Movie Review: Rawhead Rex
Not sure what I expected. It wasn't this.
*Spoilers ahead for Rawhead Rex (1986)
I will fully admit that I frequently am not sure what movies were huge hits at the time of their release; I live in my own bubble, so I often don’t know what’s coming out and when and to what fanfare. I was not born when Rawhead Rex came out in 1986, but it seems like it was popular enough to draw attention at the time but it also wasn’t memorable enough to make the list of iconic 80s monsters.
An Irish horror film, Rawhead Rex was directed by George Pavlou and written by Clive Barker — this automatically set my expectations pretty high. This story was originally a part of Books of Blood, a series of anthologies written by Barker, and I’ve seen some adaptations that I thought were really impressive. Not to mention Hellraiser and the Candyman series, which are both classics in their own right.
So… what happened?
Starring David Dukes as Howard Hallenbeck, a scholar who is researching pagan religious artifacts that exist throughout Ireland’s countryside, Rawhead Rex is a riot of a movie. We kick off with a farmer who is trying to move a stone monument out of his field — right off the bat this seems like a questionable choice. I mean, this thing has been there for generations. Just… leave it? Just farm around it, like you clearly already are doing. A thunderstorm rolls in, quite suddenly and with too much CGI, and the monument cracks and kills the farmer. Out of the ground steps our titular monster — Rawhead.
Howard is investigating the town’s church, a catholic institution, which has some extremely creepy stained glass of a creature of red eyes being buried beneath the ground. Hmm, I wonder, could this be foreshadowing?
Deacon O’Brien is extremely unhelpful and rude, and he kicks Howard out. Turns out, he’s been possessed by Rawhead and he now worships Rawhead as his god, something that isn’t formally revealed until the very end. Because this wasn’t really explained in the beginning as a possession, I totally thought there was a Rawhead cult in this little town that Howard had stumbled across. I still think would have been a far more entertaining story to tell.
Instead we learn that no one knew what was buried in their field, or recorded in their church windows, and this all happened very spontaneously because some farmer decided he didn’t want an ancient stone pillar in his garden.
Howard’s kids are annoying and his wife is frustrated they aren’t in Dublin, which I don’t fully agree with. Aside from the monstrous pagan deity that starts killing the townsfolk the village is pretty cute! The police are called when Rawhead murders his first victim, leaving his pregnant wife alive and traumatized. He eats his victims and hangs them from trees, which is a fun touch.
We cut to the deacon, looking creepy. That’s most of what he does, tbh.
Rawhead continues to murder people and destroy property, and eventually the police finally believe Howard about the monstrous creature after his son is is dragged from the family car and eaten. Howard, in a state of despair, consults his photographs and puts together the clues about the stained glass monster and the real-life monster and he and the police are head to the church.
Rawhead possesses an officer and burns the police department alive, which is such a rough way to go, and the final encounter seems done until Howard shows up and finds an idol hidden inside the church’s altar. It’s in the shape of a female body, reminding me a lot of the divine feminine, and the wife uses this at the end to defeat Rawhead. It needed to be wielded by a woman, apparently, which makes it odd that Rawhead only seemed to kill men. He left a pregnant wife alive, a girlfriend, and a few women in the trailer park weren’t killed like their husbands and fathers. Wouldn't he want to kill the one thing that could stop him?
Naturally at the end, Rawhead pokes his head out of his grave for one final threat, but overall the movie ends and is relatively satisfying. Howard and his wife survive, and I assume they leave Ireland with their remaining child and never return. That’s what I’d do.
Thoughts?
A surprising amount of people died! We watch four characters die close up, but then there are at least six people in their trailers and the entire police force on top of that. One man visibly burns to death! They really went there and I appreciate that.
All in all — it was fine. It was very much an 80s movie. The creature design ended up being so goofy it was difficult to find Rawhead very scary. Apparently Clive Barker was not happy with the movie as a whole either, and from reading about the short story its based on I can see why! It fills in some plot holes I found confusing — Rawhead is supposed to represent unchecked masculinity (and a giant phallus — I’m not sad the movie left that out) and his weakness is pregnant women. The film ends up being everything that the short story was poking fun at, in terms of the monster running wild through the streets, and I’m curious if anyone is planning on rebooting this to be a little more authentic to the story. Movies about murderous pagan deities are always a fun time to me.
Just The Vibes: I'll give it a 2.5, maybe a 3. I wouldn't necessarily watch it again but I can see why some people (especially people who grew up with it) watch it more frequently.
Technical Quality: Definitely a 1, even for the times. Hellraiser came out just a year later and is so much better in terms of gore and costume quality. Hell, Alien came out years before and that creature is great!
Things I enjoyed this week:
My husband made sticky short ribs and rice pilaf for dinner the other day so I’ve been seriously spoiled in terms of dinner this week. And always, to be honest, because he really should open a restaurant. If anyone wants to fund that let me know. We also found an adorable new anime called Spy x Family that I have been in love with. The most recent episode was cute and funny and a great break from all the horror we watch. Sometimes you just need a palate cleanser, ya know? We also pulled out the carpet in our library and installed Lifeproof floors, and they look fabulous! It was cheaper than hiring someone, and cheaper than hardwood, so if anyone is looking for something to replace their old 80s era carpets with you should definitely try this out.
Ciao ✌️,
Lauren