Imagine that it’s 1980. You’re an up-and-coming horror movie producer who wants to make a killer animal style monster movie to cash in on the success of the blockbuster giant shark flick Jaws, which regardless of the fact that it as released five years ago still has hordes of imitators riding in its wake (hehe). But which malevolent predatory aquatic creature to have as the villain? There are so many to choose from.

Well, since Jaws was a great white shark, how about a killer whale? Oh wait…that was Orca .

Alright then, we’ll go with quantity over size - a school of piranha. There already was a movie about killer piranha? And it was called Piranha. I see.

Okay, what about an octopus? Tentacles, right.

Giant alligator? Three of them already? Seriously?

Hmmmmmmmmmm…

Wait. Wait just one minute.

Hold the phone.

I got it.

I got it I got it I got it I got it.

I GOT IT.

CRABS!

That’s it! We’ll have an entire army of crustaceous, pinching terror!

This would be the conversation you might have had with yourself if you were responsible for 1980’s Island Claws.

The plot you would come up with (and subsequently have scripted in part by Ricou Browning, the diver who played the Creature from the Black Lagoon in all the underwater sequences) would go something like this:

Young Jan Raines is a photojournalist commissioned to do a piece on world hunger, so she decides to spotlight the work of Dr. Mcneal, a scientist conduction research into the exponentially accelerated growth of crabs that live on the tropical island where his lab is located (for some reason we never learn the name of said island). The doctor, along with his dreamy lab assistant Pete Adams (who’s quick to set his eye on the equally attractive Jan), seem to think the rapid maturation is being brought on by the elevated temperatures of the rivers surrounding local factories which discharge heated water into them. But that’s just one theory. Could it possibly be that the island’s nuclear power plant, which Jan’s father happens to work for, is secretly dumping some other, more dangerous waste products into the waterways, which in turn is causing the crabs to mutate to monstrous proportions?

Needless to say, bodies start showing up with crab-incriminating evidence left at the scene (shells, pointy little footprints, etc.). But can the people of the quaint island community get to the bottom of what’s really going on and put a stop to it before the casualties continue to grow?

While it may seem rather unremarkable and relatively run-of-the-mill, Island Claws is still a decent enough monster movie to be entertaining. Regardless of the fact that it’s pretty easy to figure out exactly what’s going to happen at a fairly early point in the film (no surprises here), it still manages to effectively hold your interest for the 90 minute run time. It’s got a simple, to-the-point story that doesn’t get too bogged down with overly complicated plot twists or side stories, characters that are likable enough for us to actually care what happens to them, and steady pacing that mixes the right amount of drama and action without ever losing its momentum.

In fact, the whole thing has a very 1970’s network TV movie feel to it (which is a good thing in my book - I generally like old TV movies), despite the fact that it was indeed released theatrically. While it might not feature any award winning performances or thought provoking dialogue…well, let’s just say that a cheapo nature-goes-berserk monster flick probably shouldn’t be your first pick if that’s what you’re after.

Truth be told, I think the only reason that any of us would bother wading through the multitude of pseudo-nature film footage of legions of these hard shelled little critters skittering sideways on the beach, just clicking away with their claws, is to hopefully get a glimpse of their monstrously oversized brother which the film hints at the entire time. And I must say when we do finally see the giant crab (oh come on, I’m not giving anything away here that you couldn’t figure out just by looking at that box cover art!), it doesn’t disappoint.

Sure, it might not look that menacing and its movements are a little on the sluggish, manipulated-off-screen-by-a-stage-hand side, but what’s important is that we still get to see a gigantic monster crab (it’s a complete mock up too, not just a crab face/claw facade, expertly designed by Glen Robinson, who did the special effects for other films like Logan’s Run and the 1976 version of King Kong) do battle with some of the more courageous townspeople for a good amount of screen time. And while there isn’t a lot that I’m certain of in this life, one thing that I do know for sure is that 20 minutes of crab fighting = awesome.

When all is said and done, Island Claws is a reasonably enjoyable entry in the gigantic animal mutation on the loose subgenre. You’ve probably seen better, but you could definitely sit through much worse (especially if you were to watch some of the other things on this site!).