Rawhead Rex

[otisberg77]

Anyone seen this priceless wonder???
When I was in Russia a local man called Petre asked if I would like to watch a film with him while we waited for the contest to begin, we had hours to kill, so I looked over his DVD collection, they were all the standard fare you would expect, but tucked away in the corner was a DVD that really caught my eye, "Rawhead Rex"
"Can we watch this?" I enquired.
"No, no way, no, no!!!" Shouted Petre as he sobbed.
I managed to calm him down and he went on to inform me that it was the scariest film he had ever seen, the only reason he had it was to make sure that no one else would watch it, if anyone else did see it, there would be a blanket of fear over the whole world.
Petre looked tired after his exertions, still sobbing and wailing, he eventually dropped off to sleep.
I went into the front room and took a drink, still shaken from Petre's outburst, I decided that the best course of action would be to watch the film and judge for myself.
The film begins in Ireland, a small village, life is normal, a farmer is attempting to remove a giant stone from his field, a church service is being conducted, people go about their usual business.
The farmer is having no luck with the stone, he has friends to help him, however after many attempts they leave as the stone is seemingly impossible to move, the farmer does not give up as easily as his companions, he still tries as hard as he can to rid his field of this stone, back in church the service continues as normal, a few giggles from town women aimed at the lowly verger, but to be honest, he does look gimpy, so that's fair enough.
There is a stained glass window that looks like a monster with red eyes, the light from the sun comes through the eyes and leads to a table of some sort.
At the field the farmer is now using a crowbar to move the stone, it begins to budge slightly, the farmer looks pleased, suddenly, without warning the stone is struck by lightning, the farmer jumps back as his hands are burnt by the glowing crowbar, suddenly the rock falls over and out of the pit stands RAWHEAD REX, looking like a bad bastard with razor sharp teeth, claws, crossed eyes, 9 ft tall and a mullet from a duran duran video, he proceeds to eat the farmer and raw alot.
Back in church the service has long been over, the verger is tidying up, he notices the lights coming from the stained glass window monsters eyes, he follows the trail to the table and touches the table, suddenly there is a special effect and the verger screams.
He is now seeing what REX sees, hearing what he hears, this is scary stuff so far, I am beginning to think Petre was right.
Howard Hallenbeck arrives in town with his wife and two children, he is researching for a book about ancient churches, he takes some photos and visits the same church we saw earlier, immediately, the stained glass with REX on it catches his eye, while waiting for the vicar he is captivated.
The vicar arrives, Howard asks about the stained glass, the vicar says that he is unsure about where the glass from as there have been many fires in the church in the past and the records were destroyed.
We now see a pregnant woman cooking her dinner, her husband arrives home (a farmer) and kisses her, they have a brief chat and he then notices that the shed is open, how can this be? he locked it earlier.
He goes over to investigate and looks inside, REX leaps out and slaughters him while his wife watches in terror from the kitchen window, she screams, REX sees her and approaches the window in haste.
The woman races up stairs to get away from the best, she hides herself away in the top bedroom and locks the door, she stands by the door shaking and crying, there is no sound, nothing, it is terrifying.
Suddenly the hand of the beast bursts through the wood of the door and scratches the pregnant ladies stomach, she collapses in fear, the door explodes open and REX bursts in, he approaches the woman, ready to slaughter her, his claws extend, he then looks again and sees that she is pregnant, and for some reason does not kill her, he spares her life.
From here on in it is a terror fest of the highest order, REX proceeds to slaughter most or Ireland, he kills Howard's son and does a big p**s on the verger, he then eats throws the priest at a patch of grass, the police arrive to kill him but he slaughters them too and just when it looks like no one can stop him...well, you will have to see for yourself.
After the film finished I was taken to hospital by Petre, my heart had stopped and my hair had turned white as a sheet, I was almost scared to death.
If you watch this film, call an ambulance first.
It was literally quite good.

[Jack]

I've always liked that movie.  It has some very nice atmosphere, a weird story line, and some scenes are really well done, really capturing some menace.  Of course it has quite a bit of cheese as well, which is appreciated.  I was looking for it on DVD a while back, can't remember if it wasn't available or just too expensive.  Quite a little gem though.

[otisberg77]

I picked up Rawhead Rex on dvd for about 5 pounds on Amazon.co.uk, was a real treat, though it hasnt aged very well, poor Rex and his mullet! 

[Joe]

i own the vhs, im trying to get the dvd. i love it, all abut the trailer park scene and the p**sed on priest lol

[Acidburn]

Talk about bringing back memories....This movie is the first Horror movie I ever watched as a child. And let me tell you, it did its job. Being at the ripe old age of about 9 or so I thought it would not scare me at all so I talked my step-dad into letting me watch with them.
Well needless to say I was scarred for life! I can remember having to take the trash out to the road at night and being scared to death and my step dad would wait until I was all the way to the road and then he would yell out "RUN, ITS RAWHEAD REX!!!" Well, as you can imagine I would take off like a damn rocket and be crying the whole way back to the house. I am serious, I was actually afraid to leave the living room unless someone was with me.
Then, a year or two ago I found the cause of my psychosis at the local video store. After I sat in the floor and sucked my thumb while crying for about an hour, I decided to face my fear and watch it.  Well I can still see how something like this movie could scare the hell out of a 9 year old. But I wasn't all that impressed watching it as an adult now. But as movies like that go, it wasn't that bad at all. I really enjoyed it! Now I have faced my fears and I am all the better for it.

[Joe]

the priest saying "get the f**k out" to david dukes is priceless in itself, makes me laugh everytime. apparently the only words in that church song that coot is singing in the begining is hallelujah and that makes me laugh everytime to cause everytime it cuts he just says it then it cuts back to the farmer. im really p**sed clive baought the rights abck to it so now we cant get a legit re-release on dvd.

[otisberg77]

It freaked me out when I was a kid because it ignored the rule of only attacking in the dark!

[Joe]

oh man when he takes the kid out the car? it was great, i thought for sure the little girl was gonna get it.

[otisberg77]

Yea, and the woman sees him attacking her husband through the window and then he drops the body and walks towards her, freaked me out, monsters are supposed to creep around in tthe dark not storm at people in broad day light!!

[clockworkcanary]

I've been wondering when someone would mention this nugget of gold (or brown, whatever).  I loved this movie as a teenager - I'm sure it has not aged well lol - a demon with a mullet!  That's a synpopsis phrase if I've ever heard one hehehehe.  One of Clive Barker's not so finest.

One scene I remember well is a couple prancing through the woods holding hands.  Something large jumps out at them and vanishes.  Girl looks down at her hand and the guy is gone but she's still holding his bloody hand! 

[Torgo]

Isn't this movie based on a Clive Barker short story?

[Ash]

Isn't this movie based on a Clive Barker short story?

Yep...it sure is.
READ HERE

[Dennis]

I picked this one up from a mom and pop rental place near home, watched it with my daughter, I thought it was mostly pretty good, especially the scene with the boy in the car, my daughter said "This is a real dumb movie dad, Little shop of Horrors was better." Oh well to each his or her own.

[Shadow]

I caught this on HBO about 20 years ago. It was on at about 3 in the morning so I taped it. I watched the tape a few times before it got recorded over. I would very much like to see it again. I remember being somewhat surprised at the death of that one kid.

[akiratubo]

I watched this movie twice and thought it sucked.  I couldn't even laugh at it.