfortunate farmer who witnesses him escaping from his stone prison, Rawhead Rex then commits a home invasion. Murdering the male occupant and driving his wife insane in the process...

Rawhead then wanders onto a gypsy traveller caravan site and menaces a pair of young lovers. In the process he rips the young man's head off, holds it up like a trophy and howls at the moon like the utter loon that he is...

Next - Rawhead drags Howard's son out of Howard's car whilst he's reading an issue of "Marvel Super Hero's Secret Wars 2" (I had that exact same issue when I was a kid). The kid is presumably eaten off camera...

Rawhead goes on a rampage at the gypsy site. Travellers get thrown, smashed and ripped apart...

One girl gets dragged through the window of her caravan so roughly that her clothes (conveniently) fall off...

Caravans get tipped over by our wobbly headed behemoth in an orgy of violence and destruction...

Next up it's poor old Reverend Coot's turn. Rawhead picks him up like a wrestler and bodyslams him into a gravestone...

The brainwashed D.I Gissing then starts a fire which blows up the entire police convoy. Fried pork all round...

Finally tireing of his servant failing him one time too many, Rawhead rips O'Brien's throat out...

Finally, Rawhead himself is blasted repeatedly by magic lightning from the mysticaly transformed Elaine. The weakened Rawhead falls into an underground tomb and is buried under a shower of rocks. Don't worry though...he'll be back for the "twist ending".

RATING - Rawhead Rex is a cheesy "monster on the loose" movie. It has two dimensional characters, a silly monster and lots of gore. In other words it's an 80's video store classic.

Clive Barker went on to do things that where a lot LOT better than this but everyone has to start somewhere. As it stands this a fun little slice of B-movie fun.

3 and a half boz-eyed monsters out of 5.

POSTER/VHS/DVD/COMIC ART -

Rawhead Rex gained a cult following in the early 90's (mainly due to companies jumping onto the Clive Barker bandwagon). A graphic novel was released (cover seen below, along with some internal artwork showing a very different looking Rawhead Rex)...

Barker has said in interviews that Rex was supposed to look like a "giant walking penis", that's certainly an accurate description I'd say.

Rawhead Rex also crossed over with Barker's popular NightBreed characters for a story arc in the ongoing NightBreed comic series...

Finally, here are a couple of covers for Clive Barker's Books Of Blood volume 3 where Rawhead Rex made his first appearance...