With the news that Skydance has canned James Gunn we should perhaps be grateful for things like Clayface, but even while it has its moments of humanity, the energy of the project feels a little lackluster compared to other DCU projects like Superman or even Supergirl. Now that the future of DC superhero filmmaking is in flux it’s hard to tell if this was trying to be anything other than a goopy gross body horror for babies thriller. And if that’s all it was, it was baseline successful at the attempt.
Clayface follows the tragic tale of one Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), up and coming Hollywood actor, fresh off his first ever Acadamy Award nomination. Hagen unfortunately flies too close to the sun and becomes involved with a woman that is currently dating a mafia boss within the crime infested streets of the notrious Gotham City. To make sure Hagen learns his lesson Marko Szabos (David Dencik) disfigures his face to such a degree that he is unbookable amongst the shallow waters of the Hollywood elite. To make matters worse Szabos speads vicious rumors about the actor to make sure he is summarily cancelled, dredging up his past relationships and sending Hagen into a depressed psychosis.
In an attempt to claw his way back Hagen teams up with scientist Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) who is at the cutting edge of an untested medical breakthru involving nanobots that can cure any illness and heal any wound. Though Corr is engaged the two begin to have a flirtation, spending long hours alone together during the treatments. Eventually Hagen’s face is healed, but along with the healing comes startling new abilites, a skill to reforge his flesh into any shape, be it liquid, another person, or the familiar form of the Batman villain Clayface.
This movie gets the gore and goop correct, if nothing else. There are truly gut wrenching moments of Hagen shaping his visage into frightening forms, cutting digits off, sawing through a layer of skin that formed over his mouth and eyes. This is exactly the kind of terror that body horror fans want to see, and a live action rendition of the Clayface origin story. Much of the bulk of Clayface is based around the two part episode of Batman: The Animated Series, Feat of Clay something that Mike Flanagan has copped to being a major source of inspiration for his script. But leaning further into the R rating, and allowing the blood, bones, and sinew being stitched together by the monstrous pile of sand hits exactly right.
The only real mistake is that the film seems to steer away from is the Grade A Mike Flanagan stuff that he put into that script with purpose. There’s a beat of “the male loneliness epidemic” that feels more important than the film wants to give time to. The unrequited love that Hagen has for Dr. Corr, and the ways in which he pursues that is the kind of contemporary tilt that we’ve grown to expect from Flanagan. Hagen’s descent from fame and glory is, after all, partially created by his own actions. His further descent after he is disfigured is objectively done by himself. He pursues his former glory, and his inability to accept rejection from the world, and more importantly from a woman he has a crush on causes all of his suffering. All of that plotline is there, and Naomi Ackie is a star when given the ability to do so. But you have to squint to see the subplot shine through. Most of the film is more focused on the run of the mill origin story, and an (albeit pretty fun) raid on Szabos night club.
It does seem like a movie that’s halfway there, that with a little more time, a little more care it could’ve been a horror movie that would be thrown on again and again. But instead we get a not entirely unnotable chapter of the now doomed DCU. A footnote in what’s probably going to be a brief four movie franchise due to the powers that be. Not unlike Szabos, David Ellison has taken his switch blade and disfigured Warner Brothers and the DCU to the point that their chances of success are slim to none. Hopefully at least the descent into madness is gross and goopy.
3/5
