Horror Movie Review: Claw (2017)

Written and directed by David Palmieri, Claw sees three friends (a term I’d use very loosely) go on a weekend break to Swamp Hollow. There they become the target of a psychotic serial killer. Why has he targeted the? Who knows and who really cares. Trust me, after watching Claw you really won’t.

Claw feels like a student film, a project for a couple of amateurs to show to their professor. Its sub-par cinematography, boring story, horrid pace and flat acting is more likely to put you to sleep rather than entertain. You keep hoping the plot will pick and go somewhere interesting but it never does.

It’s wholly unoriginal and delivers nothing in the way of suspense, excitement or tension. Perhaps the worst thing about it though is the clumsy and often hilarious dialogue. Something that is made way worse by the total lack of emotion from the actors.

The main three are written poorly with their constant bickering and awful behaviour making them completely unlikable. Care about them? Impossible when they’ve got personalities that are so abrasive.

Claw doesn’t provide entertainment. It doesn’t provide decent gore and the attempt to distract you from the boredom with nudity is laughable.

For most of the films run-time there is no mystery behind the killer’s identity because the film fails to create any. Then seemingly out of nowhere we get a big reveal/twist that just makes you even more apathetic. What is the point? It doesn’t feel important and certainly doesn’t create a ‘moment’.

Spending 300 words slamming a movie isn’t exactly my favourite thing to do. However in cases like Claw it’s the only thing to do because it is such a pointless film. It offers nothing; it is a complete waste of time and has almost no redeeming factors.