The Iron Claw, written and directed by Sean Durkin, takes its name from the signature move by Fritz Von Erich, the wrestling persona created by Jack Adkisson in the 1950s: an unmovable grip on the face, tight pressure on both temples, paralyzing an opponent to the ground. The move would certainly hurt if applied with effort but, as with most of professional wrestling, it’s hard to tell the line between feat of athleticism and performance, real pressure and theatrics.
Which should be interesting territory for Durkin, whose two previous features, the eerie cult psycho-drama Martha Marcy May Marlene and 80s-set The Nest, are unnerving tangles of the real and imagined, strange comminglings of the supernatural, psychological and social. Like The Nest, The Iron Claw depicts the dissolution of a family under financial pressure – in this case, the real-life Von Erich lineage in American professional wrestling begun by the imposing Fritz (Holt McCallany) and wife Doris (an underused Maura Tierney) and continued by their sons. As with Durkin’s other characters, the Von Erichs are afflicted with paranoia (or a reaction to it): that the so-called family “curse” – a sports legend of hardship, injury, malaise and death in certain segments of the US – will come for them.
