 Thanks for checking out this movie review video This is for the 1986 film Rawhead Rex and just check them out there on this Kino Lorber Blu-ray, which I got through Diabolic DVD comm which I like them. I don't have anything to do with them not sponsoring me or anything like that I just like the fact that you can go there and get everything you need, but This is my first time actually seeing Rawhead Rex. I just happened to buy it because I've heard things about it and Yeah, things with this film This is one of those films where it's kind of like you want to show it to your friends Especially if no one's seen it just to see it one time, you know And it's one of those films that people may not come back to it, but it's definitely worth seeing at least once I'm sure I'll continue to watch it, you know every now and then maybe once a year ish Because it's not that great as a so bad. It's good film But there's enough that it'll bring me back every now and then I will say One of the biggest things with this film that was criticized was the laughable nature of the actual creature that they created Rawhead Rex. I think for the most part he looks good like his head That's the main thing like his head looks really good and that's kind of the selling point of it But there are a bunch of things that really don't work with the film As far as Rawhead Rex goes and that's his body feels like it doesn't match the head They should have done something more to make his body a little less human in my opinion Another thing about it that I don't like is a lot of times when they're shooting the head portion They're just shooting the head and it feels weird how they shoot it The other thing is the person who was physically doing the acting for Rawhead Rex I felt like didn't do a good job and they really needed someone more like a cane hotter or Since I watched the maniac cops recently Robert Zadar people who can do really good physical acting so They just needed someone like that because another thing is if you notice when you watch the film a lot of the time When you see Rawhead Rex, he's either just standing there Not doing anything or he's moving awkwardly and one of the things he does Extremely awkward all the time. He keeps his hands very straight a lot Notice that like and it's usually like at his sides. He's just keeping his hands like this. It's so weird It's so awkward and I think that's probably I mean they could have sold the creature a lot better Had they had a much better actor in the Rawhead Rex head in my opinion because the head looks good And those eyes those like red laser beam eyes are really cool And then the fact that every now and then you see there's like a mouth inside of the mouth I don't know if that's intentional or not But towards at the very end though when Rawhead like pops out of the ground and they're like Oh, no, there could be another one's kind of what they're alluding to you very intentionally see that second mouth inside So I kind of feel like it was intentional So it's this kind of xenomorph-esque thing going on, but it looks good the head design anyway The directed director for this film was George Pavlew and by the way, there is a commentary track with him on here There are a bunch of commentary tracks on here including some of the actors and other people worked on the film No big surprise. No Clive Barker. I'm sure that this is a film that Clive Barker probably wants to forget being involved with and Yeah, but real quick George Pavlew did the titles underworld not the one you're thinking of not the one That's popular. It's another one and little devil's the birth So after seeing this I kind of want to check those out. Like I said Clive Barker wrote this It's based on one of his short stories from the third volume of the books of blood series and He actually wrote the screenplay for this so other films that he actually wrote the screenplay for were underworld The same one that George Pavlew worked on Hellraiser, obviously and Lord of Illusions other than that his his novels have and short stories have been sources for a lot of films But him actually writing the scripts those are the only ones he wrote the scripts for so interesting to know a remake was actually scheduled to be done of this film at one point but that all kind of got shot down when Clive Barker became involved with Hellraiser and you know not mad at that because Hellraiser at least the first first and second one Ended up becoming very very awesome. Even though his involvement with the first one was a lot more than the second one. Just saying Was not received well do the laughable laughable nature of Rawhead Rex like I already said But also the very dull ending and I really do agree with that the ending Feels like it gets very very stretched out probably like the last half an hour or so gets severely stretched out where it feels It feels like they're really just trying to hit a run time And it's just like kind of slow and plotting and you're just like okay Let's have more fun here because the beginning of the film and the middle of the film And I mean really up until about the 45 minute point or something is pretty fun and interesting and you know There's a lot of laughs there, but then after that it just starts to go Way downhill and the ending is just Beyond stupid which you know, I'll talk about later, but you know So I get it why people really didn't like it at the time Nice looking scenery to start in Ireland. It looks really nice. It's been beautiful very very cool Although early on the film actually looked really really rough this restoration of it didn't look so hot But after that it really starts to look a lot better as the film goes on So probably when we're hitting about the five six minute point, it's actually looking pretty good So they did a good job restoring this. It's just I guess stuff was really rough in the beginning. I don't know the red laser eyes of Rex's coming through that stained glass window is a really cool visual and I like the way when you first see it They kind of like do like this panning around camera movement to show it That was really cool. That was very Visually pleasing. I enjoyed it. Wow the stormy skies rolling in in the beginning of this looked unbelievably terrible you could see very clearly like the lines On the horizon of the landscape where you could see that was just basically like laid over footage of Clouds rolling it looks Terrible and with the way it looked it probably looked terrible then to be honest It's just whoo. It's one of those things you can watch and laugh at with this film The cuts between the church and the people singing at the church and then the column starting to come down Which is the you know catalysts for rawhead Rex coming back was kind of an interesting thing of them doing this You know good versus evil But it was also really showing that you know Here's this religion right now kind of based on good and then there was this religion kind of based on bad that Literally it was built on top of and that's another theme Well, that is a theme that I kind of find interesting that comes out of this film Which is the concept of newer religions being built upon older religions And you see that partially with you know the physicality of the church in this actually being built where there was this pagan Religion that started from rawhead Rex But also the you know the the statement that Howard makes on this the tourist about you know Not believing in the devil but saying that you know, there's always Like a basis for the rumor basically insinuating that rawhead rawhead Rex is the basis for the common For the you know the current day devil, which you know That's interesting. So that really got me thinking about that whole thing And I think it does make that interesting point that you know religions nowadays are built upon other religions And when you think back it's very interesting and all the different Iterations they go through and they do change they do involve evolve. It's it's interesting The overly dramatic scene of Rex coming out of the ground I find really funny where he's like all covered in dirt and stuff. It's It's overly dramatic and it's funny. I dig it Declan that priest Declan just being immediately an unbelievable prick to Howard when he shows up Just really send a strong message that there's something else going on with Declan Obviously that ends up being the case. He's basically like a disciple of rawhead as he calls him Which is a weird name like why would that be the name? I mean, it's fine for the film now But for back then I'm sure people are like, huh? It's so heavy-handed when they keep showing the lady Cutting up the raw meat that's then intercut with the guy who's you find out later His name's Dennis is going to check out that barn that rawhead Rex has broken into They keep doing the intercutting like her getting the meat ready and cutting it up And it's this very heavy-handed thing of like he's about to be dead meat Just like this meat that she's preparing so that was kind of funny. But then further. It's funny that When rawhead kills Dennis and then he's coming at Dennis's wife How she goes and locks the door when it's very obvious at least to the audience That rawhead doesn't need to use a door and most likely he's not gonna use a door and he doesn't use a door He just punches through the window, which I think is also a pretty funny scene and then he's kind of following her through the house But then it's interesting to me because he ends up leaving her alone because she's pregnant Which I believe plays in later in the film because she's a mother Basically so at first I saw it as oh he didn't do anything to her because he has something about not killing kids Because then he doesn't kill Neil at the trailer park But then when everything comes together at the end and you find out it's a statue of a woman and you know the Spirit things come out of the vagina on the stone woman I I think it's it was more supposed to be a point of not just a woman had you yield that but a mother Specifically had to yield that and why rawhead Rex doesn't do anything to the woman is because he realizes she's pregnant She's a mother. So I don't think he can actually do anything physically to mothers and That's why in the end Howard's mother or half. Sorry. No Howard's wife who is a mother is able to take him out So I found that interesting The moment with the old lady in the red coat where she shows up on the road with Howard and his wife Is clearly clearly a nod to the classic film don't look now If you have not seen that don't look now. It's a very good giallo film that Yeah, actually Yeah, I don't want to say this but there but there is something in rawhead Rex Basically, it kind of spoils a little bit about don't look now, but there is that very clear nod to don't look now I'll just say that Here's a great quote resentment Confessor anywhere now That's from the very smart detective in this who's I'm being facetious Obviously that detective when he's just like resentment Confessor anywhere because he calls Dennis's death a revenge killing most likely And then just like explains it away like yeah, whatever like it seems like he doesn't even care because then later He also makes the stupid comment of darkness can be deceptive Which he says to Howard when Howard's trying to say this is the thing I saw describing rawhead Rex and then he just kind of like brushes him off But then for some reason the same detective who just brushes these things off Gets very serious when they see the drawing that Neil has made of rawhead Rex, which Looks very vague. It's not very good drawing. It's very vague. But all of a sudden he's just like, oh, no So his whole character is just Ridiculous and that's the thing like the writing is actually not that good. I'm sorry Clyde Barker like I love you I Barker I own a bunch of his books. I love his writing. I've met him wonderful person, but yeah, he signed that back there but Terrible writing on that script and the other thing is I don't know how much of that is the script versus, you know Things that were changed on set and you know stuff like that. You never know How was it that Neil had it's such a hard time opening the door to his trailer? When Andy and and the girl left and they close the door behind him and then Neil like can't seem to get out of it It would be the other way around like you would have a hard time getting into it if someone locked the handle He shouldn't have had a hard time getting out. This is another like dumb thing in the film that I thought was funny It's hilarious how the girl doesn't actually realize that her boyfriend Andy has been killed when she's running back away From Rawhead Rex and then she just like pulls her hand up and she's still holding his hand But she's only holding his hand because it's been severed from the rest of his body that's a really funny moment, but it's also ridiculous because She definitely would have known that she was just holding his hand at that point because you know resistance like it's yeah It's a thing and that's the thing like there's a lot of very unbelievable very Unrealistic things about the film even within the context of the world that they set up with something something like a rod rawhead Rex Existing so yeah It's crazy how Howard sees Rex at night with the severed head and then doesn't actually have any like real Legitimate reaction to it. It seems more that he's just like contemplative. Yes. He goes to the police the next day But for the most part he's pretty much just like hmm That was interesting when it should have been like that is frightening and what is that so I Just found that just another one of those things that doesn't feel real for what the character should be doing and how they should Be reacting to things just not great So the detective. Oh, I already talked about that the fact that detective won't take Niels Howard seriously But takes Niels drawing seriously The mother saying the girl should go to the bathroom on her own was Unbelievably ridiculous when they had to pull over to the side because the little girl had to go in the bushes and the mom's just like you can Go by yourself and Howard's like no, I think I'm gonna go with her and he's like well She needs to grow up at some point dude She's like five years old like you don't send a kid He was like five years old off to go to the bathroom by themselves in a place that you don't live Like you've not been here before you don't know where you're sending that kid Just again something that wouldn't happen very unrealistic bad writing for that geez But it's funny it makes it great now it makes it so funny Animal vegetable or mineral another wonderful quote from this film where you know the reporters trying to get something out of the detective And he's just like what's going on out there? What do we got animal vegetable or mineral and you're just like like that line hits you And you're just like what? What? How would someone be killed by a vegetable or mineral? I don't understand animal sure vegetable mineral. I don't get it It's so weird Howard yelling at the cops is unbelievably funny that acting is terrible when he's like going ballistic And the fact that like that's way more emotion than he even showed when he saw a raw head rex with the severed head at night Is just ridiculous it's ridiculous and then also let me also point out the fact that at that point He's going ballistic over the fact that his his son was killed by a raw head rex and you know I get it he would be mad at that point because you know the police weren't taking it seriously But let's backpedal on that because when he sees raw raw head rex at his car He takes a sweet time initially Moving towards the car and then eventually he starts like quickly moving there So like another thing that just doesn't feel normal or like it mattered or not like it mattered But it should have mattered that you know should have been written differently They really shoehorned some boobs in this by the way The part where raw head rex is going ballistic in the trailer park and he pulls that woman through the window and the Her clothes happen to get caught on the broken glass and just rip her whole top off. So oops There's boobies in the film Cheap way to just shoehorn in the boobs. You don't even need it. You just don't need it. It's fine as is I laughed pretty hard at the part where Declan is kind of like professing his I don't want to say gratitude. What's the word I'm looking for? professing his devotion to raw head rex Outside at the church and then raw head rex just starts pissing on him He just like lets his bladder loose and it's just peeing on him like crazy. It's like I didn't see that coming It's so insane But then it also it works for the film though in in a sense Because earlier Howard was saying he's kind of like an animal and he was saying he's very territorial Well, what do animals do to mark their territory? They pee on them So raw head rex was literally peeing on Declan to mark him as his territory He should have peed on more people in the film just saying The police of wrath Rathmore just travel around with tanks of gasoline That's a weird thing. That was a very random weird thing another one where The main detective because he's been kind of demented by the eyes of raw head rex when he had his encounter with him Go runs and gets the tanks of gas and then blows up the cop cars because yeah They just happen to travel around the town with tanks of gas like that Another thing it's it's one of those it's that it's in the script because it's convenient The end really does dragon feels intentionally stretched for time that sucks I really wish there was a much more interesting ending to it That would have been nice and then all those mystical beams and like the ghost woman that happened and stuff like Those look awful and I have to believe that they looked not that great back when this came out And it's it's not just that they didn't look so hot But like when it's like that you you want to do it kind of quickly They have it go on for way too long and you focus on how bad it looks And at some point you're just like yeah, I get the point like I see what you're doing here We don't need to draw it out to this length geez Um Yeah, and then I guess just The last thing I just wanted to reiterate was that point of religions being built off of other religions You know this film is like what it is one of those kind of so good. It's bad type films But there is that subtext to it that theme that actually is kind of an interesting thing So it's not all just slapsticky and poor and bad as a film It's you know got something to make you think But anyway, how am I gonna rate this I have to rate this two ways like I do these types of movies So as a overall movie, I mean I got to go one out of five stars on it But as a so good, it's bad movie I'm gonna give it a two and a half because I'm kind of in the middle had the end portion been more Engaging more interesting or even more funny. I would have you know given it more But I'm gonna put it in two and a half because I do feel very kind of on the fence Like I said, I'll come back to it again at some point, but it's not one that I watch. I'm like, oh man This is like a so bad. It's good classic now now But like I said, it's we're seeing once and it's we're showing to your friends once so anyway Thanks for checking this out. Let's put some comments down there Let's talk about raw head rex and also if you have any other recommendations on like so bad They're good films. I'd like to know that And if you could real quick hit that subscribe button because if you like any videos I do that's your best way to repay me It really does mean a lot to me too literally takes you a second So it's very painless for you But like I said, it means a lot to me personally and it means a lot to the growth of my channel So I would appreciate that But regardless, thanks for checking this video out and until next time keep it brutal