Critical popcorn

In a year in which horror films including Obsession, Backrooms and Resident Evil are topping the box office charts, it seems like a good time for the freshly rebooted DC Universe to expand its comic book franchise into the horror genre. Enter Clayface: an origin story for the memorable Batman villain reimagined as a grotesque body horror tale.

While Clayface isn’t the first supervillain film from a comic book franchise, these kinds of entries have been something of a mixed bag. The first Joker film was a critical and commercial success, but its sequel didn’t fare nearly as well, while the likes of Venom, Morbius and Kraven the Hunter were reworked into underwhelming anti-heroes. A rare example of a successful villain-centric story (which also allows its main character to be evil) is The Penguin – the HBO miniseries spin-off from Matt Reeves’ The Batman, executive produced by Reeves himself. Interestingly, Reeves is also a producer on Clayface alongside DCU architect (and Superman director) James Gunn, and with a script co-written by Mike Flanagan (of The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass fame), has Clayface been moulded into a great supervillain outing?

The story sees successful actor Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) run afoul of a local mob boss (David Dencik) leading to his face being violently sliced open in revenge (yep, it goes there). As his acting career crumbles around him and conventional surgeries fail to help, Hagen turns to Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) who has been developing an experimental procedure which could repair his face. However, it’s not long before the side-effects kick in for Hagen, leading to a revenge rampage unlike any other.

For anyone wondering whether DC Studios would hold back on the body horror elements to appeal to a family audience, Clayface really doesn’t, easily earning its 18 certificate. A particularly horrible sequence sees Hagen attempt to reopen his eyes in an airplane toilet…with scissors…while the plane is going through turbulence. Suffice it to say that it was this moment in particular that made this reviewer wince. While this emphasis on gore and violence gives the film its bite, it’s not an entirely moody affair, building a will-they-won’t-they romance between Hagen and Dr. Corr as well as a nice bromance with his best friend (Joshua James) – all before the inevitable final transformation.

Clayface does suffer from being simply an origin story for the character, resulting in an ending which tries to bring a sense of closure to a narrative which will presumably be continued in a Batman film later down the line. The script (written by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini) can feel a little blunt at times, lacking in nuance but also in interesting world-building. While it’s nice that Clayface remains a completely standalone story, it is odd that despite its franchise connections, there is seemingly no Batman in this version of Gotham, and the city itself doesn’t have quite the same sense of personality seen in other films.

Tom Rhys Harries does a great job as Matt Hagen, managing to make the character likable enough to keep the story engaging but not so likable that his shift towards more violent compulsions doesn’t feel completely out of the blue. Naomi Ackie is very charming as Dr. Caitlyn Corr, who serves as an emotional anchor throughout the film, while the rest of the cast equip themselves admirably in fairly standard cop/mob roles.

Alongside the aforementioned body horror elements, director James Watkins injects the film with some fun moments showing off Clayface’s powers (a nightclub attack is particularly entertaining), although the transformation effects remain underwhelming and a little inconsistent. Rob Hardy’s cinematography pushes some bold primary colours to give the film a more comic book-inspired aesthetic, although the decision to shoot in a wider 2.76:1 aspect ratio robs some of the smaller scenes of their intimacy. It’s a very distinct look for a comic book movie, and it’s great that Wakins and Hardy were determined to lens Gotham differently to other recent incarnations, but it doesn’t always compliment the Mise-en-scène. Volker Bertelmann brings a brooding, sombre sound to the score (which in places felt evocative of Hildur Guðnadóttir’s soundtrack to Joker), while the visual effects work remains solid throughout the film (it’s great that Clayface’s final form hasn’t been revealed in the marketing).

Overall, Clayface is a pretty good horror outing for the DCU. The experiment in genre in one that’s well worth repeating, although the determination to make villain films without a hero for them to face off against leads to a somewhat underwhelming ending. It’s got some strong moments, and at a brisk 108 minutes never outstays its welcome, although it falls short of being truly great. Clayface may not be perfectly sculpted, but there’s some fun, stomach-churning body horror sequences to please audiences looking for something spooky this Halloween.

Clayface is in UK cinemas from 23 October