Arrow, out May 14

Clive Barker’s Books of Blood story of a marauding pagan god gets a rather undeserving HD release, and while certainly no better than you might remember it to be, it’s fascinating to hear from those involved in its troubled creation.

I remember seeing stills of the eponymous monster from Rawhead Rex in an issue of Fangoria and just couldn’t wait to watch the movie on its eventual video cassette release. It was awful. Dreadful. From its rubbery monster to uninspired directing and wooden acting, it was worse than most of the DTV cassettes filling the racks in video shops. Even the poster was nonsense – ‘Someone has awakened him’ (not woken?) and ‘…he lives again to feed again’ (eh?) and stylised the title as RawHeadRex. Screenwriter Clive Barker was so incensed by the product that he took to self-directing (Hellraiser followed soon after).

With all of this mind, is it worth watching? For a start, the 4K transfer from original cinema negative does at least mean that it looks as good as it ever will (better than the grainy VHS picture most will have experienced) and at 89 minutes it doesn’t outstay its welcome.

The biggest issue is Rex himself, who looked great static, but in motion is very unconvincing. Very similar to the Sram puppet in Terrahawks, he’s a pumped-up body builder ape with a Mick Jagger fright wig, far removed from the toothsome, phallic pagan god envisaged by Barker. It also doesn’t help that the head on the full-body costume is static, meaning that we cut to an animatronic bust for close-ups of the snarling and googly red eyes. He has no personality and is no different to any slasher movie villain, indiscriminately ripping out throats or decapitating his victims.

American lead David Dukes fares no better, taking it all far too seriously, getting over the death of his son far too quickly, and really it’s only Ronan Wilmot as the possessed verger (he goes the full Renfield and is urinated on by Rex in a bizarre baptism scene). The other local talent just look bemused, and as for the ‘Carrie ending’ at the graveside – for shame!

The audio commentary by director George Pavlou and moderated by Steven Thrower (author of Nightmare USA) is a fairly mellow chat, the director clearly still loving his finished product, while Call Me Rawhead is an interview with Heinrich von Bünau, who shares his delight at being cast as a monster at only 19, and sharing the same hotel gym with U2.

What the Devil Hath Wrought is a short interview with Ronan Wilmot about his role as the crazed clergyman, and has good recall of his experience, though honestly admits it was just another job. The amusingly-titled A Cock and Bull Story talks to the special effects team (Peter Mackenzie Litten, Gerry Johnston, Rosi Blackmore, John Schoonraad and Sean Corcoran) about how they designed their beast as a body suit and animatronic, while deliberately taking the design away from Barker’s more on-the-nose description. They wanted Peter (Chewbacca) Mayhew but he was too expensive!

Also on the disc, Growing Pains is an interview with then child actors Hugh O’Conor and Cora Lunny, while Rawk and Roll is a chat with Doc Martin composer Colin Towns, who delivers a great theme, but it’s tracked very strangely in the movie – we get dramatic bursts when a car is simply driving down a lane. Also of interest is Rawhead Rising, as artist Stephen R Bissette laments the aborted graphic novel adaptation and shares his impressive creature designs.

The inlay booklet features colour reproductions of movie stills as well as a short essay by Kat Ellinger – ‘I don’t believe in the Devil: Rawhead Rex – a folk horror?’ – looking at paganism in context of movies like Blood on Satan’s Claw, as well how the taboo of child murder is treated in the movie.

The crew walked off set, they hadn’t filmed an ending, they ran out of money, the weather was awful – it’s a miracle this movie was ever completed, so maybe that in itself is a small measure of success.

Verdict: One for Barker completists and those curious to see if it’s really as bad as they’ve heard (it is!), I’d skip straight to the commentary and extras to hear from the film-makers who laboured to make the best film they could with very limited resources in the worst circumstances. 7/10 (3/10 for the movie itself)

Nick Joy

Click here to order Rawhead Rex from Amazon.co.uk