The title CLAW is a synecdoche (a part which represents a whole, just as in JAWS (1975) the title actually refers to a shark). It refers to a prehistoric monster that was genetically re-engineered by a renegade scientist and ends up, for much of the duration of the movie, chasing a pair of comedians who made an involuntary stop at a desert ghost town.
This is brainless but fun entertainment for the right crowd. It takes neither science nor logic nor itself seriously, but that is okay because it is not meant to be a dissertation (a propos dissertation: the monster is referred to as a "raptor", short for "velociraptor", but that is actually a misidentification: none other than Michael Crichton, the author of JURASSIC PARK (1993), started a trend of giving this dinosaur which is closest to the ferocious Deinonychus the name of a Turkey-sized dinosaur, probably because it sounded cooler. Incidentally, whereas "velociraptor" means "swift robber", Deinonychus means "terrible claw"! Oh well).
I am part of the right audience because I like both movies in which people are chased by a monster (some comps I recently saw and liked: HOOKED UP (2013), where two people are chased by a ghost and DASHCAM (2021), where two people are chased by a flying zombie) and I like movies which have a ghost town as a background setting (a recent example: A TOWN FULL OF GHOSTS (2022)).
I am a very analytic person (see writing sample above) but it is good to every once a while let go and just let a silly movie be, as long as it hits the right entertainment notes, and this one does for me, mostly.
The CGI and acting are not top notch but adequate and the progression of events is entertaining, though I would have wished for a little faster pace. The music makes this film stand out from comparable low budget fare: the score is orchestral and gives the movie a little bit of a retro feel.
The ending overdoes the silliness a bit, and the 14-minute slo-mo end credits for this 80 minute movie must be some sort of an inside joke, but overall, it was not bad for a little over an hour entertainment. That is, if you like a movie that is just showing some people being chased by a monster against an unusual setting.
