RAWHEAD REX

Howard Hallenbeck travels to rural Ireland with his family to research items of religious significance. He goes to a rural church to photograph some graves. During a thunderstorm, lightning strikes a stone column in a field. The monster Rawhead Rex rises from the dirt.

Howard meets Declan O'Brien, the Church verger, who directs him to Reverend Coot. Later, the curious O'Brien approaches the altar and places his hand on it. Images flash before his eyes. This experience destroys O'Brien's sanity. Howard inquiries about the church's parish records. Coot says he can arrange to have Howard look at them but finds they have been stolen. O'Brien destroys his camera.

A man arrives at the home of locals Dennis and Jenny. He discovers a traumatized Jenny. Police arrive. Rawhead drags Dennis's dead body through the forest and comes upon a trailer park. There he kills a teenager named Andy Johnson.

On the road again, Howard pulls over to let his daughter urinate by a tree. Hearing her scream, Howard and his wife rush to her; Howard's son stays in the van, alone. Rawhead kills Howard's son and takes the body into the woods. Infuriated by the police's unsuccessful efforts to track down Rawhead, Howard returns to the church. He discovers that there is a weapon shown in the stained glass window that can be used to defeat the monster. After Howard leaves, Coot curiously touches the altar but resists the temptations and images it shows him.

Rawhead arrives at the church to "baptize" O'Brien by urinating on him. A bewildered Coot goes outside to investigate the noise and sees Rawhead. Horrified, Coot flees inside the church and into the basement while Rawhead destroys everything inside. Coot finds the missing parish records, showing what appears to be some kind of blueprint of Rawhead. O'Brien catches Coot and forces him upstairs to be sacrificed to Rawhead. The police arrive at the church but hesitate to open fire on Rawhead because he is carrying Coot. The brainwashed inspector dumps gasoline around the police cars and ignites it as they begin to shoot at Rawhead, killing all the police, including himself.

Howard leaves his wife and daughter and goes back to the church, where a dying Coot tells him that Rawhead is afraid of something in the altar. Howard goes inside. O'Brien is burning books and is overpowered by Howard. Howard, by using a candle stick, opens the altar and gets to the weapon. O'Brien retreats to Rawhead to tell him. Howard tries to use the weapon, but it has no effect. In anger, Rawhead kills O'Brien by tearing out his throat.

As Rawhead tries to kill Howard, Howard's wife picks up the weapon. A ray of light comes out of the weapon and hits Rawhead, stopping Rawhead from killing Howard. Howard realizes that the weapon works only when wielded by a woman. The form of a woman appears from the stone and shoots electric rays through the stones and into Rawhead's body, knocking him to the ground. After more blasts, Rawhead is drained, allowing Howard to hit him with a shovel. Rawhead then falls through the ground and Howard's wife drops the weapon in with him. Rawhead is smashed under giant stones. Both Howard and his wife weep in light of it being over.

The boy from the trailer park places flowers on Andy Johnson's grave. As he walks away, Rawhead emerges from the ground and roars.

Rawhead Rex is ultimately defeated when Howard’s wife wields a weapon from the church altar, channeling a supernatural force that drains the demon’s power and subdues him.

The climax hinges on the discovery that only a woman can activate the weapon capable of stopping Rawhead Rex, subverting the expectation that the male protagonist would be the hero. This resolution ties the film’s folk horror themes to a symbolic clash between ancient pagan evil and hidden spiritual power, bringing closure to the monster’s reign of terror and restoring a semblance of peace to the Irish countryside.