MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CLAYFACE
The body-horror superhero flick Clayface came to theatres last Friday and left me… unsatisfied. With a fairly straightforward screenplay by Mike Flanagan and decent visual storytelling from director James Watkins, I had a good time with the movie. It was fun for what it was, but afterward I was left wanting more and had a bit of a woke-warrior moment over a creative choice.
The catalyst for Matt Hagen’s (played by the film’s highlight, Tom Rhys Harries) story was a false accusation; even if you didn’t notice it at first, I promise it is. After the superstar actor gets an Oscar nomination, Hagen goes on a press tour in Gotham City. That night, he goes to a club where he spots an attractive woman dancing at the bar. He goes to make a move on her, then takes acid with her.
Hagen’s friend warns him that she’s in a relationship; Hagen shrugs it off, saying, “Not tonight.” This woman, Theresa (Ruby Sear), is a crime boss’ girlfriend, as Hagen finds out the next morning when a group of thugs carve up his face in the most brutal fashion possible.
At this point, I didn’t feel like that was a bad setup for the disfigurement and the story as a whole. It showed Hagen wasn’t a good guy, but it also made you feel some sympathy for him, which is what you want in a film like this. What threw me off was that the film goes out of its way to show Theresa lying, claiming Hagen raped her, then has Hagen call her out on it—but nobody believes him.
Hagen goes to get experimental facial surgery not just because he feels ugly or self-conscious, but because he loses his career in acting. He loses this, as the movie says directly, because of a smear campaign done to his character by the crime boss and Theresa. His new face is tied to the way people see his inner self.
Hagen took Theresa home while he knew she was on drugs and in a relationship. The movie even shows Hagen kill her in the third-act fight sequence in an act of triumph.
That felt GROSS.
The movie did not need to write a woman lying about being raped; it feels so unnecessary and oblivious to write a script like this.
The film suggests that the consequences of your actions are what make you grow; when someone commits a wrong and doesn’t face the consequences, they’ll never learn from it. I get that choice. It works and makes sense for a story about a comic book villain who might, down the road, have to fight Batman. You see him make a bad choice again and again, which shows he will probably do it once more in the future before Batman stops him.
Throughout the film, we see Hagen falling in love with his doctor, Catlin Bates (played well by Naomi Ackie), who ‘fixed’ his face after the disfigurement, even though she has a fiancé.
It isn’t all bad, though; the very existence of this movie is exciting as a comic movie fan. DC is showing they are willing to follow through with weird ideas that aren’t your average superhero blockbuster, like Lanterns (2026) and now Clayface. I’m very into their plan to explore creative ideas, and this movie is that in many ways. If anything, I wish they had gone deeper into the concept.
Clayface was heavily marketed as a body horror movie, and it is, but not a good one. What I love about body horror movies like The Thing (1982), Eraserhead (1977), and Alien (1979) is the unease it has throughout the whole film; it’s uncomfortable to sit in, you keep thinking what might happen next, and feel queasy and you want it to stop, but in a good way.
Clayface doesn’t have this; it has moments with those feelings, but in between it’s just two people in a room talking about what I just saw on screen, and I don’t need that. I just saw it happen like two seconds ago. It also doesn’t add to the tension. If anything, it brings it to a screeching halt.
Overall, you should watch it to form your own opinion, but I was let down. It had a lot of untapped potential that I hope DC Studios tries again in future projects.
