Island Claws

• USA • 1980 • 90m •

• Directed by: Hernan Cardenas. • Starring: Robert Lansing, Steve Hanks, Nita Talbot, Jo McDonnell, Martina Deignan, Barry Nelson, Tony Rigo, Raymond Forchion, Dick Callinan, Dolores Sandoz, Frank Schuller, Mal Jones, John Furey. • Music by: Bill Justis.

A biological experiment in Florida goes awry. The result: 8-foot long land crabs which roar loudly and kill everything in sight.

Review:

When I was young, I remember flicking through the pages of one of Guy N. Smith's pulpy Crab horror novels, drawn to the scenes of graphic violence (and the occasional sexy moment). Sadly, Island Claws isn't an adaptation of one of Smith's books; what we actually have is a pretty dull 'giant animal' creature feature written by Jack Cowden and Ricou Browning (the latter known to serious horror fans as the gill-man from The Creature From The Black Lagoon), whose script is seriously in need of some of Smith's gory sensationalism.

The dreary plot sees the inhabitants of a Floridian island attacked by killer crustaceans, both regular size and XXXL, the crawling sea creatures having been affected by radioactive water leaking from a nearby power plant. A pointless subplot about Haitian immigrants makes the film even more of a drag, as does the 'forbidden' romance between teaching assistant Pete (Steve Hanks) and photojournalist Jan (Jo McDonnell), daughter of the power plant boss. With much of the action taking place at night, it's hard to see what is going on for much of the time, with the final assault by the sole giant-sized shellfish deliberately dark so as to not show too much of the immobile crab model.

With zero gore and zero nudity, this isn't anywhere near as trashy as I had hoped. Perhaps someone should look into buying the rights for Guy N. Smith's Night of the Crabs and make a really entertaining giant crab movie: with today's CGI technology, the results could be a lot of fun.

Review by BA_Harrison from the Internet Movie Database.