Jun 2019 *
First of all, everyone go read shadow-345's posts about this movie. I wouldn't have watched it if not for his posts. I'm gonna try to watch it again soon, by the way, because it was very late in my time zone when I watched it and I was dozing off by the end.
Having said that, I basically liked it. The monster (supposed to be an ancient pagan deity actually, if I got that right) seems to be intended to represent a sort of combination of berserker barbarian fury and sheer (raw?) animal power. He is disturbed from his rest beneath an ancient menhir in a field by a bunch of farmers, and things basically go way the hell downhill after that, for the people in the town.
Just quickly, a few movies that it made me think of include Lair of the White Worm (1988), The Green Man starring Albert Finney from 1990, The Guardian (not the 2006 Kevin Costner movie, but the 1990 Jenny Seagrove movie), and the books about Corum by Michael Moorcock. Also, it made me think of Conan a little, only because of the Crom stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crom_(fictional_deity)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crom_Cruach
Also, something about the monster kept making me think of Victor Crowley in Hatchet. Just the style of violence, the sense of brute force and power, the general shape of his body maybe... hard to explain.
So anyway, yeah, an enormous ancient pre-Christian, pre-Roman era, pre-literacy savage god/monster gets awakened, and wreaks havoc. You get the idea. There is one hell of a body count in this movie, I'll give it points for that. There are even more kills if you count the people killed by a guy who is sort of Rawhead's henchman or servant... he falls under the spell of Rawhead and is responsible for a few deaths.
I thought the main character guy added a lot to it, the actor, David Dukes, took it seriously and did a good job. His character was basically following clues and piecing together the story of what the hell Rawhead was. They could have had him be a journalist or a detective, but they made him an historian researching a book. That worked for me. He kept reminding me of Kirsty's father in Hellraiser: basically a good guy, loves his family and takes an interest in them, etc. I wonder if Clive Barker drew both characters from someone he knew? For some reason they seem very similar to me.
So, yeah, in some ways it's not super high quality but I liked it anyway. Just the general mid-80's Irish/British ambience of the times is kInd of cool, it made me think of Local Hero and Threads.
ok, THAT'S ALL i CAN THINK OF TO SAY RIGHT NOW. Oops, frigging caps lock. If anyone can recommend similar movies, books, or short stories about roughly similar topics, and ancient Celtic or other pre-literacy gods, demigods, spirits or monsters returning to life in modern Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Cornwall, etc, I would be interested in that. It doesn't necessarily have to have any carnage, by the way, I just like the idea of the remote past suddenly rearing its ugly head and becoming unwelcomely relevant in modern people's lives.
Having said that, I basically liked it. The monster (supposed to be an ancient pagan deity actually, if I got that right) seems to be intended to represent a sort of combination of berserker barbarian fury and sheer (raw?) animal power. He is disturbed from his rest beneath an ancient menhir in a field by a bunch of farmers, and things basically go way the hell downhill after that, for the people in the town.
Just quickly, a few movies that it made me think of include Lair of the White Worm (1988), The Green Man starring Albert Finney from 1990, The Guardian (not the 2006 Kevin Costner movie, but the 1990 Jenny Seagrove movie), and the books about Corum by Michael Moorcock. Also, it made me think of Conan a little, only because of the Crom stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crom_(fictional_deity)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crom_Cruach
Also, something about the monster kept making me think of Victor Crowley in Hatchet. Just the style of violence, the sense of brute force and power, the general shape of his body maybe... hard to explain.
So anyway, yeah, an enormous ancient pre-Christian, pre-Roman era, pre-literacy savage god/monster gets awakened, and wreaks havoc. You get the idea. There is one hell of a body count in this movie, I'll give it points for that. There are even more kills if you count the people killed by a guy who is sort of Rawhead's henchman or servant... he falls under the spell of Rawhead and is responsible for a few deaths.
I thought the main character guy added a lot to it, the actor, David Dukes, took it seriously and did a good job. His character was basically following clues and piecing together the story of what the hell Rawhead was. They could have had him be a journalist or a detective, but they made him an historian researching a book. That worked for me. He kept reminding me of Kirsty's father in Hellraiser: basically a good guy, loves his family and takes an interest in them, etc. I wonder if Clive Barker drew both characters from someone he knew? For some reason they seem very similar to me.
So, yeah, in some ways it's not super high quality but I liked it anyway. Just the general mid-80's Irish/British ambience of the times is kInd of cool, it made me think of Local Hero and Threads.
ok, THAT'S ALL i CAN THINK OF TO SAY RIGHT NOW. Oops, frigging caps lock. If anyone can recommend similar movies, books, or short stories about roughly similar topics, and ancient Celtic or other pre-literacy gods, demigods, spirits or monsters returning to life in modern Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Cornwall, etc, I would be interested in that. It doesn't necessarily have to have any carnage, by the way, I just like the idea of the remote past suddenly rearing its ugly head and becoming unwelcomely relevant in modern people's lives.
