What is the Von Erich Curse? Well to make it short and sweet, the Von Erich Curse is a series of unfortunate events that happened to the Von Erich family. Now you may not be aware of whom this family is unless you are a wrestling fan. The Von Erich family is considered one of the greatest wrestling families of all time. Jack Adkisson, better known in the wrestling community as Fritz Von Erich, is the patriarchy and father of the Von Erich’s. He took on the name as a wrestling gimmick portraying a Nazi heel. He also was the creator of the wrestling hold/move, The Iron Claw. Jack Adkisson would then have 6 children (all boys) with his wife Doris. 5 of the six boys would become professional wrestlers like their father but 5 of the 6 boys also passed away in different tragic ways. The only remaining brother still alive today, Kevin Von Erich aka Kevin Adkisson, would go on to raise 4 children with his wife and two of them would go on to become professional wrestlers as well. Now while this review doesn’t need a full explanation and could be explained throughout the review itself I thought it would be best to explain a bit of the Von Erich family and their curse before we go in depth with the film as while it kind of does spoil the movie, it also gives you a better understanding on why this film feels very genuine and at the same time heartbreaking. I have watched many films in my life and some include heartbreaking films. The Whale, Blue Valentine and A Star is Born are just a few films that broke me and led me to think about a film in a mental state way rather a film making way and this film can most definitely be added to that list. I knew some things about the Von Erich family and their curse before seeing this film. I am also a diehard wrestling fan so it was a no brainer that this film was going to be up my alley. I didn’t expect to feel depression from watching this film but also reunite with my demons again and feel my heart break once again. Side note I keep promising that I am going to review “The Whale” in my last review but I just haven’t gotten to it yet simply because I am unsure if I can mentally be able to write a review. Much like The Whale, this film I felt like I wasn’t mentally ready to write but if you are reading this then you can see I was able too. But I do promise a review for The Whale will happen, just on my terms. For now I want to talk about the one film that left me speechless to almost heartbroken and if I could be really honest, almost wanting to end my life a few days later after watching. I want to talk about The Iron Claw and why it is more than just a wrestling movie but a movie about brotherhood, family, heartbreak, tragedy and taking care of your mental health.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Now while this film is about true events that happened to the Von Erich family, I feel like I still need to mention what happened to the real life family before talking about the film because not everything in this movie is depicted right and in the film. For example there is a missing brother in this film. Chris Von Erich wasn’t mentioned at all in this movie as his death was pretty much similar to Kerry Von Erich/Michael Von Erich so they kind of just used his death, Mike’s death and Kerry’s together. However the death of Michael, David and their older brother Jack Jr. was correctly depicted in this film. Jack Adkisson Jr. tragically died at the age of six years old after he stepped on a trailer tongue and was electrically shocked and then fell into a puddle of melting snow face first. He drowned to death and this was kind of the beginnings of the Von Erich Curse. The other brothers I will bring up throughout my review but I mentioned Jack’s in this portion because it was briefly brought up in a scene in the film but wasn’t talked about too much. As mentioned before Chris Von Erich wasn’t mentioned at all but they used part of his death with Kerry and Mike in the film but to give Chris justice I will talk about his life and death here. Chris was the youngest of the six brothers and he had the most health issues. Standing at 5 foot 4, Chris Adkisson had bad asthma problems and brittle bones. That didn’t stop him from becoming a professional wrestler but he never could reach the heights of his brothers and father. He was never able to become successful and obtained numerous injuries and this then led Chris to become depressed. He also was deeply heartbroken from the loss of his brother Mike. At just the age of 21, Chris took his life and shot himself in the head. Now while this story is truly heartbreaking to probably read as it is to write, this is just what wasn’t mentioned in the film and believe me what I am about to write throughout this review is going to be heartbreaking so best believe this warning and be prepared for what is still to come.
The film was directed by Sean Durkin, a director whom at this point of writing this review and seeing the film I have never seen much of his work nor heard of. He is a Canadian-American film director whose best known for directing independent films including Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), The Nest (2020) and of course most recently our film here. Not a huge career so far but with the success of this film it could possibly now lead to future big directing roles. As for the cast of this film, it was beyond incredible as many of the members of this cast were perfectly casted for their roles to simply depicting their character in the upmost perfection. The cast includes Zac Efron (Kevin Von Erich), Jeremy Allen White (Kerry Von Erich), Harris Dickinson (David Von Erich), Maura Tierney (Doris Von Erich), Stanley Simmons (Mike Von Erich), Holt McCallany (Jack “Fritz” Von Erich), Lily James (Pam Adkisson), Michael J. Harney (Bill Mercer), Chavo Guerrero (The Shiek), Aaron Dean Eisenberg (Ric Flair), Brady Pierce (Michael Hayes), Kevin Anton (Harley Race), Cazzey Louis Cereghino (Bruiser Brody), Ryan Nemeth (Gino Hernadez) and Scott Innes as the ring announcer. It’s also worth noting that former AEW World Champion Maxwell Friedman, better known as MJF, portrayed Lance Von Erich. He was a wrestler that wasn’t a part of the family but was an onscreen cousin of the Von Erich’s. Now not everything in this film is depicted correctly and as mentioned earlier some things are left out of the film like Chris Von Erich. Other dates of events and moments in the film are also switched around but it’s only to give the film a more dramatic effect. Finally there are details left out of the film for some of the characters like Kerry’s drug use or Fritz’s tag team partner Waldo. These details were cut out completely because of time as it is hard to add in every detail in a movie. The film all together is 2 plus hours so it’s very understanding why some details and events weren’t mentioned or shown in the film.
Now the film might begin with showing a moment in Jack Adkisson’s career, this film is heavily centered on the 2nd oldest son, Kevin Von Erich. The film is mainly about the family but it more depicts Kevin’s career and life. It’s not a bad call for this film as considering he is the only member of the Von Erich children alive today it is only fitting that he kind of is the center of attention for this film. His character actually gets to play a key role in the films story and each and every tragedy that unfolds as we get to see not only every family member’s side in each tragic moment but in Kevin’s case we see how he handles the events and how much toll it puts on him. Now Kevin is the older brother in this film even though he is the 2nd oldest in the family. His brothers look up to him just like they look up to their father but there is an opposite side between Kevin and their father. While their father isn’t a terrible father, he is mentally abusive to his sons as the first time we see Jack talk to his sons at the kitchen table he gives a speech about where he ranks his sons. The fact that he is ranking his sons is insane but to say it out loud is a symbolism of emotional abuse. He wants his sons to be great wrestlers but also great men but he lashes out at them for their flaws and attacks them when they either mess up in the ring or calls them out when they do something he doesn’t like at home. Now once the father is not in the picture or in this case away from the boys they show their true sides and show emotion from either having a great time eating burgers and partying together to showing some true emotions to one another. Kevin being the older brother doesn’t like how hard Jack his to him or his brothers but he doesn’t bring it up to Jack because once again the years of emotional abuse from his father has kind of bubbled up his feelings and he can only just brush it off like it is nothing. He mentions to his mother about the way Jack is with his younger brother Mike but she herself brushes it off and says to not worry about it. Doris Von Erich’s character is completely different from Jack as she does show an emotional side and will let out some emotion but it’s only when Jack isn’t around. Kevin does the same thing as do the other brothers but for them it’s a bit different as they really take the grunt of the emotional abuse from their father. Now this is not me saying that Jack is a terrible father as he took care of his family and was always trying to get them to do the right things. Now unlike Jack, Kevin isn’t too hard on his brothers. Yes he wants them to succeed too and do great things but he doesn’t emotionally abuse his brothers. During his wedding, Kevin goes to the bathroom and hears his brother David puking. He then sees him puking up blood and tells him he needs to go to the doctor and not to go to Japan. Now had the father seen David puking up blood then maybe he would have said the same thing but Kevin being the role model for his brothers wanted his younger brother to see that he cares too much for his brother to see something bad happen to him. In this part of the film David Von Erich is going around the world wrestling Ric Flair and is set to go to Japan to face him for the World Title. Kevin’s lifelong dream is to win the World Title for him and his family but after failing to beat Harley Race in a match and seeing how much David has improved in the ring, Jack chooses David over Kevin to face Ric Flair. In my perspective of watching the film I don’t think this could be seen as emotional abuse but it also could be as Jack knew Kevin was the better wrestler and deserved it a bit more and probably knew it was his dream but he choose David because he was watching his oldest son fail and he used this moment against Kevin to either teach him a lesson or wanted to make him a better man. This now brings me up to my next portion of the review as while this film uses Kevin’s perspective in this film heavily, the film also shows the mentality of his brothers as well.
Michael and Kerry Von Erich both had tragic life changing accidents in the film and in real life, but for the film’s review I will mainly talk about the film’s version of said events. After the unfortunate death of David Von Erich in Japan, Jack made a coin flip on who would take David’s place to fight Ric Flair for the World Heavyweight Championship and Kerry won the coin flip and went on to defeat Ric Flair for the title. Kerry would then go ride on his motorcycle and would unfortunately get into a big accident. The next scene we are shown the aftermath as he is seen walking on crutches but also missing his right foot. Because of this accident, Kevin began to fear that the curse was truly real and legally changed his newborn son’s last name to Adkisson. Kevin also trains Mike to become a wrestler and then in the next scene we are shown a tag team match here Mike is actually doing a great job but he sustained a bad shoulder injury during his match and had to go into shoulder surgery. He would go into a tragic shock and into a coma during surgery and once he woke up from his coma it was pretty aware that he was dealing with brain damage. At this point of the film all three brothers are all dealing with each tragic event in their own way and in turn we see their mental states. Kevin is struggling to deal with everything he is witnessing and chooses to stay away from his wife and son because he doesn’t want the family curse to take over his family. He is obviously still grieving his brother David but with the addition to Mike and Kerry’s tragic accidents he is now mentally in a bad place and in his eyes wants to keep his family safe by distancing himself from them. Kerry gets a prosthetic leg and begins to train to come back into the ring. However we begin to see this very angry side of him as he is in pain physically and mentally from his accident and now having to re-learn something he loved to do and was very good at but this time with only one leg. I will come back to his sided a bit later. For Mike, his mentality is much scarier than his brothers. He is no longer himself mentally. He is afraid of whom he is becoming. He wants to be like his brothers but knows he can’t. In his eyes everyone wants him to be like his deceased brother David and try and replace him but in actuality he is dealing with the loss like his other brothers but also he is damaged mentally from the emotional abuse to failing at trying to live up to his family legacy. Mike later takes his own life and leaves a note to his family that says: “I’m sorry if I hurt you, but I’m going to a better place”. This is where the film takes a very deep and dark turn to depression and shows the true mental state of the brothers but also the family. We only see it in the mom and Kevin but for Kevin we see something even darker. He gets his World Title opportunity against Ric Flair but instead of trying to win the match, Kevin takes out his emotions and anger off on Ric Flair in the ring, uses the Iron Claw on Flair but doesn’t let go and almost injures him in the process. Kevin is hurting and struggling as he keeps losing his brothers from one tragic event to the next. He is grieving now for two brothers. He is worried that the curse is real and going to take over his family. He is mentally losing it but needs to keep it together for his family but in this match with Ric Flair he snaps and shows that anger. His father is disappointed and doesn’t even check to see if he is okay. This is where Kevin’s character slowly turns to this genuine person who will be a role model for his children. However while we talked more about Kevin and Mike’s mentality, we still have Kevin’s. And yes I did touch on it a bit, but the last 30 minutes of the film showed Kerry’s/Kevin’s full mentality and broke me.
Kerry becomes WWF Intercontinental Champion and goes back home to celebrate Christmas with his family but begins to show this dark angry side. Everyone brushes it off but Kevin doesn’t. He worries about his brother and asks him if he is okay to which Kerry responds to saying that he is fine. Kerry later calls his brother telling him he wants to kill himself due to his pain and burden of the family curse to the WWF not looking to resigning him as now he believes his career is declining. Kevin not knowing what to do calls his father and tells him to look after Kerry to which the father responds to saying that you boys are grown men and to deal with it yourself. Kevin goes back home to the ranch to find Kerry’s car in front and the front door open. He later hears a gunshot and finds his brother lying by a tree. Kerry shot himself in the heart and was found dead by his brother. Kevin out of anger yells at his father and beings to strangle his father in rage and almost kills him. He let’s go, but then takes his brother’s body inside and lays him on the dining room table. This part broke me as I am someone who deals with mental health issues and I always say to myself that I am hopeless and like Kerry I just want to sometimes die. Kerry couldn’t take the pressure anymore and like Kevin was still grieving the loss of his brothers and dealing with the loss of his right foot and struggling with his mental health. He only wanted to be with his brothers. After my father died I didn’t grieve his loss too well. I was struggling myself and then more shit happened to me mentally from being stuck in my basement for a week with my demons where all I wanted to do was be with my girlfriend at the time and see my dad to then learning that my girlfriend at the time not only cheated on me but was using me the whole time, that hit me mentally and all I wanted to do was give up. So I understood Kerry at that moment and knew what he was going through mentally. I even understood what Kevin was going through mentally. I watched my father rapidly get worse day after day and couldn’t do anything to make it better. My anger began to come out and instead of dealing with it the right way or seeing someone I took it out on others and myself. The scene of Kerry’s suicide broke me mentally and I was in tears in that movie theater. I don’t usually spoil endings of films but the last scene in the film broke me as well and really got me in my emotions later that week. Kevin watches his sons, Ross and Marshall, playing football in the yard. As he watches we see Kevin crying and it is then noticed by his sons. They run to him to see if he is okay and tell him it’s okay to cry. They then ask why he is crying and his response is I used to be a brother and now I am no longer a brother. That moment right there broke me entirely and I have experienced that personally. Father’s day in 2022, 2 weeks after my father passed away I was working watching people come into my store and saw a father playing with his son. I couldn’t look away as I was stuck on the two playing. Once they walked away I went into a corner and almost began to breakdown. I know what it is like to lose someone close to you and knowing that you no longer will be that person with someone. At that moment I was saying to myself I wish I was still with my dad and wishing I was still a son, just like Kevin wising he too was still a brother just like his sons. Kevin was finally able to show his pain and emotions in this final scene and his family, his children, were there to comfort him and let him show his emotions. Kevin never had that with his father. He was told by his father to never cry because men don’t cry. This scene perfectly shows the burden and heartbreak Kevin was holding onto and how badly he wanted to let it go and in this final scene in the movie he finally can let go of his pain but also let go of his burden. Not only that but as a father to his boys he could finally show true emotions. Now, a father himself, he tells his boys that same thing as he is crying and they say it’s okay to cry dad, everyone cries. This moment right here was a beautiful moment that perfectly ended a tragic heartbreaking movie in the upmost positive way.
The Iron Claw was such a beautiful movie from beginning to end. The first hour showed the beginning success for Kevin and his brothers to becoming success stories in huge matches against The Fabulous Freebirds to also showing the relationship between Kevin and Pam. The 2nd hour would then become the more tragic/heartbreaking film that many people heard about. This film really showed the heart and soul of why Sean Durkin wanted to make this movie. He was a huge fan of wrestling back when he was a child and he was very saddened by the Von Erich’s deaths. In a way this was kind of a passion project for Durkin to make and I think he hit a home run with this film. I loved the cinematography for this film as there was heavy usage of what appears to be handheld camera shots and I loved the attention to detail with certain shots including Kevin Von Erich running the ropes and the shot with showing Kerry’s accident aftermath was well done. I loved the music and score for this film as it had 70’s/80’s Rock vibes but also true American Grit vibes, which if you didn’t know the Von Erich family was simply straight out of Texas so they pretty much defined southern Texas wrestling. Finally I need to give props to the cast. A lot of them did great but a couple of standouts need to be recognized. First off need to talk about Jeremy Allen White’s performance as Kerry Von Erich. I didn’t know much about Kerry Von Erich or any of the Von Erich’s with exception of their tragedies but it felt amazing to learn more and seeing his performance and going from zero to 100 with the pain and anger and later deep depression was phenomenal. I’ve seen his work in The Bear and been watching his work since Shameless and this could be very well considered one of his best works in his career. But I also need to talk about the star of the show, Zac Efron. Efron killed it in this movie. This is honestly his greatest work ever in his career. I’ve been watching Zac Efron since he played Troy Bolton in High School Musical and man has he grown into such a great actor. The fact that he didn’t get nominated in the Academy Awards or Golden Globes or pretty much any film awards is shocking because he made this role his own. He went far and beyond with this role and showed so much passion for the role. The last time I saw so much passion for a wrestling character role was Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, which is one of my favorite films of all time, but in here Zac Efron did more than just play Kevin Von Erich, he played a loving brother who was kind of like a role model for his brothers. He played a son who is struggling to be as successful as his father once was. He played a husband who is mentally unwell with the loss of his brothers and their curse is emotionally draining him to the point where he distances himself from his wife and child just to keep the so call curse away but at the same time he also plays a husband/father who loves his family and will do anything to help support them. Zac Efron needs more recognition for this role and I guarantee you many others are saying the same thing. This movie simply put isn’t perfect but it is one hell of a beautiful piece of cinema. I understand not adding in Chris Von Erich or some other details in the Von Erich family being missing but in the end of the day this film perfectly shows the balance of who the Von Erich’s were and the tragedies that unfolded in their lives.
The film literally didn’t have to keep hitting us with so many tragedies but yet it did. From David’s sudden death to Kerry’s motorcycle accident to Mike’s injury to his suicide to Kevin’s heartbreaking attack to Ric Flair to Kerry taking his own life, this film wouldn’t give us a second to breathe with all the tragedies as that was pretty much the point. They started the film with showing the successes and achievements with little sprinkles of tragedies but come the 1st hour being completed Durkin said time to fuck up the crowd’s mood and broke out the heavy artillery. I mentioned it earlier that this film broke me and made me think about life and almost end mine and I’m here to say that I almost did. I wouldn’t say it’s the film’s fault but it awoken something inside of me that made me see my demons again. Since my father’s passing I have had on and off moments with my mental health. I won’t go into great detail about it but what I can say is I am lucky to be alive. What I will share is what I went through. Just like Kerry, I wanted to be with the one person I really needed the most, my dad. I was missing him obviously but this was the first time since his passing where I didn’t want to be alive anymore and I was getting ready to let go and give up. I was working and doing fine and then all of a sudden something happened to my mental state. I began having an anxiety attack at work and it kept getting worse. Luckily a co-worker noticed and asked me if I was okay. I said no and she hugged me tight and I then broke down on my break. I hid from everyone and tried my best to not show myself breaking down. For the rest of the day my co-worker not only took care of me but made sure I wasn’t alone. Once I left work I took the train home but wasn’t fully myself. I walked home soon after and was broke down again. At 1-3 am I broke down some more and was on the phone with not only that co-worker but suicide hotline. I kept saying I wanted to be with my dad and wanted to end it all and that’s when I decided I needed to get help and I did. Watching The Iron Claw as said before broke me and I could not begin to express how much this film might possibly break others. I went to see this film a week before it came out and I watched others look and sound heartbroken from a lady in tears after Kerry’s suicide to hearing nothing but silence after the film ended. This movie broke the entire theater. I know I pretty much went in depth with the film and explained more my story of mental health but I needed to do this in order to explain why I loved this film so much and why it broke me. This film used mental health in a very heartbreaking way as the father, Fritz Von Erich, created the move “The Iron Claw” but the move symbolizes the father’s strength and nature on top of his sons and how his psychological shade put so much on these boys mentally and physically. Now I’m not blaming the father for the tragic events that happened but I will say he is a factor of what led to all the boys to become the men they were. Kevin was the loving future father figure of the bunch as he went on to be the family’s patriarchy. David was the next future star of wrestling but also the most athletic of the bunch. Kerry was the most gifted as he was the father’s favorite at one point but he also was skilled with doing anything and could had been one of the greatest of all time. Mike was the most caring of the bunch as while he wasn’t as athletic in the ring like his brothers (in the film not in real life), he showed his passion in music. All 4 brothers became success stories but with success still came questioning if you are any good and will be any good like the man before you and all 4 wanted to be just like their father but they knew they couldn’t. It definitely put a dark cloud on all of them and in some cases it ended up really bad for them too. This film didn’t get everything correct and missed out a few big details but in the end of the day nobody is perfect. This film gave light to the Von Erich family and showed many new people who knew nothing about them who they were, what their story was and what led them to their successes and downfalls. I went into this movie loving wrestling and knowing what I knew about the family and I left the theater still loving wrestling, knowing much more about the family and wanting to learn much more but also learning more about myself as well. You can’t always get what you want in life but you should be so damn happy what you do receive in this life because you only live once and this film kind of breathes that message a little bit in my eyes. This film was never going to be a perfect film but even with a little bit of nip picks, I still find it to be a beautifully, perfect film.
Final Rating: 93% out of 100, 4.5 out of 5 Stars
If you know anyone who is struggling with their mental health and feeling suicidal or even if you are having thoughts of suicide, please contact the suicide hotline number by dialing 988
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