A Horrifyingly Pleasant Exploration for The Superhero Genre (DC's Clayface review)

 

Yet another entry in James Gunn's DCU, the decision to make a movie set in the infamous Gotham before introducing the infamous detective himself was interesting, even if not surprising, given Gunn's fixation on the weirder, slightly obscure characters in the comic book medium. Clayface, a scarcely remembered addition to Batman's rogues gallery, is given his own movie, promised to be the superhero genre's first full foray into horror.

The premise follows Matt Hagen (played by Tom Rhys Harries), an actor whose face is mutilated by a crime boss right after he reaches the peak of his career, is fixated on returning himself to his former glory, and enlists the help of scientist Dr. Caitlin Bates (played by Naomi Ackie) in an experiment that enables Matt to become malleable and dangerous in his journey to gaining back the outlet for praise he desperately craves. 

In depth, Clayface runs around the theme of validation, something many may agree is very present in the psychology of someone pursuing a career in the entertainment business. Harries's portrayal of the character is no different, as validation takes him to a place where he, to an extent, abuses that power and suffers the consequences in an excruciatingly unforgiving way. The validation is restored when he misconstrues possession with gratitude, trying to gain favor and possibly love through Ackie's Caitlin, when her nanotechnology makes Matt return to his former glory but ultimately heightens his anger and rage into a shape-shifting, fast-healing, face-melting monster. 

Director James Watkins leans into the horror elements in ways only seen in a body-horror flick that does not surpass, but is inspired by, The Substance. But with some liberties of what I thought were great visual effects, despite its low budget, there are enough squirmy and icky sequences and surprising methods of murder; what is presented here is done for no necessary reason other than to have the audience cover their faces. The lack of gothic aesthetics could have heightened the cinematography that fit the tone. However, the surprising inclusion of a seemingly unrequited, Beauty-and-the-Beast-esque dark romance between Matt and Caitlin somewhat made up for it; although problematic, it is the driving force behind the film's darker choices that feed this villain origin story. 

Speaking to that, this villain origin story, unlike the Sony Spider-Man villain films, does not downgrade Matt to an anti-hero. Matt Hagen's Monte Cristo-like plot proves that he is a cold-blooded, sociopathic, almost megalomaniac murderer; there is no path for redemption, and he proves himself a worthy adversary to some version of the Batman we have yet to see in this universe. 

There are several points that could have been added to the script to improve this film. It is surprising that, with a script written by Mike Flanagan, there weren't explicit, metaphor-driven nuances that would further feed the illusion of Matt Hagen's relatability; even so, several aspects of the narrative still made for an entertaining movie. Knowing that the script was further edited by Hossein Amini after Flanagan's scheduling conflicts showed that Flanagan's attempts to flesh out the psychologies he is known for are peeking through the surface of a very trimmed-down, at times affective, but sometimes predictable script. 

There are very few references to the Gotham presented here, a city known to look a certain way, and every iteration of it pays homage to the various people famously established in the Batman lore, but they are not found here, sadly. Aside from mentions of GCPD and what I think they call Lucas Heights, if I remember correctly, Gotham's recognizable attributes are replaced by those of just any other city in the United States. 

Clayface is everything a villain-led origin story should be: it works and is enjoyable, especially for the Halloween season. Fans of this fresh start for the franchise might be a little disappointed, but that sets Clayface apart from being bogged down by the DCU world-building and allows it to be a standalone horror film in the midst of what I have been considering an age of the Horror-renaissance in modern movie-going.