Clawing! A Journey Through Spanish Horror is an okay overview of Spanish horror. It is an easy watch, but it does not offer much new.
The film's approach is typical of this type of documentary. There are talking heads from fans, critics, and directors interspersed with clips from various Spanish films. The clips were a bit annoying.
The first problem is that the clips are not identified, which makes tracking a film down difficult. How hard would it have been to identify the titles of the movies? The second problem is that the selection of the clips must have been motivated by what was easily available. Thus, for Jose Larraz, there were several scenes from Edge of the Axe, not one of his best in my opinion, but maybe one that is easily available. Jorge Grau and Eugenio Martin are almost entirely represented by The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue and Horror Express, respectively. Both are good films, but are they all the two filmmakers made?
In terms of interviews, it was nice to hear from the directors, but these were relatively brief clips. This hurried quality is true of the film as well. It speeds through topics without giving much depth to anything. This scattershot, always on to the next thing, gets old after awhile.
Clawing! Is a decent watch, but most fans are going to know the information beforehand. On the other hand, the hour goes by quickly and it is nice to see the directors. Clawing is not a film to seek out, but if it shows up as an extra on a Blu-ray, it is probably worth a watch, although few will watch it more than once.
