Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: James Watkins
Starring: Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan, Nancy Carroll, Joshua James
I have to confess to harbouring a considerable degree of skepticism when DC announced that they would be following up Supergirl with a horror movie in Clayface. I imagined it would be a horror movie in the way nerds compare the Captain America movies to '70s conspiracy thrillers. Surely DC are after the widest audience possible, thus avoiding the sort of horror material that would garner restrictive ratings?
Within 10 minutes of Clayface I was eating my hat, as by that point the movie had already presented me not only with a surprising level of unflinching violence, but also nudity. Credit to DC, they've hired a director in James Watkins who isn't known for pulling his punches (his Eden Lake might be this century's most disturbing mainstream movie). The story is from Carrie's Mike Flanagan, who co-writes with Hossein Amini, writer of Nicholas Winding Refn's violent thriller Drive. You can't argue with those credentials for bloody mayhem.
The lead role goes to Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries, who gets a chance to repeat his brooding disfigured hunk act after his recent role in the Welsh language drama Effi o Blaenau. He plays Matt Hagen, a rising pretty boy movie star who has just received his first Oscar nomination. Matt's life and career are ruined when he sleeps with the girlfriend of Gotham City mobster Markos Szabo (Davis Dencik), who carves up Matt's handsome face in retaliation. Without his looks to fall back on, Matt's acting days are over, and he is forced to move back to the tough neighbourhood he previously escaped.
Matt sees hope when he learns of Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), a scientist who has made significant breakthroughs with experimental cell regeneration. After some initial reluctance, and feeling sorry for the John Merrick lookalike, Caitlyn agrees to allow Matt to become her guinea pig. The experiments appear to work, with Matt's matinee idol looks miraculously returning. But of course, there's a catch. Matt's looks disappear whenever he has negative thoughts, and in extreme cases he can shapeshift into the image of his enemies like a living, breathing deepfake.
The movie finds just the right tone to sell its ridiculous premise. Its tongue is in its cheek to some degree, but never to the point of parody. Clayface bears the influence of the late low budget filmmaking master Larry Cohen, with its low rent version of Gotham (in this case Liverpool) resembling the scuzzy New York of Cohen's films. A standalone story that requires no knowledge of any wider universe, it could be set in the world of Maniac Cop as much as DC.
Clayface makes clever use of its antihero's unique powers, with Matt shifting into a variety of his enemies as he takes them out one by one. With its backdrop of the cutthroat world of the movie business, Matt's revenge antics mirror those of Vincent Price's scorned thespian in the British camp classic Theatre of Blood. You'll be relieved to hear that Clayface shuns the sort of overlong and overblown climax superhero movies are known for, Watkins instead delivering a swift and intense nightclub set-piece that sees Matt switch back and forth between multiple personas.
While the effects appear to be CG, they do a good job of mimicking the rubbery effects of old. Watkins even does the old trick of having his leading man transform while walking behind pillars like Lon Chaney Jnr in the Wolfman movies, or while behind frosted glass. It somehow makes the effect seem more convincing, and it avoids the inevitable comparisons to Michael Jackson's Black and White video that might arise if the transformations were presented full on.
Harries and Ackie have credible chemistry but the movie doesn't offer a simplified romance. Ackie's Caitlin is engaged to John (Max Minghella), who happens to be the cop investigating Matt's rampage of revenge. Clayface commendably doesn't take the easy route of making John an asshole, rather he's a genuinely good guy. Matt, on the other hand, becomes increasingly unhinged.
Where Clayface does stumble is in facing the problem of every superhero movie, i.e. the protagonist is never in any real danger from their foes. Such are Matt's abilities that we never feel Szabo and his goons pose him any real threat. The movie could have compensated for this by putting Caitlin in more substantial danger, from both Szabo and Matt himself.
As this is essentially the origin story of a villain, the movie has to turn Matt into the bad guy by the end, but it does so in unconvincing fashion. Matt is so sympathetic throughout that his late turn to villainy feels forced. As the lead of his own movie, Matt/Clayface is an engaging presence, but if the goal is to set him up for a clash with Batman further down the road, I'm not sure he's a strong enough character.
Clayface is in UK/ROI cinemas from October 23rd.
