’Claw’ review: Dir. Gerald Rascionato [FrightFest]

Creature features are a guilty pleasure for many of us. The sub-genre of film that sees everyday people pitted against all kinds of beasties works best when it plays itself in one of two ways: super serious and scary, or extremely wacky and silly. Claw, from Open Water 3: Cage Dive director Gerlad Rascionato, opts for the sillier side of the fence, but doesn’t quite push it far enough to make it a resounding success. The plot joins friends Julia (Chynna Walker) and Kyle (Richie Rennie) as they break down whilst travelling cross-country to Los Angeles. They seek solace in a nearby Ghost Town and find themselves hunted by a prehistoric creature.

The prehistoric creature is a velociraptor, one that is cut from the same visual cloth as those seen in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. Those that know anything about dinosaurs will be aware that this version, as cool as they are, are actually nothing like the real extinct animal. The decision to make Claw’s incarnation of a velociraptor look like this is only a minor niggle as, inaccuracies aside, it is the most dominant portrayal of the beast in the media. Credited as being played by Roger the Raptor, the antagonist is as hungry as you’d expect a prehistoric carnivore to be. With only Julia, Kyle, and the owner of the Ghost Town to snack on, he is very determined to feast on the human characters. Roger is an unfortunate victim of a limited budget and he doesn’t look his best; the VFX is ropey, causing PS1 Dino Crisis flashbacks. 

Jurassic Park has been a clear influence on all aspects of production, Roger’s visuals being just one of the elements that has been borrowed. During the middle third there is an extended chase sequence, one that heavily features running away from Roger in air ducts – a clear nod to the end of Spielberg’s masterpiece. During this scene, which features the predator the most, the score veers very close to John Williams’ score. Those that have seen Jurassic Park a few times will notice that this music sounds almost identical to the violin trills and brass squeals found within Williams’ Raptor theme.  

Claw isn’t Rascionato’s first venture into dinosaur movies, having previously created Triassic Hunt a film that pitted mercenaries against genetically engineered dinosaurs imbued with human intelligence. Triassic Hunt followed the pattern of many of these ridiculous creature features, and at least with Claw, the director has attempted something different. The cast is kept to a minimum rather than crowd the narrative with a never-ending slew of extras who are nothing more than fodder. In keeping the characters streamlined we are granted the opportunity to get to know them a little more. Frustratingly, we don’t get to find out much deeper than a basic overview of who they are, and instead get to focus on the bond of friendship between Julia and Kyle. Walker and Renniew work great together and really sell their relationship enabling you to believe that they share a genuine history together. 

Although entertaining enough, Claw fails to fully encapsulate the wacky spirit of the creature feature that it needs to in order to become something really fun. Sure to delight those with an appetite for dinosaurs gone wild regardless, Claw suffers from an over reliance on tapping into Jurassic Park nostalgia and thus making it more derivative than it needs to be. A little less fan service and a bit more originality, and Claw would have all the right ingredients for blissful zany mayhem.

Claw was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2021. Claw is released on Altitude.film and other digital platforms from 13 September.