The Horror Pod Class Episode 116: Rawhead Rex
Tyler: live from the Dr. Henry Armitage Memorial High School AV Room
Welcome to episode 116 of The Horror Pod Class. My name is Tyler and I run Signal Horizon a magazine dedicated to exploring genre fiction in and out of the classroom.
Orrin: And I’m Orrin Grey, author and general purveyor of weirdness here at Signal Horizon and elsewhere.
Tyler: Tonight on the Horror Pod Class we are going to spend some time talking about what we have been watching and reading, we will help you find some free genre content on the internet and finally we will spend the remainder of the episode continuing our exploration of folk horror this time in the land of green with the Irish Folk Horror tale Rawhead Rex
What are we READING/WATCHING
Tyler: LETS SPEND A LITTLE TIME TALKING ABOUT RANDOM ACTS OF VIOLENCE AND OTHER COMIC BOOK MOVIES
-I Would Haunt You If I Could by Seán Padraic Birnie
-Willy’s Wonderland
Orrin: Well, I just finished watching The Nightingale for the first time, which I’ll be reviewing in full on Signal Horizon, but damn, what a grueling flick that was.
Free Content on the Internet THE WHEEL. It is a short and it SUPER FUN. Combines two things that scare the shit out of me. Menacing old people and ferris wheels
Essential Question: Can Rawhead Rex highlight any difference between American Folk Horror and European Folk Horror.
Synopsis
A monster materializes to wreak havoc on a tiny Irish town. He is the devil incarnate who has the local vicar’s assistant as his mortal assistant.
My synopsis: When Bojack Horseman GOES BAD.
Cast & Credits
- Howard Hallenbeck
- David Dukes
- Elaine Hallenbeck
- Kelly Piper
- Reverend Coot
- Niall Toibín
- Declan O’Brien
- Ronan Wilmot
- Det. Insp. Isaac Gissing
- Niall O’Brien
- Robbie Hallenbeck
- Hugh O’Conor
- Minty Hallenbeck
- Cora Lunny
- Rawhead Rex
- Heinrich von Schellendorf
- Tom Garron
- Donal McCann
- Jenny Nicholson
- Eleanor Feely
- Ena Benedict
- Gladys Sheehan
- Alice Gibson
- Madelyn Erskine
- Dennis McHugh
- Gerry Walsh
- Mitch Harney
- Noel O’Donovan
- Dennis Nicholson
- John Olohan
- Liam Blanchfield
- Peter Donovan
- Garda Conroy
- Bob Carlile
- Detective Larkin
- Patrick Dawson
- Andy Johnson
- Barry Lynch
- Katrina
- Maeve Germaine
- Neil Johnson
- Simon Kelly
- Sean Power
- Derry Power
- Nancy Power
- Sheila Flitton
- caravaner
- Derek Halligan
- Laurie
- Bairbre Ní Chaoimh
- 1st man posse
- Tom Lawlor
- caravaner gunman
- Dave Carey
- survivor
- Vincent Smith
- Gissing’s driver
- Michael Ford
- journalist
- Frank Melia
- screaming woman
- Lana Mcdonald
- photographer
- Robert Byrne
- Larkin’s driver
- Coyle, Bob
- police marksman
- David Nolan
- survivor
- Mary Ryan
- hooded villager
- Julie Hamilton
- hooded priestess
- Liv Clausen
I re-read the story just for this episode, and this movie is a surprisingly literal adaptation. Like, some changes were definitely made here and there – the character played by David Dukes is an American here, where in the story he’s just a Londoner looking to build a home in the country; the ending is actually somehow MORE ambitious in the story than in the film – but many, indeed most, of the beats play out almost exactly the same, from the death of the boy on the road to the “baptism” and beyond. The difference that probably makes this difficult to adapt to the screen is that much of the story takes place from Rawhead’s point-of-view, giving us insight into what he’s thinking and feeling in a way that the movie just can’t, especially with its ridiculous, immobile monster suit.
(Interestingly, they kept the two sets of teeth thing from the story, but in the movie it’s his nails that retract, whereas in the story it’s his teeth.)
https://books.google.com/books?id=MVn9_UYS5CgC&pg=PA196#v=onepage&q&f=false
“It was huge, like the harvest moon. Huge and amber. But this moon had eyes that burned in it’s pallid, pitted face. They were for all the world like wounds, those eyes, as though someone had gouged them in the flesh of Rawhead’s face then set two candles to flicker in the holes”
https://screenrant.com/rawhead-rex-movie-clive-barker-disliked-problems-why/
The statue at the end looks like the statue from John Langans short story Mother of Stone
Venus of Willendorf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Willendorf
Man Horror Movies REALLY HATE WRITERS
“Do THEY HAVE MCDONALDS IN DUBLIN” 100% what my kids would say
THE DEATH SCENE IS SOOOOO LONG
4 Movies
The Ritual, Leprechaun
Transmutations (aka Underworld), The Giant Claw (you fuckin’ heard me)
ALBU1SR
Rex be looking like goofy LOL
Ireland is horny as hell!!
Ray Romano aka Cardigan Dad stars in this irish adaptation of Night Beast featuring the most consecutive make-outs in the history of cinema.
spoilers: the funny man in the rubber costume lets a priest drop to their knees before him and then just takes a leak all over his face and chest just letting you know that yes, that is in fact included in this film!!!!
a MUST WATCH.
Next Week: Nosferatu
Tyler has been the editor in chief of Signal Horizon since its conception. He is also the Director of Monsters 101 at Truman State University a class that pairs horror movie criticism with survival skills to help middle and high school students learn critical thinking. When he is not watching, teaching or thinking about horror he is the Director of Debate and Forensics at a high school in Kansas City, Missouri.