Podcast: Jordan Downey on ‘Rawhead Rex’

If you're a horror fan who appreciates indie storytelling, you know and love the works of Jordan Downey. Downey, alongside longtime collaborator Kevin Stewart, has brought his unique love of movie props and puppetry to the screen in films like ThanksKilling, The Head Hunter, and his segment in the Critics Choice Awards-nominated V/H/S/Beyond. So for his appearance on the Certified Forgotten podcast, of course Downey would choose Rawhead Rex, Clive Barker's infamous creature feature.

Howard Hallenbeck (David Dukes) is a man of a singular academic pursuit: he wants to visit and write about each of the pre-Christian religious sites in Ireland. So when he drags his family to a rural township to photograph a nearby church, everyone thinks this is just the final stop before some well-deserved city time in Dublin. But this is no ordinary religious site: this is the final resting place of Rawhead Rex, a demonic presence that rises from the grave to terrorize carparks everywhere. Adapted by Barker from his short story, Rawhead Rex is a far cry from the Irish horror films you may know today.

In this short excerpt from the podcast, Downey explains how he can still get sidetracked by his lifelong love of movie props and prosthetics:

"Even to this day, if there's a prop somewhere — if there's a museum or any kind of display in the lobby of a movie theater — I'll stop and just stare at that thing, the costume, for so long, just to look at the craftsmanship on display. And sometimes how chintzy and cheap they actually are to the naked eye, but how great they look on camera when lit properly."

The Rawhead Rex episode of the Certified Forgotten podcast is now available to stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or the podcast platform of your choice.