DC Studios has set out to ensure that their projects don’t feel similar to one another. Every now and again, people love to bring up comic book movie fatigue, but I like to believe that people just want projects that offer something they haven’t viewed before within the medium. I can confidently say that they’ve lived up to this, with Creature Commandos, Superman, Supergirl, and Lanterns all feeling different from each other. Now with their third film, Clayface, they’ve set themselves far from anything they’ve ever developed. This is a film that doesn’t feel like your conventional comic book movie, and it also doesn’t straight up feel like your conventional horror film, but it’s crafted with the intention for both fans to enjoy and newcomers to be welcomed along.
What’s most impressive about Clayface is that it’s a story that focuses on the origins of one of Batman’s most famed villains. Instead of taking this character and turning him into an anti-hero that you can sell to the public, Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini stick to the routes of the character. Clayface follows Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), an actor who recently was nominated for an Academy Award, but after crossing paths with a mob boss, finds himself with a disfigured face and comes across Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who might be able to restore his beauty or forever change how people look at him.
It’s a story about an innocent man who befalls tragedy and loses control of who he actually is. Clayface has been advertised as a horror, and it’s without a doubt a body horror straight to its core. Watkins doesn’t shy away from this or beat around the bush. He delivers visuals that are brutal, grotesque, and viscerally raw. There are simply moments where you want to turn your head from the screen as Hagen’s face is being cut or as his face begins to melt when the procedure goes wrong.
Matt Hagen is such a fascinating character that you can’t help but be drawn to during this film. With Superman, we had a character who brought hope into the world, who saw his way of doing good as the best way, despite what the news may say or the government. Superman is a character that has the good intentions of the people in his heart. Clayface tells a more personal story with Hagen. All because of one incident, he’s lost his career, his friends, his respect and dignity, but most importantly, his identity.
Hagen slowly transforms into a being that can become anyone. It comes to a point in the film where you can’t trust who he is, and the writing does allow for some well-earned shocks and surprises with who Matt Hagen chooses to transform into. He slowly loses who he once was and begins transforming into whoever is most convenient. Clayface turns into this revenge film, and what works about it so well is that while at first, he’s taking down people who wronged him, he starts to lose sight of the line between good and evil as innocent people get thrown into the crossfire and Hagen’s morals soon become nonexistent. As someone that was simply watching the film, I went from being in support of Hagen to slowly not being able to agree with his actions as a cluster of people who had no involvement began getting dragged in.
Matt Hagen is a complex character, and getting to watch his decline is what saves Clayface from being just another predictable gangster film. It’s the fact that this move is set within a grander universe that includes the likes of Superman and Supergirl that makes this impressive, as it sets itself apart from the two and highlights the type of quality that can be expected from DC Studios going forward. Tom Rhys Harries brings a charm to Hagen that works while also showcasing the menacing, villainous half that devours him over the course of the film.
The third act delivers what might easily be the best sequence out of the DCU as we find ourselves in a club with Hagen slipping in and out of various people as he makes his way to his intended goal. There’s nothing better than a dance sequence that’s thrown into the chaos of a bloodbath, and Rhys Harries delivers with his performance that brings the nuance that’s needed for a complex, layered character like Matt Hagen.
The body horror excels with Clayface thanks to the practical effects and the VFX that’s blended with it. There are a few moments here and there where the VFX is at its weakest, and they easily could’ve opted for more practical work, which would’ve landed a greater effect with the horror. Ultimately, Clayface doesn’t take itself too far with the horror and injects just the right amount that will have you wanting to cover your eyes, which is balanced with the outstanding performances from Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie, which will just pull you straight back in, not wanting to miss a single second.
Although it’s set in the DCU and not Matt Reeves’s Epic Crime Saga, Reeves is still attached to the project as an executive producer, and Clayface feels like a Gotham crime story straight to its core. With Matt Hagen being a character that originally grew up in Gotham and was able to make it out of poverty, it feels like we’re seeing the city from his point of view. It’s grimy, devoid of all life and color, and feels like a last resort for anyone living there, but occasionally there’s some beauty to be found within the city, which Rob Hardy brings to life with his stunning cinematrography.
What really helps Clayface as a movie is that it doesn’t rely on references surrounding Gotham’s mythology for audiences to enjoy the film. It trusts that they’re here to watch a movie about a man who has lost his identity without having the need to reference Batman. It allows for the audience to remain engaged with the story being told without ever once being taken out of it. While it’s unfortunate that we don’t spend enough time with Matt Hagen’s final form, it shows that their intention was never to create a film that was solely targeted at comic book fans who could point and clap at the movie when they notice something they recognize from the comics.
Clayface isn’t just simply a horror film. It blends itself with romance as we watch Matt Hagen helplessly fall in love with his maker, Dr. Caitlyn Corr. This is a story we’ve seen a million times and one we’ve even seen in the realm of DC, but the performances and chemistry between Rhys Harries and Ackies is what makes their relationship such a tragic catastrophe. Flanagan and Amini deliver a story that’s as brutal and twisted as its visuals. There’s no happy ending in place for its characters, and as the credits roll, it leaves you wondering if there’s even such a thing as love or hope. It delivers the complete opposite effect of Superman and Supergirl, and it’s what continues to help Clayface stand out and give the people faith in what James Gunn and Peter Safran have in plan for the DCU.
Clayface isn’t just unlike any DC film we’ve gotten before. It’s unlike any comic book movie we’ve ever gotten and rises to the top as the best DC film to come out of DC Studios. It’s exactly the reassurance that fans needed after the disappointment that was Supergirl. This is how a movie that trusts the faith of its creatives should turn out.
If you’re a horror fan, a DC fan, or simply just a movie lover, Clayface offers something for everyone. It’s not your average comic book movie, and it might be the film you need to give you faith in the medium and trust the process. In the end, Clayface is a horrifying but phenomenal entry for DC Studios.
