Monster of the Day #50

Updated on June 21, 2010 By Ken Begg 20 Comments

The monster so nice I’m showing it twice.  Not just one of the all time goofy monsters, but the very first review on the Ken’s World of Awful Movies site, back before Jabootu revealed itself to all of us.  And I have to say, all these years and all those movies later, this one holds up just fine.  A fitting #50.

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  • John Nowak

    Never has post production so screwed up a film.

  • Frank Bauroth

    It’s as big as a battleship!

  • Ericb

    Stuffing or potatoes?

  • Gamera

    YAY!!!

    The only way to make it better would be a remake with a really cheap CGI Claw!

  • BeckoningChasm

    I like Bill Warren’s comment on this one–it looks so much like Beaky Buzzard, you expect it to start singing, “I’m picking up a baby bumblebee…”

  • Ericb

    You know, though the puppet looks goofy as all hell it does seem to be well made with lots of detail.

  • God I love this movie…

  • BeckoningChasm

    Ericb – yes, if you watch the film, while the designers, um, stumbled a bit, the model-makers did a remarkable job on the head. The nostrils flare for example (yeah, bird nostrils don’t flare, but this is a bird from space).

  • Gamera

    I believe Ken said in his review the Claw was done by a Mexican FX company. If El Santo showed up at the end flying on the back of a giant Chupacabra and fought the Claw this would have been the coolest movie ever made…

  • Rock Baker

    Take a second, step back, and look at that monster thru the eyes of a kid. Under that filter, the Claw is one of the most frightening monsters to ever exist. Its surreal, but very life-like, and THAT’s what creeps you out! (Was anyone else as a kid creeped out by those Fliesher cartoons where telephones and tables and the like would come to life? Or that Disney cartoon with the living hats? Johnny Fedora was one of the scariest things I saw on TV!)

    Goofy monster or no, The Giant Claw is still a really fun movie with a good cast. The bird (he has an excuse, he’s from outer space) doesn’t ruin it for me so much as that airplane, that looks like a store-bought plastic model, that explodes.

  • BeckoningChasm

    Yeah, the movie overall isn’t bad. It’s kind of like “The Crawling Eye” which scared the wits out of me as a youth; seen today, the creature effects in that one are pretty shoddy (though imaginative).

  • The film I compare it with is Kronos, which also starred Jeff Morrow. They are really equally goofy (Kronos is hobbled by the needless alien possession subplot), but one has a really cool monster and the other a really goofy monster. An interesting compare and contrast.

  • First we have Rock praising The Cremators, now he fesses up to being scared by the Giant Claw. I’m keen to see what dark corners of his psyche chooses to defend next. Nuclear Man in Superman IV?

    Anyway, the Giant Claw can do no wrong for me. When I first showed it to my brother, upon the first appearance of the monster, I had to pause the film while he got up off the couch and stomped around angrily, literally yelling at the screen and the film-makers. It took like 5 minutes to calm him down to the point we can watch the rest. He of course is now the movie’s biggest fan. His catch-phrase – “NOTHING can prepare you for the Giant Claw.” Words to live by.

  • Rock Baker

    I can pretty safely state that I’ll never be defending Superman IV, but I will go to bat for From Hell It Came! (I still consider myself a Monster Kid at heart, and I try to be fair with any old monster movie I happen across. They were my first love, and if they don’t outright insult me, I tend to at least try to find the good in each example.)

  • fish eye no miko

    Ok, so, this group of people from some college did a MiSTing of this film. When we first get a “good” look at it, it’s very hard to see (on purpose, that was, like, the effect of the anti-matter… stuff…). ANYway, because of what they say during that scene, whenever I see an image of old turkey=face here, my first reaction is, [singing along with the background music] “The Gi~iant… Blur!”

    Here’s a link to the start of the MiSTing:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LjjPO0OYCo

    This is part one; it’s all set up, though, the MiSTing itself doesn’t start until part two:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-V-aJnYZJM

    Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Full Circle Studios; this is an unpaid, unsolicited plug.

  • TongoRad

    The tabonga actually scared the heck out of me as a kid; somehow I doubt it would elicit the same reaction these days.

    I only saw ‘The Giant Claw’ as an adult, and I must say that the monster’s first appearance made me guffaw for the first time in my life (I, of course, have spent a lifetime laughing, chuckling, chortling, snickering, and all the rest- but one’s first all out guffaw…well, that’s one that you remember ;) ) My son had the same reaction, but then again he may have been influenced by the mood of the room…

  • BeckoningChasm

    Probably the monster that scared me most as a prat was the Chromoite, from the Outer Limits episode “The Mice.” It was such an aberrant thing – I was so utterly repulsed and frightened that my mom actually turned off the TV. When I saw the episode years later, it’s still grotesque but hampered by the lameness of the episode in which it appears.

    I first encountered the Giant Claw on Gore DeVol’s Creature Feature back in DC. He was running a special series of really, really bad films.

  • GalaxyJane

    Man, I miss Count Gore De Vol {sniff}. I have his autographed picture on my den wall.

  • BeckoningChasm

    Actually, Jane, the good Count is on the web, at countgore.com

  • GalaxyJane

    I know, my 5 year old and I watch him there sometimes, but it’s just not the same as the old DC 20 experience. As I’m sure I’ve whined before, I really miss the old independent UHF stations.