Rawhead Rex (1986)
April 14, 2025 8:42 AM - Subscribe
An ancient creature called Rawhead is awakened from its slumber near an Irish village and goes on a rampage killing anyone in sight.
I often write my own misbegotten blurbs for shows and movies here, but honestly, I can't beat that one. Rawhead is indeed an ancient creature, and I'm sure slumbering is exactly what he does. I imagine a lot of snorting and farting in his slumber. However, he doesn't exactly kill ANYONE in sight when he is roused -- we see that he shows mercy to a pregnant woman, because he's a fertility god, or...
...Something?
It's been a long time since I read Clive Barker's original story (although he's credited as the screenwriter of this film, I get the sense that this may not be the most faithful adaptation of the story, or indeed of Barker's screenplay), but certainly much is made there of Rawhead as some kind of monstrous pagan beast. The movie follows this suggestion, but doesn't do a lot with it -- Rawhead could as easily be an ancient alien or something, although his vibe is definitely demonic -- until a weird ending where he is apparently put back to bed by some more powerful eldritch vagina magic. I feel like this all probably made more sense in the '80s, when people were reading Iron John and shit, but what probably seemed silly then is nearly incomprehensible now. Basically, though, Rawhead Rex is the god of toxic masculinity -- there's a few references to his monstrous dong in the story that, for better or worse, do not inspire any scenes in the film -- and if that's a little muddled by his generally being a fertility god who also (I guess because he's pissed off that no one worships him anymore) murders the hell out of people, it nevertheless feels relevant today. Cops, clergy, and other stereotypically male figures are especially vulnerable to being transmogrified into Rawhead's willing and eager sycophants. For my own part, I love him, and I would happily sleep cuddled up with a Rawhead Rex plushie. I think if this were a film kids could have watched, and not a film where the monster pees on dudes, he would have become a lot more iconic, a kind of rural Irish kaiju.
I often write my own misbegotten blurbs for shows and movies here, but honestly, I can't beat that one. Rawhead is indeed an ancient creature, and I'm sure slumbering is exactly what he does. I imagine a lot of snorting and farting in his slumber. However, he doesn't exactly kill ANYONE in sight when he is roused -- we see that he shows mercy to a pregnant woman, because he's a fertility god, or...
...Something?
It's been a long time since I read Clive Barker's original story (although he's credited as the screenwriter of this film, I get the sense that this may not be the most faithful adaptation of the story, or indeed of Barker's screenplay), but certainly much is made there of Rawhead as some kind of monstrous pagan beast. The movie follows this suggestion, but doesn't do a lot with it -- Rawhead could as easily be an ancient alien or something, although his vibe is definitely demonic -- until a weird ending where he is apparently put back to bed by some more powerful eldritch vagina magic. I feel like this all probably made more sense in the '80s, when people were reading Iron John and shit, but what probably seemed silly then is nearly incomprehensible now. Basically, though, Rawhead Rex is the god of toxic masculinity -- there's a few references to his monstrous dong in the story that, for better or worse, do not inspire any scenes in the film -- and if that's a little muddled by his generally being a fertility god who also (I guess because he's pissed off that no one worships him anymore) murders the hell out of people, it nevertheless feels relevant today. Cops, clergy, and other stereotypically male figures are especially vulnerable to being transmogrified into Rawhead's willing and eager sycophants. For my own part, I love him, and I would happily sleep cuddled up with a Rawhead Rex plushie. I think if this were a film kids could have watched, and not a film where the monster pees on dudes, he would have become a lot more iconic, a kind of rural Irish kaiju.
idk, your blurb is pretty spectacular, kfb!
posted by supermedusa at 9:18 AM on April 14
posted by supermedusa at 9:18 AM on April 14
Oh! That's not my blurb. That's IMDB. But I would have been delighted to write it!
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:32 AM on April 14
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:32 AM on April 14
I saw the film and couldn't tell you anything about it. Forgotten.
posted by ginger.beef at 10:35 AM on April 14
posted by ginger.beef at 10:35 AM on April 14
This is such a ridiculous rubbery blubbery movie. Would pair nicely with rubber bear movie, Prophecy by John Frankenheiner.
posted by Ashwagandha at 2:26 PM on April 14 [2 favorites]
posted by Ashwagandha at 2:26 PM on April 14 [2 favorites]
I have Shudder and stumbled upon the thumbnail for this and their vague, two sentence description. Your post makes me want to actually see this film!
posted by SoberHighland at 5:30 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]
posted by SoberHighland at 5:30 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]
omg Ashwagandha, I saw Prophecy on VHS at an Alabaman's house in Nigeria in the 1980s
there weren't many movies to be had and you took what you could get
Worst trailer ever
posted by ginger.beef at 11:52 AM on April 15
there weren't many movies to be had and you took what you could get
Worst trailer ever
posted by ginger.beef at 11:52 AM on April 15
iirc, the story is pretty short so there was a lot of padding to make a movie of it
is Clive Barker winning for lowest adaptation quality to original story quality ratio?
posted by kokaku at 6:08 PM on April 15
is Clive Barker winning for lowest adaptation quality to original story quality ratio?
posted by kokaku at 6:08 PM on April 15
Not unless you count each of the Hellraisers after the first as an adaptation (I would say none of them are even close to the original, and most of them are aggressively bad). And by that metric, there are way more bad King movies. Hell, there are more bad Children of the Corn movies alone than there are adaptations at all of most horror writers.
For me, it's too...simplistic to dismiss this movie as bad. For one thing, it's lovely to look at; I love the dreamy countryside of the daylight scenes. And it is really trying to capture Barker's whole notion of a religious awe to supernatural horror. Now, the monster is...Steve Bissette at one point wanted to do a comics adaptation of the story that featured an incredibly scary (but still charmingly kaiju-like!) version of Rawhead, and certainly this would be a very different movie if it could have pulled a creature like that off. Again, I have to stress my adoration of the creature they DID pull off, but he is not scary, and I do not believe he was any more scary in 1986. He is silly, and he is great. It's complicated.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:21 PM on April 15
For me, it's too...simplistic to dismiss this movie as bad. For one thing, it's lovely to look at; I love the dreamy countryside of the daylight scenes. And it is really trying to capture Barker's whole notion of a religious awe to supernatural horror. Now, the monster is...Steve Bissette at one point wanted to do a comics adaptation of the story that featured an incredibly scary (but still charmingly kaiju-like!) version of Rawhead, and certainly this would be a very different movie if it could have pulled a creature like that off. Again, I have to stress my adoration of the creature they DID pull off, but he is not scary, and I do not believe he was any more scary in 1986. He is silly, and he is great. It's complicated.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:21 PM on April 15
don't get me wrong... i like this movie... but Barker's writing never got the screen treatment it really deserved, even with the first Hellraiser (and yes i was counting all the sequels in order to make my point, so, fair to call me out on that)
posted by kokaku at 11:21 AM on April 16
posted by kokaku at 11:21 AM on April 16
kokaku: "is Clive Barker winning for lowest adaptation quality to original story quality ratio?"
Candyman is actually better than the source material
posted by thatwhichfalls at 7:17 AM on April 18
Candyman is actually better than the source material
posted by thatwhichfalls at 7:17 AM on April 18
I feel like we have probably just missed the window for an insanely expensive, ten-episode Weaveworld or something, but one of the better Neon/A24 filmmakers could probably make a good movie from The Damnation Game.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:14 AM on April 18 [2 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:14 AM on April 18 [2 favorites]
I’d also love an Imajica movie trilogy by Guillermo Del Toro.
I read the short story before I watched Rawhead Rex, yet I still have difficulty separating this movie from Pumpkinhead in my mind. I just have to keep reminding myself that one has the monster piss on a priest and the other has Lance Hendriksen.
posted by ejs at 7:54 PM on April 25
I read the short story before I watched Rawhead Rex, yet I still have difficulty separating this movie from Pumpkinhead in my mind. I just have to keep reminding myself that one has the monster piss on a priest and the other has Lance Hendriksen.
posted by ejs at 7:54 PM on April 25
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posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:11 AM on April 14