Claws is set in the Alaskan wilderness & opens to a red tinted shot of a Grizzly Bear walking around a bit, as the credits roll. Then we see two Grizzly Bears fighting each other as three big game hunters look on. They try to shoot one of the Bears but only succeed in wounding it, all three decide to split. Meanwhile, further down the road a logger named Jason Monroe (Jason Evers) & his wife Chris (Carla Layton) are heading back home in their truck when the radiator breaks. While attempting to walk back to town Jason is attacked by the wounded out-of-control Grizzly & although he survives the attack is badly injured. Claws then has a few paragraphs of text that appear "Admiralty, Alaska July 27. Local logger seriously mauled by rampaging Grizzly Bear near this community. Bear believed wounded by un-identified hunters." Then "September 2. State surveying party attacked by Grizzly Bear. Two killed one seriously injured. Reports confirmed after being wounded, giant Grizzly turns rogue killer" appears." Even more text flashes up on screen "November 14. two hikers killed by Devil Bear near this Alaskan community yesterday. Tracks of rogue killer disappear in fresh snow below Devils Paw mountain. Hunt called off." Finally "5 years later. Admiralty Alaska, again stunned by savage Bear attacks. Local logger says Satan Bear has returned to this community" appears & we can get on with the film proper! Jason Monroe still has nightmares about the day he was attacked, an attack that meant he could no longer continue his job, it also cost him his marriage & young son Buck (Buck Monroe, which means this kids real name is exactly the same as his characters!). Local scout leader Howard Lockhart (Glenn Sipes) is taking his teams of boys for a weekend of camping in the Alaskan forests. They are attacked by the Grizzly and Buck is badly mauled. The forest commissioner Ben Jones (Leon Ames) sets up a posse of men to try & track the Grizzly down, including Gil (Wayne Lonacre), Marshall (Bill Ratcliffe) & a guy named Virgil who was sadly left off the credits I'm afraid, who all think they can trap the Grizzly in a special cage. They fail & are killed by the Grizzly in the process. Since the Grizzly mauled his son Jason now feels even more anger, hate & bitterness towards the Grizzly & decides to go after it himself when all attempts to find it & stop it fail. Along with Ben who also feels responsible, Howard who funnily enough also has a grudge towards the Grizzly & an old Indian guy named Henry Chico (Anthony Caruso) who, yeah you guessed it, has personal reasons for going too, Jason sets out to kill the Grizzly killer once & for all (and make everyone's personal problems just disappear)! Directed by Richard Bansbach & R.E. Pierson Claws is a sorry excuse for a film. The script by cinematographer & producer Chuck D. Keen & Brian Russell is as boring, as clichéd & as padded out with unnecessary scenes as you would expect a cheap no-budget Jaws cash-in to contain. Claws has it's fair share of melodramatics between the dull characters & even relies on heavy flashbacks to expand upon these unnecessary sub-plots. The Grizzly Bear & it's potential victims are virtually never in the same shot, this makes for some very awkward looking attack sequences of which there aren't many anyway. And the dull as dishwater ending is mostly in slow-motion which becomes incredibly annoying. There's no blood or gore either so forget about that. On a technical level Claws is very poor, editing, lighting, continuity, acting, direction & production values throughout are certainly nothing to praise. One thing I will praise in Claws though is the cinematography by writer Chuck D. Keen it captures some of the beautiful untouched Alaskan wilderness extremely well, unfortunately this has the effect of the viewer thinking their watching some sort of nature programme rather than a horror film! Every other shot seems to be of an animal, tree or Alaskan landscape. Claws as a horror film fails to generate any atmosphere, scares, excitement, originality or memorable sequences. Definitely one to avoid unless you want to sit through 90 odd minutes of travelogue footage of Alaskan mountains & forests, which I most certainly don't!
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