Rawhead Rex (film)

Rawhead Rex
Theatrical release poster.
Directed by	George Pavlou
Produced by	Kevin Attew, Don Hawkins
Written by	Clive Barker
Starring	David Dukes Niall Tóibín Cora Venus Lunny Ronan Wilmot Donal McCann Heinrich von Schellendorf
Music by	Colin Towns
Cinematography	John Metcalfe
Editing by	Andy Horvitch
Distributed by	Empire Pictures
Release date(s)	April 17, 1987
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United Kingdom Ireland
Language	English

Rawhead Rex is a 1986 British/Irish horror film directed by George Pavlou and written by Clive Barker. The film is about a monstrous pagan god's bloody rampage through the Irish countryside, and based on the short story by Clive Barker that originally appeared in vol. 3 of his Books of Blood series. Pavlou and Barker had previously worked together on Transmutations (also known as Underworld)'.

Plot

Accompanied by his wife and two children, Howard Hallenbeck (David Dukes) travels to Ireland to research items of religious significance for a book he is writing. He leaves his family at a motel and goes to a rural church to photograph some graves. Meanwhile, three farmers are attempting to remove an ominous stone column from a field. Two of the farmers decide it can't be moved and head home. The remaining farmer prepares to leave as well. A thunderstorm appears out of nowhere, and smoke pours from the ground around the column. Lightning strikes the column, knocking it and the farmer down. The monster Rawhead Rex rises from the dirt, no longer buried by the column. When he is resurrected, a woman is suddenly burnt when she touches a vase on an altar at the church Howard is visiting.

Howard enters the church and meets Declan O'Brien (Ronan Wilmot), who directs him to Reverend Coot. After Howard leaves, the curious O'Brien approaches the altar and places his hand on it. It burns his hand, and images of a dark forest and a mysterious campfire flash before his eyes, followed by an image of Rawhead's bloodied mouth. This experience apparently destroys O'Brien's sanity, as he begins to grin and laugh quietly. He approaches a detailed stained glass window depicting Rawhead's defeat and looks into the demon's glowing red eyes. Afterwards, Howard converses with Coot and inquires about the church's parish records. Coot says he can arrange to have Howard look at them.

Later, a man arrives at the home of locals Dennis and Jenny. He immediately sees something is amiss. Rushing in, he discovers a clearly traumatized Jenny. Police, led by Inspector Isaac Gissing (Niall O'Brien), arrive and are baffled by Dennis's disappearance. Rawhead drags Dennis's dead body through the forest and comes upon a trailer park. A teenager named Andy Johnson is trying to make out with his girlfriend, but they are interrupted by her younger brother. The two teens head into the woods, but the girl is alarmed by the distant roars of Rawhead. She suggests they go back, and Andy starts to escort her out. Soon after, Howard, alone in the woods, sees Rawhead on top of a distant hill with Andy's head in his hand. Howard tries to report his sighting to Inspector Gissing, but his claims are dismissed.

Afterwards, Howard speaks again with Coot, who tells him the church's parish records have been stolen. While Howard is photographing the stained glass window depicting Rawhead, Declan O'Brien destroys his camera. The men scuffle, and Howard storms out. He takes his family on the road again, heading apparently for Dublin. Meanwhile, Inspector Gissing examines a crude picture of Rawhead drawn by a boy who saw him in the forest. The picture makes him reconsider Howard's report.

On the road, Howard's daughter needs to go to the bathroom, so Howard pulls over and lets her go by a tree. Hearing her suddenly scream, Howard and his wife rush to her; Howard's son stays in the van, alone. The girl had found a dead rabbit, and while her parents comfort her, 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 himself. The insane O'Brien catches Coot and forces him upstairs to be sacrificed to Rawhead. The police arrive at the church and prepare to open fire on Rawhead, but they hesitate because he is carrying Coot. The brainwashed inspector dumps gasoline around the police cars and ignites it just as they begin to shoot at Rawhead, killing all the police, including himself.

In the end, the boy from the trailer park places flowers on Andy Johnson's grave. As he walks away, Rawhead emerges from the ground and roars. The film then cuts to the end credits.

Cast

• Niall Tóibín as Reverend Coot
• David Dukes as Howard Hallenbeck
• Cora Venus Lunny (as Cora Lunny) as Minty Hallenbeck
• Ronan Wilmot as Declan O'Brien
• Niall O'Brien as Detective Inspector Isaac Gissing
• Heinrich von Schellendorf as Rawhead Rex
• Robert Byrne as a photographer
• Donal McCann as Tom Garron

Release

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

The film was released on DVD in the United States by Artisan Entertainment in 1999. This version is currently out of print. The film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom by Prism in 2003.

External links

• Rawhead Rex at the Internet Movie Database