ISLAND CLAWS
(aka NIGHT OF THE CLAW) (aka GIANT CLAWS)
dir. Hernan Cardenas, 1980
Florida Straits. 82 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, AUGUST 15 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 19 – 3 PM

“A terrifying creation of the Nuclear Age!”

TV actor Robert Lansing (who also starred in Spectacle favorite 4-D MAN) and Barry Nelson (an American actor who nonetheless played James Bond in the original CASINO ROYALE, and who appeared in THE SHINING the same year he made ISLAND CLAWS) lead as marine biologists whose God-playing experiments result in crabs that grow to become eight feet long, terrorizing the town. These crabs are arguably the main draw of the film, and it makes sense: they were supervised by the great special effects artist Glen Robinson, of JAWS and the 1976 KING KONG remake.

Commingling the gee-whiz spirit of Atomic Era monster pictures with a noirish ambience via its Florida Keys locations, ISLAND CLAWS was Browning’s final go-round with his longtime creative partner and brother-in-law, screenwriter Jack Cowden. There’s an added dash of social consciousness as well, as one subplot concerns mistreatment of Hatian refugees and the film offers a panoramic portrait of a rural community besieged by toxic waste and rampant alcoholism.

Still not convinced? Check out this synopsis from one of the film’s many bootleg VHS releases…

"Man is faced with his own destruction through 20th century technology. Nowhere is this more evident than in the lush tropical setting of ISLAND CLAWS. An experiment in Marine Biology goes terribly wrong in a sleepy little town near a nuclear power plant. Bizarre happenings create an aura of fear in the isolated village. Something, somewhere, is creating terror.

Suddenly it shows itself.

The vicious meat-eating crab, one hundred times its normal size, appears to destroy everyone and everything in the town."

The bone chilling climax is reached when the town has to slay the beast or be slain by it."