Review of Rawhead Rex (1986) by Mark J — 24 Jan 2013

When a farmer decides to move a giant stone in his field, he unleashes an ancient evil that terrorises the local Irish countryside.

An adaptation from Clive Barker's Books Of Blood, which a screenplay written by the author himself, 'Rawhead Rex' should be a great film, but what we have is a mixed bag. The story is engaging enough and is steeped in Irish mysticism, but it just never seems to get going, and one feels that major changes were made to the story during the shooting without consulting the author . The acting is not fantastic, and though it is not particularly wooden, it falls foul of strong Irish accents that just end up sounding like comedy impersonations. The special effects are good where it comes to the gore, but the title creature itself is not very well visualised, and looks like some kind of giant ape. In the end this movie is ok, but could have been a lot better and really hasn't stood the test of time.