Claw (2021)

A note about my rating system: because I rate on a highly subjective, relativistic scale, virtually any movie can achieve a 10/10 rating with me. After all, nothing prevents even the very cheapest of movies from telling a great story. A limited budget and amateur actors needn't cripple a movie in the hands of enthusiastic and devoted makers. And so on.

Just as uninspired workmanship can flush a giant budget down the toilet, so can talent and enthusiasm carry the day for the poverty-stricken. You'd be surprised how your old aunt Mabel and best pal Cooter can reach for the stars on their Walmart lunch break last Tuesday. A 10/10 is within the grasp of any movie that cares enough to rise above itself and reach for it.

And, sadly, it's precisely because of this truth that CLAW was so disappointing. For about 90% of the movie, CLAW was sailing along, high and proud, and was well on its way to getting at least a 9/10 and had the potential of even a top 10/10.

And then CLAW literally self-destructed right at the finish line. The writer/director (mostly the same person) somehow lost control or simply went insane and CLAW transmogrified back into the moldy pumpkin from whence it came. Somehow, watching the movie, which had been doing so well, suddenly sprout warts out of nowhere was more disturbing than if it had simply been garbage all along.

I can't be certain, of course, but the impression that I got was that the writer/director couldn't figure out how to end the movie. And so we got a cheesy ending feint of a dream sequence followed by an even worse dream-echo sequence where a full-grown Tyrannosaurus rex just shows up out of nowhere and peeks in through the window. Rawr.

For most of the movie, CLAW had a sort of original TREMORS buddy/monster movie kind of vibe going for it. Structurally, it was almost identical to TREMORS where we have an unjustifiably-present monster effectively just thrown on stage (a premise you're just supposed to accept out of goodwill, apparently) and then the bulk of the movie is our unlikely duo attempting to come to terms and survive in a remote location, with no hope of help, while creatively fending off this monster that wants to eat them.

In CLAW, the two leads did a surprisingly high quality acting job and were very engaging/believable. The simple setting, premise and chase-scene sensibilities in combination with engaging and believable leads was working an excellent chemistry, and then, without warning, the whole thing just took a turn for the stupid.