James Gunn’s DCU is about to launch its first horror movie, Clayface. Horror and comics have been intertwined since the first comics boom of the ’40s and ’50s. EC Comics and titles like Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror became iconic with their creepy covers and detailed interior art. Crime, horror, romance, and superheroes all competed for shelf space on the comic rack. Backlash from parental groups led to the Comics Code Authority in 1954, effectively banishing the genre books from shops. Eventually, the scares would find their way back into comics through ostensibly superhero stories like Swamp Thing. As comic book movies have become more popular, those original horror vibes have also been seeded. Films like Blade, New Mutants, and even Batman Begins have used horror elements to tell their comic book-inspired stories, but surprisingly, few have gone the full horror route until now.
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Warner Bros. just dropped a new look at Clayface in a short promo spot. The film will follow actor Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) as he undergoes experimental procedures to recover his face after an attack. The experiments work, but at a cost, as the actor’s skin becomes pliable. The advert gives us quick glimpses of Hagen losing control of his malleable skin and terrifying his dance partner at a club. The imagery reinforces why the movie got DCU’s first R rating. We then learn in ominous dialogue from Naomi Ackie’s Dr. Bates that Matt can control the powers enough to change his face. The final shots of the trailer, though, give us our first hints at Hagen becoming the bulky mud monster DC fans are waiting for. The promo ends with a mound of clay forming upwards to make the silhouette of the Batman villain we’ve all become familiar with.
The Full Muddy
For audiences who saw the Penelope Cruz film Abre los ojos or its American remake Vanilla Sky, also starring Penelope Cruz, the setup may look familiar. A rich, pretty boy is disfigured in an accident and loses his mind when faced with life without an outward identity. Where the previous films went into psychological drama, Clayface is leaning into those instincts as a catalyst for dread. The director has said Hagen’s final form is like the shark in Jaws, lurking and waiting for a big reveal.
The advertising for the film has avoided giving audiences a full glimpse at the hulking monster people remember from Batman: The Animated Series. The marketing has leaned on the body horror to grab audiences that may not be as interested in the origin of a Batman villain as they are in a good scare in the weeks before Halloween. That left legitimate questions about how far the film would go with Hagen’s transformation. Thankfully, we now have evidence they’re going to let our boy grow into the massive monster fans were hoping for.
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Image Courtesy of DC Comics -
Image Courtesy of DC Comics -
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
