Rawhead Rex
Released by Silva Screen Records, 2020
15 Tracks with a Total Running Time of 52.31 min.
Music by Colin Towns

I remember being so excited upon hearing the news that a movie version of Clive Barker’s terrifying monster tale was going to be made. Yeah… never expected it to be as bad as it was, mainly due to the stiff costume on the title terror. BUT… we’re here to talk about the music itself and how does it hold up on its own. Movie scores are a particular thing because while they are really only there to enhance and help what is on the screen, some composers take it even further, creating beautiful pieces of music. This is one score that went above and beyond what it should have been!

With the opening track of Rawhead Rex Main Theme, with the thundering and ominous sounds, we know we’re in for a big picture. But after starting big, it slows back down to work on building tension. In fact, the rest of the score is a lot like that. We have some tracks, such as the second one, Welcome to Ireland, which almost sounds like a travelogue, but it feels like something mysterious is lying underneath the surface.

It seems Towns has really tried to create a much bigger score than one would expect, but also uses a variety of themes and sounds in the score. Such as in track 4, Nicholas’ Farm, we hear strange sounds, almost like steam escaping, or the sound of metal scraping or the use of string instruments but being distorted as in track 6, Boy Runs For His Life Through the Woods. We even get to hear some background boys choir that adds a nice and eerie feeling to the score.

Town gives the listener a wide variety of sounds, with a combination of ambient noises or a haunting short little tune, but it is effective. So much so that this is making me want to go back and watch the film again, just to see how the music works with the visual aspects of it. When a score can do that, you’ve really done the film justice.