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Friday, October 15, 2021
31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 15 The Giant Claw
SOURCE-Mill Creek DVD
Years ago when I was a kid I saw pictures of the monster in various horror reference books.
Look at that thing!! It looks stupid as fuck. But since the movie only got one release on VHS I never got a chance to see it as a kid. And I know it aired a few times on AMC and TCM over the years. But I never saw it. Then it was October 2008. I was doing home healthcare. Basically I would show up at 8pm 4 nights week.Help this 80 something year old WWII vet take a shower and get ready for bed. Then we would look through the TV channels to find a movie to watch as he dozed off to sleep. It was I think Friday night. He wanted "Something scary to watch." I turned the TV to Turner Classic Movies and The Giant Claw was about to start. In the movie once they showed the creature Mr Perkins started laughing. "That is one messed up looking turkey." We watched the movie and were laughing so much and so loud his wife came down to tell us "Keep it down I'm trying to sleep."
That year for Xmas I found the DVD set that had The Giant Claw,plus 3 other films directed by Sam Katzman. The smile on Mr Perkins face when he opened the package and saw "That messed up looking turkey!" made my day.
The film is your standard mid 50s era creature feature. You get the military vs our creature.And of course atomic energy is used to defeat this horrific creature.
There is no one in the cast I know from any other film. But they all do a good job.Ben H.Kline does an amazing job as the cinematographer. I doubt the budget was high on this. But it looks like it had a pile of money behind it.
One neat bit of trivia is that no one in the film knew what the creature looked like until the film hit theaters.And reports are when the film premiered the crowd would burst into laughter every time the Giant Claw appeared. Which makes sense cause it is one odd goofy looking monster.
So if you want something goofy to watch. Plus something you can watch with kids or others who aren't fans of gory horror,The Giant Claw is perfect.
The Giant Claw gets a B+.
