Rawhead Rex

I'm reading this collection of short stories by Clive Barker called Books of Blood Volume 1-3. It's pretty good as horror fiction goes--sometimes it can get pretty cheesy and not very satisfying. But these are pretty intelligent stories for the most part and it looks like I'm actually going to finish the book--which is saying a lot for me these days. Anyway, there's a story called "Rawhead Rex" that I'm reading right now, and it is freaking the crap out of me. It's a pretty straight-forward giant monster story, but the images that Barker puts on the page (and consequently in my head) are pretty intense.

Rawhead Rex is an ancient demon that was buried alive ages ago and is inadvertantly unearthed by an unsuspecting farmer. The carnage starts pretty much immediately after Rawhead is released. There's a priest who is apparently a disciple of Rawhead (he's baptized by Rawhead's urine in a particularly vivid scene) and many people have died rather gruesome deaths. I haven't quite finished it yet, so I don't know how it ends--not that I'd dream of spoiling it here anyway.

Apparently, Rawhead Rex was made into a movie back in the mid-80's. One site I found while Googling tonight called it a "shit-stain" and it looks pretty bad. Not at all how I pictured the monster (pictures here--don't look if guys in rubber suits scare you easily) As one of the reviews on IMDB says, "This movie is as horrifying as a hamper with too many clothes in it." Good thing there's a graphic novel of it, but I can't find out much information on that.

All in all, I'll probably read more Clive Barker, but I think he's a little bit like Anne Rice--a little bit goes a long, long way. Speaking of which, I think I'm just about to the point where I can think about reading Lasher.