User Reviews

This film isn't a big budget, CGI ladened, epileptic fit inducing block buster, but it's still fun. There are some good moments like the monsters raid on a caravan camp and the stand off between Rawhead, his human follower and the Riot police. The film starts in the Irish countryside with a strange boulder being found out in the fields. A farmer then disrupts the ground with his plow, it gets struck by that awful lightning thats 2D pasted onto the screen. Anywho, surprise surprise, it's the tomb for the title monster, who then rips the farmers face off, good introduction, Rawheads skills as a people person is shown further by having him kill another farmer, then, in a random scene, spare his wife for she's pregnant, or something. All through this, a strange alter glows red and disrupts morning mass. Then, a camera man realises more about Rawhead, who then kills his son. It's not done on screen, but, it's still quite disturbing, better than if it was done on show. He then, goes on a personal vendetta against the monster. After, Rawhead destroys a caravan park. This is where the best parts lie. People are thrown around, ripped apart, explosions happen cause someone falls and shoots a gas line. It's great, cheesy, and a gruesome. After, this policeman gets possessed by Rawhead, he leaves his partner to death in the car and goes to the church where the police have blocked off because, Rawheads in there, and his crazy priest friend. So, crazy cop blows up the police and burns to death, the vicars ripped up, the alter turns out to be hiding their statue that will kill Rawhead, then 80's special effects kick in, Rawheads dead, kinda... There's, many more points of interest, but, I don't want to ruin the whole film for you, watch it for yourself, it's a good cheesy movie, just, don't treat it seriously and it'll be a good time.

Also, you do not want to screw with Rawhead, he is a beefy thing that'll screw you up!

Rawhead Rex is set in Ireland where a farmer is trying to clear a field of a huge stone pillar, as he does so lightening strikes the pillar & it falls over. From under where the pillar stood an ancient 8 foot tall demon known as Rawhead Rex (Heinrich von Schellendorf) is released, the farmer is turned into mincemeat. American photographer Howard Hollenbeck (David Dukes) his wife Elaine (Kelly Piper) together their two young children Robbie (Hugh O'Conor) & Minty (Cora Lunny) are on holiday, a holiday on which Howard is working on his book of sacred religious sites. Meanwhile Rawhead Rex kills a local farmer named Dennis (John Olohan), Ireland's finest Detective Inspector Gissing (Niall O'Brien) is on the case. Rex then attacks a caravan site & kills some more people which annoys everyone, Inspector Gissing doesn't believe the stories of monsters told by Howard who saw Rex in the woods. As the Hallenbecks are leaving town Robbie is attacked & killed by Rex, Howard is distraught & sets out to kill Rex with the knowledge he has learned from his investigations of the local Church & it's mythology...

This English Irish co-production was directed by George Pavlou & is a pretty bad film in all respects although it's fun to watch if nothing else. The script was written by Clive Barker based on his own short story, it moves along at a fair pace & it's never boring but it's just too silly to be completely effective. The film feels like a basic monster on the loose randomly killing people with a few of the complex religious ideas & themes that Barker likes so much shining through but they are ultimately lost in the daftness of it. There's a scene in which a woman runs through a wood with her boyfriend supposedly holding her hand but when she checks she is holding his severed hand, as if you wouldn't notice. The dialogue is funny at times & the film has no subtly at all as Rex walks around making silly roaring noises, the bizarre Verger Declan O'Brien (Ronan Wilmot) who at first is just plain creepy & then suddenly turns into a foul mouthed nutter who worships Rex & gets a golden shower off him in a unique baptism ceremony! Some of the stuff this guy comes out with needs to be heard to be believed, very funny. I honestly think the filmmakers set out to make a disturbing, scary & effective horror film but it just comes across as silly & downright funny at times much of which has to be laid at the door of Rawhead Rex himself. Rex looks absolutely awful, his has crossed red eyes, rubber claws, a very rubber face, rubber teeth, a really bad mo-hawk hair-do, a stupid outfit & you can actually see actor Heinrich von Schellendorf's teeth at the back of Rex's mouth, this is most apparent at the rubbishy twist ending when he bursts out of the grave. To it's credit it's good fun to watch & provides a certain amount of dubious entertainment & unintentional laughs.

Director Pavlou does an OK job but there's nothing spectacular about it, it has no real style or visual flair. There isn't much atmosphere, there's no scares or shocks & most of Rawhead Rex's entertainment value comes from it's silliness. The most effective scene is when Rex first bursts out of the ground at the start. There's a few decent bits of gore, a few decapitated heads, some bites, a severed hand & some dead bodies.

Technically Rawhead Rex is OK, it's well made throughout except for the dodgy rubber monster suit that is. The acting was OK, some of the accents & dialogue are funny at times but that all adds to the cheese factor.

Rawhead Rex is a decent watch, it's fun in a way the filmmakers probably didn't intend & I sort of liked it overall. Worth a watch for sure. Apparently Barker was so disappointed with this & other adaptations of his work that he set out to make his own film & thus the brilliant Hellraiser (1987) was made with Barker as director, at least that's one thing we can thank Rawhead Rex for.

If you were not frightened by the atrocity of The Leprechaun I must say that that movie has an older brother, which is even more atrocious and even more not frightening.

Something evil in the forests of Ireland lurks - the terrifying Rawhead Rex. It has awoken from a centuries long slumber released from its womb of the earth.

Red-eyed, ripped like Arnie in Commando and apparently 8-9 feet tall. Albeit the last feature is not much of a feat in countryside Ireland, since most Irish seem to be the same height as Rawhead Rex. It could be possible that Rawhead just didn't want to seem too tall on set (tall actors are mostly perceived as bad actors) and decided to crouch, so that he could see eye to eye with his meals. I must however state that he does try to give a delicious performance as a reject from Twisted Sister with a bad hair day and a piranha attached to his face.

The movie itself can be used for Irish sex lessons for the catholically challenged. It gives great insight as to why pregnancy is a gift and also convincingly introduces you to the notion that kissing is gross.

Apart from that one must admire the tremendous acting abilities of a certain priest (played by Ronan Wilmot), who hands out very well verbalised 'fcks' and does as stand up job as a latrine.

Must give some negative comment about the lack of good screaming actresses, which did subtract somewhat from the watching pleasure. Also not enough chasing of females in woods and people tripping over their own feet.

I had to double check if this wasn't a Troma film. Surprisingly it wasn't. I also double checked if Clive Barker really is responsible for the... ugh... I'll go out on a limb and call it a story. Amazingly he was.

Rawhead Rex was one of those that should have been much better. The settings right, but the films effects are shoddy, acting is hammy, and ending isn't all that satisfying. The creature itself maybe looked scary back then, although nowadays a rubber mask doesn't work too well. It seemed to only have two facial expressions. Mouth shut and mouth open.

Most die-hard horror fans will like this the first time round, but come away feeling it isn't worth another viewing.

If there ever was a film that should be remade its dear old Rawhead Rex. This original however can only serve a single viewing before you feel you've just wasted a couple of hours of your life.

I'm usually down on remakes, but I think this could really work if redone properly. After a farmer removes a large stone from his property, an ancient beast is unleashed on the Irish countryside. The monster (inexplicably named Rawhead Rex) takes wayward priest O'Brien (Ronan Wilmot) under its spell while American writer Howard Hallenbeck (David Dukes) tries to convince the cynical police this monster killed his son. Clive Barker adapted his own short story for this low budget flick and the results are pretty bad. The titular beast looks great in stills, but terrible in motion. Regardless, there are still one or two effective scenes in the film like when Rex attacks a trailer park. Kudos to director George Pavlou for having a woman pulled out of a window and getting her clothes torn off by the people inside trying to save her. That is a top exploitation move. Barker sticks in some jabs at religion at the end (Rex's baptism of a priest is an eye-opener), but it is too late in the game. Worth seeing for Wilmot's wide-eyed acting though. Given the amount of crap Clive Barker slaps his name on nowadays, it is interesting that he has disowned this film (and the Pavlou's other Barker adaptation TRANSMUTATIONS).

Though not without faults, this movie has some damned effective moments. Particularly chilling was the scene of the family driving away from the Rawhead-plagued village, and them seeing "something" large in a field, through a break in the brush and stone walls. When they stop the van, and begin backing up to "check it out", it's a classic "Don't do it!" moment. Of course, it's a fake scare, but then something bad does come to pass...

In this day of everything being put out on cheap DVD, it's frustrating that this movie is not in production. I'm sure there's money to be made on a DVD re-release. They put out the god-awful Alien 3000, which makes Rawhead look like Oscar material.....