Clayface has been promoted as a horror movie that just happens to be set in the DC Universe. It is, however, so much more than that. Much like the titular Batman villain that inspired it, the movie morphs continually. So while it is a horror movie, it is not simply one kind of horror movie. It is also, while being a horror movie, a neo-noir thriller, a psychodrama, and a supervillain origin story.
The movie centers around actor Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), who worked his way out of the slums of Gotham City to become an Academy Award nominee. Unfortunately, a one-night-stand with the wrong woman leads to Matt being dramatically disfigured by an up-and-coming gangster. With the ever-corrupt GCPD refusing to act and his civil suit shot down, Matt is soon left bankrupt and bereft as his best friends and business associates hang him out to dry.
Hope arrives in the unlikely form of Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who is pioneering a new process to regenerate damaged tissue. With her funding gone, she’s as desperate to keep her project going as Matt Hagen is to regain his looks. Their partnership leads to unintended consequences after Matt overdoses on his prescribed treatment and the side effects transform him into something both more and less than human. Something that can get revenge on everyone who ruined his life…
Strangely enough, Clayface takes sparingly little from the Batman comics, where there have been at least eight villains who used the Clayface name. It’s main inspiration is the “Feat of Clay” episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. Indeed, Marv Wolfman (who wrote the teleplay) is given special thanks in the film credits, along with Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. However, the screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini goes far beyond copying that story beat for beat.
Yes, the actor who becomes Clayface is Matt Hagen rather than Basil Karlo. But the science that transforms him is different. So are the circumstances that drive him to seek a miracle cure. And while there are a number of visual references to that classic cartoon in how Matt Hagen threatens his enemies, the screenplay find many ways to build upon that base to make something new.
One way it does this is by not limiting itself to a single form of horror. Naturally, the body horror of Matt Hagen’s transformation is the most prominent, and if the practical effects team do not win the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling it will be a crime against art. Yet there are elements of slasher horror, as Matt goes to increasingly monstrous means seeking revenge. At its core, however, Clayface is a good, old-fashioned monster movie, in the same vein as Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein and The Invisible Man.
Indeed, Tom Rhys Harries’ puts me in mind of Vincent Price at the height of his powers. Price once said, when asked about playing villainous characters so often, that “I don’t play monsters. I play men besieged by fate and out for revenge.” Harries adopts the same approach in playing Matt Hagen, who is deeply sympathetic while being far from innocent. And yet, that sympathy provokes another level of horror, as the audience realizes that Hagen’s empowerment may have revealed an evil entitlement rather than slowly corrupting him.
Naomi Ackie adds yet another level to the proceedings as the scientist who finds her life’s work going out of control. Even before Hagen’s transformation she fears losing all she has built as he has. This adds to their relationship, even as she starts to feel more and more like Dr. Frankenstein than Marie Curie.
More than any other DC Studios production to date, Clayface proves the premise of James Gunn’s vision for a DCU built on a variety of visions. Much as DC Comics was built on multiple characters and tones, the new universe is built on many characters and genres. It seems fitting then that Clayface should succeed as a film on many levels, for it is a great film on every level.
