Clayface teaser leans full body horror as DC gets weird
A sharp turn into horror
If you are picking superpowers, you are not choosing to be Clayface. Flying around like Superman or punching meteors sounds great. Turning into a melting lump of sentient clay? Less appealing. And judging by the first teaser for DC’s upcoming Clayface, it is every bit as unpleasant as it sounds.
The film marks a pretty sharp pivot for DC Studios, which is fresh off launching its new universe with Superman and gearing up for Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Instead of another caped adventure, this one dives headfirst into body horror, and not in a subtle way.
The teaser introduces Matt Hagen, played by Tom Rhys Harries, an actor who finds himself brutally disfigured and desperate enough to try something experimental to fix it. That “something” comes courtesy of a scientist played by Naomi Ackie, and, well, it does not exactly go to plan. Faces melt. Features disappear. At one point, he is basically wiping his own face off like it is made of wet cement. Grim.
If you are familiar with the comics, you will know Clayface has always been one of Batman’s stranger villains, dating back to his debut in 1940. Originally a washed-up actor turned criminal, the character eventually evolved into a full-on shape-shifting nightmare, able to mould himself into pretty much anything. The film looks like it is leaning heavily into that later, more grotesque version.
Behind the camera, there is some serious pedigree. James Watkins is directing, fresh off Speak No Evil, while the script comes from Mike Flanagan, who knows his way around horror, alongside Hossein Amini. It also helps that the supporting cast includes the reliably solid Eddie Marsan and Max Minghella.
Interestingly, this was not even part of the original plan. James Gunn has said the studio did not intend to make a Clayface film at all, until Flanagan turned in a script that was apparently too good to ignore. Which explains why this feels a bit different from the usual shared universe setup. It looks more like a standalone origin story in the vein of Joker, just with a lot more… melting.
Whether Clayface ends up tying neatly into the wider DCU or just exists as its own weird corner of it remains to be seen. Either way, it is shaping up to be a very different kind of comic book film. Less saving the world, more trying to keep your face attached.
It lands in cinemas on the 23rd October, which feels about right.
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