Rawhead Rex (1986)

Jan 5th, 2009 by cm1

Fast Download: Rawhead Rex (1986)

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When a farmer unearths a big stone from a field, this allows a long dormant beast – the titular character – to arise and wreak havoc among the local populace. Howard Hallenbeck (David Dukes), an American writer of Irish descent, comes to the area to do research and ends up in the thick of things; it gets very personal for him after an unthinkable tragedy, and he determines to slay the dragon himself.
This is another of those cases where I must confess to not having read the Clive Barker short story. Therefore, I can only take the word of what others have said – that it’s *not* a good adaptation. The rural Irish setting adds a special sort of atmosphere – complete with overcast skies – that is a welcome change of pace from scores of other 80′s horror movies. Even with Barker himself as the screenwriter, the movie ultimately descends into typical monster-on-the-loose shtick, with one of the ultimate time-worn lines spoken in countless movies of this kind: “I know how it sounds”, when Dukes lays eyes on the monster and tries to convince the naturally skeptical cops of what he saw.
All suspense as to the monster is thrown out the window when it gets a reveal about eight minutes in. And it’s a mightily silly looking thing – definitely ugly – but silly just the same. The story gets some points, however, for showing us that anyone can be a victim here. Director George Pavlou, who’d previously helmed the Barker adaptation “Underworld”, paces it and stages it competently enough, and lays on the cheese for a gloriously goofy finale involving an elaborate light show and laser-like sound effects. However, he also gives us an all-too-typical final shot, which was just annoying.
Dukes is solid in the lead, although Kelly Piper (the imperiled nurse in the 1980 movie “Maniac”) is just plain bad as his wife. Niall O’Brien is fairly amusing as Detective Inspector Gissing, while Ronan Wilmot goes wildly over the top as the crazed Declan O’Brien.
While not really all that good, it does offer fans of creature features a reasonable dose of good-natured monster mayhem.