In the golden age of video rental stores, your decision to rent or not rent a movie was usually based on its cover. Most of the horror films of the day were represented by gruesome violence and/or gratuitous sex. Rawhead Rex‘s cover was a hulking creature silhouetted against a white background. It seemed to be a bit more “artistic” and I thought it might be more intelligently constructed than the other movies of its ilk. There’s a reason you don’t choose a book by its cover. The same logic applies to movies.
Howard Hollenbeck (David Dukes) is an American historian on a working trip in Ireland with his family. He’s photographing pre-Christian religious sites. He’s traveled to Rathmorne, a small town near Dublin to take pictures of a church that may be built on such a site. While inside the church, he’s intrigued by a stained glass window with a pagan demon of some sort on it.
Meanwhile, outside the town, a farmer and two friends are trying to remove a large stone column from a field they’re clearing. The column won’t budge and the friends return home. The farmer is collecting his tools when a thunderstorm unexpectedly appears on the horizon. Lightning strikes the column and smoke billows from its base as it topples. From the dirt, arises a large, demonic looking creature that immediately kills the farmer.
As the creature awakens, a service at the town church is interrupted as a woman screams she’s been burned as she briefly touched the altar. The church’s verger (Ronan Wilmot), Declan, places his hand on the altar and begins to see through the eyes of the monster as it roams the countryside. He begins to act as if possessed.
As townsfolk begin to die at the hands of the creature, the authorities are slow to react. Howard, out for a walk late at night, sees the monster in the distance. He recalls the stained glass window and reports the sighting to the police who don’t take him seriously. Searching for clues to the creature’s origins, he returns to the church and asks to see the parish records. He’s told they’ve disappeared and Declan attacks him, breaking his camera.
Howard decides to take his family and get out-of-town. As they’re driving, Howard’s daughter (Cora Lunny) has to go to the bathroom, so they pull off to the side of the road. Howard’s son (Hugh O’Conor) is attacked and killed as he sits in the car alone. Howard, his wife, and surviving child return to town to again report the creature. This time, after several other sightings have been reported, the police believe him. Howard is determined to find a way to stop the creature’s murderous rampage.
Rawhead Rex is based on a short story by Clive Barker and he’s credited with writing the screenplay. However, I’m skeptical that he was actually responsible for the shooting script. Barker’s literary version was full of sexual and religious subtext with Rawhead, the creature, effectively being a walking phallus god. The film version strips that out and we’re left with a standard, low-budget monster movie. And, for what it is, it’s not a horrible film but it certainly isn’t what Barker originally envisioned. (He’s since disowned it.)
The biggest problem with the movie is the that the titular creature looks exactly like a man in a rubber costume. Rawhead is referred to as a god, depicted as something that requires a magical object to defeat, and is supposed to be quite fearsome. Unfortunately, in all the scenes in which he appears, he looks like a football player wearing an above-average Halloween costume. Director George Pavlou makes little effort to hide the creature or disguise how cheap it looks, so he never inspires any fear in the viewer. Had more care been taken in how he was presented, Rawhead Rex could have been quite creepy.
That said, it’s not a complete waste of time. The performances, for the most part, aren’t bad at all. David Dukes, in particular, delivers the goods in every scene. Ronan Wilmot’s Declan is over-the-top but his performance remains a highlight. The special effects, aside from the Rex costume, are effective. Gorehounds might be disappointed at the amount of bloodshed but it never seems intentionally restrained. And, I have to mention the “baptism” scene. It’s a classic.
Rawhead Rex had the potential to stand above the usual 1980s “Golden Age of VHS” schlock but with a neutered story (pun intended) and lackluster monster costume, it’s nothing more than a flawed but entertaining B-movie.
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
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