BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Rokurota Makabe When a movie is titled Rawhead Rex, you already get a few indications as of what to expect: low production values, a silly premise and most likely some really bad acting. Having set my expectations accordingly, I have to say that this movie is a fun way of spending a rainy afternoon. The plot of the movie revolves around an ancient demon who is set free from the underground prison where he was trapped, allowing him to go on a killing spree in the Irish countryside. Early in the movie, it is foreshadowed that the only person who might be able to stop him is an American photographer who is in Ireland along with his family, gathering material for a book he is writing. Their story lines are told in parallel until they collide, setting up a violent finale. The monster itself is laughable. It looks cartoonish and is too lumbering to be even remotely scary. This is a direct consequence of the low budget – Predator came only one year later and its title character made for a much more believable monster –, but the silly monster is part of the charm the movie has. One particular scene that stands out is near the beginning of the movie when the monster attacks a middle-aged couple in their home, killing the man and then proceeding to thrash the house. The way it is shot and the awkwardness of the actor in the monster suit almost make this scene MST3K worthy.Turning to the positives now, there are flashes of brilliance in Clive Barker's screenplay, with some one-liners that are particularly witty. The Irish setting is picturesque and the way tension is built in some scenes almost makes up for the obvious flaws the movie has in terms of direction. Acting wise, David Dukes delivers a decent performance as the leading character, but there is also the obligatory overacting from some of his counterparts, Ronan Wilmot as the possessed priest being the first that comes to mind.Rawhead Rex is a well-paced movie that delivers on its silly premise. It provides solid entertainment for B movie fans, but all those expecting anything else might end up being disappointed.

Machiavelli84 In a quiet town in contemporary Ireland, an ancient pagan monster dating back to pre-Christian times, and known as Rawhead Rex, is unleashed from the burial site where he was contained. He proceeds to kill at random, striking at country homes and trailer parks. An American writer doing research on ancient religious sites becomes involved in taking down Rawhead after the monster kills his own son.Generally speaking, the acting is decent in the film, and the setting of the simple Irish town is well realized. The music, composed by Colin Towns, is awesome. As for the overall delivery of the story, well...like a lot of horror movies, it's a cool premise, and the story has potential, but a lot of problems end up marring the experience.Part of the problem is the use of the monster. Rex is pretty much exposed in his full form just about seven minutes into the movie - no build up to the exposure, no suspense about this mysterious thing in the dark, nothing. He pops out of the ground, lifting up his arms and crying out right in front of the camera...and it's not scary. In fact, he looks like a professional wrestler making his entrance. I seriously expected John Cena's theme music to start playing in that scene. It's like taking out the build up of a joke and cutting straight to the punchline; there's something lost in the process.Another problem is how the monster looks. For one, the reason he's called "Rawhead" in the original story is because his head looked like raw meat. The monster in the film, by contrast, looks like an orc from some fantasy movie. I can see why Clive Barker later said he was unhappy by how the monster came across in the movie. For another, the costume looks like something designed for quick close ups or mid shots, rather than prolonged long shorts or action scenes. In some sequences (such as when Rawhead attacks the little boy, or when Rawhead slashes about in the church), it comes across way too obvious that it's a guy in a suit, given how little Rawhead's face moves aside from his mouth.Perhaps one surprising fault was all the clichés or tropes in this movie. You have the lovers out kissing who encounter the monster. You have the police who are annoyingly dense and hostile to the hero's common sense. You have a girl who gets her clothes ripped off by Rawhead for no discernible reason other than we need those bare breasts. And of course, the ending gives you the typical monster cliché of "OH HEY THE MONSTER'S NOT REALLY DEAD! DERPY DOO!" There's absolutely no purpose to the latter - it's like someone said, "Hey! We need to put that in there! Because if a horror movie needs anything, it's an overused jump scare at the end!" All these clichés were especially shocking for me because one of Clive Barker's other films, "Hellraiser," is one of my favorite horror movies precisely because it's so original and unique.It also doesn't help that a lot of things explained in the original story aren't really explained here, or it adds things that aren't satisfactorily explained. Why does Declan automatically join Rawhead? Never explained. What's the deal with Rawhead urinating on people? Never explained. Why is Rawhead so afraid of pregnant woman, and what's the backstory of the special idol that can defeat Rawhead? Never fleshed out. Why is he called "Rawhead Rex" when they establish that he existed before the Roman Empire, and hence the Irish use of Latin ("rex" is Latin for "king") wouldn't have been utilized? Why does NO ONE at the Roman Catholic church know about the story of Rawhead and what lies in the altar, when most Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches out there openly claim to have the pinky finger of some saint from 2000 years ago? Never explained. At some points in this movie I imagined Clive Barker sitting next to me saying, "Yeah, uh...just go with it for now." I've heard Barker and others have thought of remaking this film. I say go for it! It's a cool story, and there's a lot of potential that could probably be realized in a refined second take.

BA_Harrison Apparently, writer Clive Barker was so incensed by this laughably bad adaptation of one of his short stories that he decided the next movie to be based on one of his books would be directed by himself (the result being the rather excellent Hellraiser!). I can't say I blame the poor bloke: for an author to see his hard work turned into such a dreadful movie must be a painful experience.It's an experience, however, that fans of really bad horror movies will probably find quite pleasurable, thanks to the fact that it not only features some truly terrible acting, but also one of the least convincing movie monsters of the 80s: the titular monstrosity looks like a bargain basement 'predator' (from the Schwarzeneggar movie)—a bizarre combination of pro-wrestler, a Mad Max-style warrior, and a bog-eyed mutant pig with ridiculously huge fangs!The film opens with an Irish farmer attempting to remove a huge, ancient, neolithic monument from his field (he's obviously a man not too concerned about his country's heritage); when he finally gets the stone to shift, Rawhead Rex, a monstrous, nine foot tall creature that had been trapped underneath, is set free...The rest of the film is pretty much your basic 'creature on the loose' movie (dressed up with some nonsense about a church built on a site originally used in pagan, pre-Christian rituals) which sees the ancient beast creating bloody havoc in the rural community before finally being defeated by 'girl power'. Along the way, viewers are treated to some pretty cheap-looking gore, a funny moment when the church verger is 'baptised' in urine by Rawhead, a shocking performance by the actor playing the scared gypsy kid, and a wonderfully gratuitous spot of female nudity when a woman is dragged though a caravan window by the monster, causing her top to fall off!

jed-estes At my local video store they were selling out old VHS's to make room for DVD's (gotta love progress) and I went searching. It is times like these that you can find rare stuff for almost nothing and that is what I found that day. I found Raw Head Rex. I had to have it because I had heard so much about and while I would rather have a DVD copy this VHS will suffice for. I wanted it because it was Clive Barker's first theatrical film even though he did not direct. I knew he had disowned it but that does not always mean a film is bad. In Raw Head Rex's case Barker was right to disown it. The creature is a muscle guy walking around in a rubber mask and tights. This would be forgivable had the film not been so polished looking. This film reeks of stupidity. The director should have learned a lesson from Steven Spielberg on Jaws. Less is more. They show Raw Head constantly and it makes it look phony. They should have just done some quick cut aways and made it more dark and scary. My opinion on this film is swayed a little in that while I was trying to watch it my roommate insisted on watching 8 mile and turning that up as loud as he could. The whole time i was watching Raw Head kill I was treated to the sounds of Eminium in the background. I don't know if that helped or hindered the movie. Watch this if you like Clive Barker.