‘The Iron Claw’ Review – The Heartbreaking Pathology Of A Wrestling Dynasty’s Curse

“I don’t want him to catch it.”

Halfway through The Iron Claw, professional wrestler Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) explains to his wife Pam (Lily James) why he won’t return to her and their infant son. The sentiment — isolating himself to protect his family from some terrible pathogen — is profoundly relatable and heartbreaking, especially after an era of hyper-vigilance following years of collective health trauma. But Kevin isn’t protecting his fledgling household from some virus or bacteria, at least not in a literal sense. What Kevin is shielding his wife and son from is the “Von Erich curse,” a pattern of unspeakable tragedies that is tearing his family apart, body and soul. Kevin would rather cut himself off from the people he loves than infect them with a cataclysmic fate.

But curses aren’t real, right? They help us make sense of the nonsensical, but unlike a medical condition, they aren’t tangible or spreadable.

Filmmaker Sean Durkin begs to differ, and The Iron Claw is his case study. The film follows the storied Von Erich wrestling dynasty as they climb to the highest echelons of the sport. Patriarch Fritz (Holt McCallany) lives vicariously through his four sons, pushing them to achieve the glory he failed to accomplish in his youth. Kevin, David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), and Mike (Stanley Simons) all vy for their father’s dangling-carrot approval by pushing their bodies to the limit of human possibility. Their bodies ultimately betray them, leading to the horrifying tragedies that form the curse. The psychological toll of their careers is somehow worse, with the Von Erichs brothers left to crumble under the weight of their father’s punitive expectations.

The curse ravaging the Von Erich clan is stunning parental neglect and abuse. The Iron Claw carefully unpacks the family’s toxic dynamics, balancing the parents’ pathologies against their impact on the siblings. Fritz is the most potent source of ire, a menacing jumble of self-aggrandizement and victimization that he weaponizes against his sons. Fritz doesn’t physically harm them outright because he doesn’t need to. (That is what the ring is for.) His job is to continue the punishing momentum outside of it. Some of the tensest interactions occur in the locker room, which Durkin often frames in cold blue lighting, where Fritz coolly deconstructs the brothers’ mistakes during the match. He then redirects his attention to another inactive brother, offering subtle praise that instills insecurity and jealousy in the vulnerable one. 

Durkin dedicates the first half to setting the suffocating atmosphere that signals the Von Erich family’s impending tragedies. Manipulation, tacit disappointment, and desperate acquiescence shape nearly every exchange. They also construct a durable reality distortion field that warps internal and external concerns about their well-being. Kevin, the second-eldest brother, initially resists the delusion. Although he struggles, he does muster the courage to confront his mother, Doris (Maura Tierney), about Fritz’s pressure on Mike. A devout Christian, Doris exhibits her parental failures by brushing off Kevin’s concerns. Her rebuff has devastating consequences, as the brothers sacrifice their physical and emotional health for their father’s dogged determination for glory.

The Iron Claw thoughtfully demonstrates the toxicity in the Von Erichs’ lives, affecting their communication and bodily care. (Durkin captures the wrestling scenes with an unsparing lens that ensures we feel every thudding move without relishing in the brutality.) The film loses some thoughtfulness when depicting the brothers’ seemingly endless tragedies. The Von Erichs experience a deluge of unthinkable pain, and Durkin rarely pauses to let his characters process them. The whiplash pacing works best when it reinforces Fritz’s dogged callousness, like when he not-so-subtly nudges his sons to replace their brother in the ring after an incident. The horrors that follow, however, could’ve used more introspection into how the brothers were coping and if they connected the dots behind their losses. Kevin and Pam’s conversation about the curse is shatteringly excellent, and the other Von Erichs would’ve benefitted from similar scenes.

As Kevin, our guide into this twisted dynasty, Zac Efron delivers possibly the year’s most physically demanding performance. He does more than transform into a hulking muscle mass. Efron moves and speaks like he is in constant pain, conveying both wrestling’s physical toll and Kevin’s occasionally crippling social awkwardness. The discomfort is palpable, but he mostly underplays it with subtle, firm actions: clipped, frustrated speech and pained, sensitive looks. Efron makes it so your heart can’t help breaking for Kevin, especially since he won’t let it break for himself. Holt McCallany, the Von Erich patriarch, is on the other side of the ring. As Fritz, he runs roughshod over his sons without prejudice or interruptions, with a stone-cold expression and a punishing tone that makes them crumble easily. Everything McCallany does carries a threat of violence, even though he never raises a hand. He is terrifying.

With McCallany, Efron, and a powerful ensemble, Durkin fashions The Iron Claw into a grueling examination of a family marred by parental neglect and rampant narcissism. It is one of the year’s most heartbreaking films, sometimes to its detriment. The trauma barrage without fully exploring the invisible scars can be overwhelming and discomfiting, but it still leaves a deeply affecting mark. Beyond the physical and psychological pain, what hurts the most is what could’ve been. Kevin explains that he wrestled primarily to be with his brothers, and you can easily envision a world where they ruled wrestling and stayed together. Their success and their destruction weren’t mutually inevitable. Even amidst the staggering losses, that reality is the tragedy of the Von Erich legacy.

The Iron Claw will debut in theaters on December 22, 2023 courtesy of A24. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KVsaoveTbw]