Yesterday’s teaser debut of Jeremy Saulnier’s (Green Room, Rebel Ridge) upcoming thriller Slayground packs in the Halloween iconography from scarecrows and trick-or-treating to haunted attractions. Eagle-eyed horror fans might’ve spotted an even more curious inclusion that has us intrigued: Clive Barker’s Rawhead Rex.
The eponymous monster from director George Pavlou’s 1988 creature feature flashes on screen at the 1:10 minute mark, in an energetic montage of action. That it’s the only image borrowed from another film ensures it stands out. What does it mean?
Rawhead Rex, written by Clive Barker based on his Books of Blood Vol. 3 short story, sees a pagan deity embark on a violent rampage when unwittingly awakened. The story’s 8-foot-tall, slender phallus version of the deity gets reinterpreted on screen as a sort of punk-rock bulked-out animalistic beast who rampages and murders his way through the rural area in ’80s rubber monster suit fashion. The exact type of heavy metal monster that feels suited to Slayground‘s death metal tone.
Also curious is that Rawhead Rex appears after scare-actor “Metal Mike” Graves (Cory Michael Smith) awakens with a jolt in what appears to be some strange ritual that sees Imogen Poots‘s character commanding of his writhing body: “Help us bring the light to the truth!”
Whether Rawhead Rex is simply a unique visual representation hinting toward the lead character’s transformative arc or something supernatural at play remains to be seen, but our curiosity is piqued.
In Slayground, “Scare-actor “Metal Mike” Graves wakes up in a haunted attraction surrounded by the dead bodies of his co-workers with no memory of how they got there. As a state-wide manhunt closes in, he races to uncover the truth – even if the trail leads straight back to him.”
Described as a Halloween-set fugitive thriller, the newly titled Slayground stars Cory Michael Smith, Chase Sui Wonders, Sophie Wilde, James Badge Dale, Stanley Simons, Stephen Root, Chris Sullivan, Young Mazino, Imogen Poots, Matty Matheson, and Macon Blair.
Slayground features music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
