Rawhead Rex

The writer Howard Hallenbeck (David Dukes) is spending vacation in the countryside of Ireland with his wife Elaine (Kelly Piper) and children researching legends and myths for his book. Meanwhile, a farmer is trying to remove an old column on the field and accidentally unleashes the evil pagan god Rawhead Rex that begins a crime spree in the village where Howard and his family are lodged.

"Rawhead Rex" is a cult trash written by Clive Barker in the beginning of his successful career in the film industry. The plot is flawed and silly, but it is funny to see. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Monster - A Ressurreição do Mal (VHS)" ("Monster - The Resurrection of the Evil") / "O Senhor das Trevas (DVD)" ("The Lord of the Darkness")

So the year is 2011 and time has not been kind to poor old Rawhead Rex (1986) and the monster horror genre in general.

Anyone who has read Clive Barker's short story Rawhead Rex knows that this is a downright disturbing and wicked tale. The monster Rawhead has sexual issues, he hates women, he pisses on priests and has an appetite for eating small children/babies. However, all these awful things are what makes the story such a page turner and adds more depth to what would otherwise be a mindless monster work.

The movie Rawhead Rex (1986) suffers from a very low budget. The main offender is Rawhead's mask itself. Its cheap rubber with little to no animatronics and the rubber shakes as the actor tries to move quickly. A higher budget would have done this monster so much justice, if only a creature master like Stan Winston had gotten involved, this would have been a whole different movie experience.

I would love to see Rawhead Rex remade today with all the trimmings, but unfortunately Hollywood is a complete mess. Bad actors are thrown into quick PG-13 horror crap fests and CGI technology has become the only main focus of everything.

I think it's time for someone to step up to the plate and re-boot the monster movie genre. Rawhead Rex could be an action/monster movie extravaganza if remade correctly. Hollywood simply refuses to take any chances and because of this, the horror genre is more or less dead. In the end, Rawhead Rex is still an enjoyable monster flick for the bored late night horror buff. But it just doesn't measure up to the more well-made 80s monster classics like "Pumpkinhead".

The short story Rawhead Rex is a gory and stomach churning piece of literature appearing in Clive Barker's Books of Blood Volume 3. Reading it one sees the possibilities of a good old fashioned monster on the loose movie. Unfortunately, most of the graphic violence of the story is removed from the film that followed. Although many of the character details remain the same, except that the protagonist and his family are Londoners instead of Americans in the short story. The setting, score, a few actors and the occasional scare make the films worth seeing for true Clive Barker completists. Be warned, what does make the proceedings less alluring is the fact that Rawhead himself is a great disappointment; the direction somewhat poor and from a script by Barker himself I expected more. Not even in league with his superior Hellraiser, effective Candyman or intriguing Nightbreed. Though I must admit I must've seen this film about eight times since it was initially released.

Trivia note: The mother of the American Family is the actress who plays the nurse Joe Spinell skewers in Maniac.

I don't know what the hell the other critics on this movie are talking about but I loved this movie!! I thought there could have been more blood and more plot, but all in all I thought this was a very good movie.

If you've got some time to kill, go ahead.

This is an hilarious horror flick, if you like bad movies and especially if you remember Glenroe et al from the 80's..its a veritable spot the face. I loved the fact that the 'bad' priest was church of Ireland, another classic Irish touch.

I found this really amusing, as I love this sort of bad movie. You'll never look at a fairy fort or ring fort the same way after seeing this!