Horror story writer Howard arrives with his family in the Irish countryside in search of new themes for his stories, where he becomes interested in an old church with unusual stained-glass windows depicting a defeated demon.
Simultaneously with the writer’s arrival, a foolish hillbilly chipped away at the large cobblestone under which evil lurked, unleashing the demon. Once resurrected, the monster begins to subjugate human souls, killing and eating the unruly.
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This is the second directorial effort by George Pavlov, a well-known US director of commercials and horror short films, and, at the same time, his second film adaptation of the work of the famous writer Clive Barker – the creator of the legendary Hellraiser, to which the maestro himself had a hand as a screenwriter. You can put it in the category of Barker’s best screen adaptations, and not only because the writer himself was closely involved in the project, but also because the spirit of the original is 100% transferred here, though Barker departed from some plot twists of the original story.
The movie is about a terrible creature called the Bloody King, and how he is accidentally released from his imprisonment. Now he kills and devours the unruly, and brings terror to the quiet town. The monster is very creepy – he himself is two meters tall, with an ugly animal face reminiscent of a wolf or bear, a hairy mane, huge teeth that he rips out the flesh of his victims and large, razor-sharp claws. He also wears a black suit, which has worn and torn over time, leaving only scraps of it–a very creepy and bloodthirsty monster.
King Bloody Head kills people, and one of the unfortunate victims is the son of the main character, horror writer Howard, and the unfortunate father decides to take revenge on the bloodthirsty monster, and begins to hunt him down.
There are a huge number of wonderful special effects in the film, worthy of the creations of genre maestro John Carl Büchler, who is also one of my favorite directors in the horror genre – he is known for his bloodthirsty monsters, And here the monster is not inferior to his creations – the costume and the makeup are made amazingly and realistically, the gore-effects like severed limbs and heads are also perfectly executed – not for a second does Pavlov make the viewer doubt that the monster really hunts and kills people.
The direction is excellent – the spirit of the time is so well conveyed, and “Blood-Headed Rex” is one of those films in which the style and spirit of the era in which it was filmed is very accurately felt. All the director’s tricks characteristic of the horror genre of that time are taken into account – that’s why it causes endless attacks of nostalgia and makes you realize that the eighties was the best time for the genre, because a lot of slashers, maniacs and bloody ugly monsters made by the most talented special effects artists came out of there!
The music and camerawork are also good. The music is tense and oppressive, very much in keeping with the atmosphere of the bleak, provincial Irish countryside in which the monster roams. The camera does not shake, the emphasis is on the bloody scenes, Rex is shown a lot and relishes the details of his appearance – the cameraman never misses an opportunity to show close-ups of the monster’s face, for which he is very thankful.
So, Rawhead Rex is one of Barker’s best screen adaptations and the best B-horror movies of the time, and the Bloody King himself is one of the best monsters of the time, along with Troll Torok, Basement Monster and Outsider from John Carl Buchler, as well as the famous Pumpkinhead and many creatures from Stuart Gordon and Wes Craven.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (92.8 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles
English SDH.
