Rawhead Rex (film)

Last updated

Rawhead Rex
Rawheadrexposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster.
Directed by George Pavlou
Screenplay by Clive Barker
Based onRawhead Rex
by Clive Barker
Produced byKevin Attew
Don Hawkins
Starring David Dukes
Kelly Piper
Niall Tóibín
Cora Venus Lunny
Ronan Wilmot
Donal McCann
CinematographyJohn Metcalfe
Edited byAndy Horvitch
Music by Colin Towns
Distributed by Empire Pictures
Release date
14 October 1986 (UK)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryIreland / United Kingdom [1]
LanguageEnglish

Rawhead Rex is a 1986 Irish fantasy horror film directed by George Pavlou, produced by Kevin Attew and Don Hawkins, and written by Clive Barker, based on his short story of the same name. The story had originally appeared in Vol. 3 of his Books of Blood series. The film focuses on a monstrous pagan deity's bloody rampage through the Irish countryside, with the title alluding to the folklore monster Rawhead. Pavlou and Barker had previously worked together on Transmutations (also known as Underworld).

Contents

The film stars David Dukes in the lead role alongside Kelly Piper, Niall Toibin, Cora Venus Lunny and Donal McCann in supporting roles. The film was given a limited release in the United States by Empire Pictures on 17 April 1987.

Plot

Howard Hallenbeck travels to Ireland with his family to research items of religious significance. He goes to a rural church to photograph some graves. During a thunderstorm, lightning strikes a stone column in a field. The monster Rawhead Rex rises from the dirt.

Howard meets Declan O'Brien, the Church verger, who directs him to Reverend Coot. Later, the curious O'Brien approaches the altar and places his hand on it. Images flash before his eyes. This experience destroys O'Brien's sanity. Howard inquiries about the church's parish records. Coot says he can arrange to have Howard look at them but finds they have been stolen. O'Brien destroys his camera.

A man arrives at the home of locals Dennis and Jenny. He discovers a traumatized Jenny. Police arrive. Rawhead drags Dennis's dead body through the forest and comes upon a trailer park. There he kills a teenager named Andy Johnson.

On the road again, Howard pulls over to let his daughter urinate by a tree. Hearing her scream, Howard and his wife rush to her; Howard's son stays in the van, alone. Rawhead kills Howard's son and takes the body into the woods. Infuriated by the police's unsuccessful efforts to track down Rawhead, Howard returns to the church. He discovers that there is a weapon shown in the stained glass window that can be used to defeat the monster. After Howard leaves, Coot curiously touches the altar but resists the temptations and images it shows him.

Rawhead arrives at the church to "baptize" O'Brien by urinating on him. A bewildered Coot goes outside to investigate the noise and sees Rawhead. Horrified, Coot flees inside the church and into the basement while Rawhead destroys everything inside. Coot finds the missing parish records, showing what appears to be some kind of blueprint of Rawhead. O'Brien catches Coot and forces him upstairs to be sacrificed to Rawhead. The police arrive at the church but hesitate to open fire on Rawhead because he is carrying Coot. The brainwashed inspector dumps gasoline around the police cars and ignites it as they begin to shoot at Rawhead, killing all the police, including himself.

Howard leaves his wife and daughter and goes back to the church, where a dying Coot tells him that Rawhead is afraid of something in the altar. Howard goes inside. O'Brien is burning books and is overpowered by Howard. Howard, by using a candle stick, opens the altar and gets to the weapon. O'Brien retreats to Rawhead to tell him. Howard tries to use the weapon, but it has no effect. In anger, Rawhead kills O'Brien by tearing out his throat.

As Rawhead tries to kill Howard, Howard's wife picks up the weapon. A ray of light comes out of the weapon and hits Rawhead, stopping Rawhead from killing Howard. Howard realizes that the weapon works only when wielded by a woman. The form of a woman appears from the stone and shoots electric rays through the stones and into Rawhead's body, knocking him to the ground. After more blasts, Rawhead is drained, allowing Howard to hit him with a shovel. Rawhead then falls through the ground and Howard's wife drops the weapon in with him. Rawhead is smashed under giant stones. Both Howard and his wife weep in light of it being over.

The boy from the trailer park places flowers on Andy Johnson's grave. As he walks away, Rawhead emerges from the ground and roars.

Cast

Release

The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by Empire Pictures in 1987.[ citation needed ] It was later released on VHS by Vestron Video that same year.[ citation needed ]

The film was released on DVD in the US by Geneon on 5 October 1999. It was re-released by Prism on 29 July 2003. [2] A 4K restoration of Rawhead Rex, based on the original camera negative, was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Kino Lorber on 17 October 2017. [3]

Reception

Rawhead Rex has a 30% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 4.4/10 based on 10 critics. [4] Cinefantastique gave the film a negative review, criticizing the design of the title monster as being more laughable than frightening, and the film's dull finale. [5]

Barker has said that while he feels the movie is essentially faithful to his story, he is dissatisfied with it. In an interview less than a year after the film's release, he explained, "I think, generally speaking, the movie followed the beats of the screenplay. It's just that monster movies, by and large, are made by directorial 'oomph' rather than what's in the screenplay. I'd like to think the screenplay for Rawhead Rex had the possibility of having major thrills in it. I don't think it was quite pulled off." [6] In a 2004 interview, Barker said he wanted to do a remake of the film, [7] but nothing further came of this.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clive Barker</span> English author, film director and visual artist

Clive Barker is an English novelist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer. He has since written many novels and other works. His fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser series, the first installment of which he also wrote and directed, and the Candyman series. He was also an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

<i>Beyond Re-Animator</i> 2003 horror film

Beyond Re-Animator is a 2003 Spanish-American horror film directed by Brian Yuzna and starring Jeffrey Combs, Jason Barry, Elsa Pataky, Simón Andreu and Santiago Segura. It is the third and final installment in the Re-Animator film series.

<i>Books of Blood</i> Series of fiction anthologies collecting original stories

Books of Blood is a series of six horror fiction anthologies collecting original stories written by British author, playwright, and filmmaker Clive Barker in 1984 and 1985. Known primarily for writing stage plays beforehand, Barker gained a wider audience and fanbase through this anthology series, leading to a successful career as a novelist. Originally presented as six volumes, the anthologies were subsequently re-published in two omnibus editions containing three volumes each. Each volume contains four, five or six stories. The Volume 1–3 omnibus contained a foreword by Barker's fellow Liverpudlian horror writer Ramsey Campbell. Author Stephen King praised Books of Blood, leading to a quote from him appearing on the first US edition of the book: "I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker."

<i>The Evil of Frankenstein</i> 1964 film

The Evil of Frankenstein is a 1964 film directed by Freddie Francis. The third instalment in Hammer's Frankenstein series, it stars Peter Cushing, Sandor Elès and Kiwi Kingston.

<i>Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh</i> 1995 American supernatural slasher film by Bill Condon

Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh is a 1995 American supernatural slasher film directed by Bill Condon and starring Tony Todd, Kelly Rowan, William O'Leary, Bill Nunn, Matt Clark and Veronica Cartwright. Written by Rand Ravich and Mark Kruger, it is a sequel to the 1992 film Candyman, which was an adaptation of Clive Barker's short story, "The Forbidden". Its plot follows a New Orleans schoolteacher who finds herself targeted by the Candyman, the powerful spirit of the murdered son of a slave who kills those who invoked him.

<i>Bloody Mama</i> 1970 film

Bloody Mama is a 1970 American exploitation crime film directed by Roger Corman, and starring Shelley Winters in the title role, with Bruce Dern, Don Stroud, Robert Walden, Alex Nicol and Robert De Niro in supporting roles. It was very loosely based on the real story of Ma Barker, who is depicted as a corrupt, mentally-disturbed mother who encourages and organizes the criminality of her four adult sons in Depression-era southern United States.

<i>Abominable</i> (2006 film) 2006 American film

Abominable is a 2006 American monster film, directed and written by Ryan Schifrin. Starring Matt McCoy, Jeffrey Combs, Lance Henriksen, Rex Linn, Dee Wallace, Phil Morris, Paul Gleason and Haley Joel. The film follows paraplegic widower Preston Rogers (McCoy) as he moves back into the remote cabin where he and his now-deceased wife once lived. Preston quickly realizes that a sadistic Sasquatch is stalking the woods around the cabin, but nobody believes him.

<i>The Haunted World of El Superbeasto</i> 2009 film by Rob Zombie

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is a 2009 American adult animated superhero comedy film directed, co-written and co-produced by Rob Zombie. The film was written by Zombie and Tom Papa from Zombie's comic book series of the same name. The film was also produced by Starz Media and Film Roman, with animation provided by Carbunkle Cartoons and Big Star Productions.

<i>Book of Blood</i> 2009 British film

Book of Blood is a 2009 British horror film directed by John Harrison and starring Jonas Armstrong, Sophie Ward, and Doug Bradley. It is based on the framing stories "The Book of Blood" and "On Jerusalem Street " from Clive Barker's Books of Blood.

George Pavlou is a London-based British horror, science fiction and thriller film director. Pavlou directed three feature films of which two were based on material from British horror writer Clive Barker.

<i>The Collector</i> (2009 film) 2009 American film

The Collector is a 2009 American horror film written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, and directed by Dunstan. It stars Josh Stewart, Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth, Juan Fernandez, Karley Scott Collins, Madeline Zima, and Robert Wisdom. The film follows a man who, in order to pay a debt, decides to rob a house, only to find out somebody with far more sinister intentions has already broken in.

<i>And Soon the Darkness</i> (2010 film) 2010 American film

And Soon the Darkness, also known as Prisioneras de la oscuridad, is a 2010 American-Argentine mystery thriller film directed by Marcos Efron and starring Karl Urban, Amber Heard and Odette Annable. It is a remake of the British film And Soon the Darkness (1970). The screenplay was written by Jennifer Derwingson and Marcos Efron.

<i>The Hole</i> (2009 film) 2009 film by Joe Dante

The Hole is a 2009 American 3D dark fantasy horror film directed by Joe Dante and starring Chris Massoglia, Haley Bennett, Nathan Gamble, Bruce Dern, and Teri Polo. The film follows Dane and Lucas Thompson, two brothers who move into their new house with their single mother, Susan. Dane and Lucas, along with their new neighbor Julie Campbell, discover a trap door in the basement, leading to a bottomless pit, and accidentally unleash a supernatural force that manifests itself into any fear of the person who looks into the hole.

<i>The Last Exorcism</i> 2010 American film

The Last Exorcism is a 2010 American found footage supernatural horror film directed by Daniel Stamm. It stars Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Caleb Landry Jones, and Louis Herthum.

<i>The Tortured</i> 2010 Canadian film by Robert Lieberman

The Tortured is a 2010 Canadian-American horror-thriller film directed by Robert Lieberman, written by Marek Posival, and starring Erika Christensen, Jesse Metcalfe, Fulvio Cecere, and Bill Moseley.

<i>Clown</i> (film) 2014 horror film directed by Jon Watts

Clown is a 2014 American supernatural horror film directed by Jon Watts in his feature directorial debut, produced by Mac Cappuccino, Eli Roth, and Cody Ryder, and written by Watts and Christopher Ford. It stars Eli Roth, Laura Allen, Andy Powers, and Peter Stormare. Visual effects for the clown monster were done by Jagdeep Khoza, Alterian, Inc., and Tony Gardner. Principal photography began in November 2012, in Ottawa. The film was released in Italy on November 13, 2014, in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2015, and in the United States on June 17, 2016, by Dimension Films. The film received mixed reviews from critics.

<i>Frankensteins Army</i> 2013 film

Frankenstein's Army is a 2013 found footage horror film directed by Richard Raaphorst, written by Chris W. Mitchell and Miguel Tejada-Flores, and starring Karel Roden, Joshua Sasse, Luke Newberry, Alexander Mercury, Robert Gwilym, Andrei Zayats, Mark Stevenson and Hon Ping Tang. An international co-production of the United States, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands, the film is set on the Eastern Front of World War II, as seen from the point of view of a Red Army team. In the film, Soviet troops invading Germany encounter undead mechanical soldiers created by a mad scientist descended from Victor Frankenstein.

<i>Bone Eater</i> American made-for-TV Movie directed by Jim Wynorski as Bob Robertson

Bone Eater is a 2008 American made-for-television monster movie directed and written by Jim Wynorski. It stars Bruce Boxleitner as a sheriff who must stop a Native American monster from destroying his town. It premiered on Syfy and was later released on DVD.

<i>Frankenstein</i> (2015 film) 2015 American film

Frankenstein is a 2015 American science fiction horror film written and directed by Bernard Rose. It is a modernised adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The film is told from the monster's point of view, as he is created, escapes into the modern world, and learns about the dark side of humanity.

<i>The Mean One</i> 2022 film by Steven LaMorte

The Mean One is a 2022 American Christmas horror film directed by Steven LaMorte from a screenplay written by Flip and Finn Kobler. It is a horror retelling of Dr. Seuss' 1957 children's book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, and stars Krystle Martin, Chase Mullins, John Bigham, Erik Baker, Flip Kobler, and Amy Schumacher, with David Howard Thornton as the eponymous character. It follows a young woman as she attempts to defend her childhood town from a green-skinned creature who goes on a murderous rampage during the holiday season.

References

  1. ↑ "Rawhead Rex (1987)". British Film Institute . Archived from the original on 15 October 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  2. ↑ "Rawhead Rex (1987) - George Pavlou". AllMovie.com. AllMovie. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  3. ↑ "Art, Date and Full Details for 'Rawhead Rex' 4K Restoration!". Bloody-Disgusting. Bloody Disgusting. 10 August 2017. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  4. ↑ "Rawhead Rex". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
  5. ↑ J. P. Harris (January 2001). Time Capsule: Reviews of Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films and TV Shows from 1987-1991. iUniverse. pp. 196–197. ISBN   978-0-595-21336-8.
  6. ↑ "The Official Clive Barker Website - Rawhead Rex". www.clivebarker.info. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  7. ↑ "Clive Barker Speaks -'Rawhead Rex' Being Remade?!". Bloody Disgusting . Cinedigm. 29 September 2004. Archived from the original on 17 June 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.