Happy Halloween, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. We have a special review in honor of Spooky Season and Halloween. All of our Geekly Writers watched Clayface together this past week, and we’ll share our thoughts on the latest entry in the DCU. We’ve only seen the movie once, so this will be more of a reaction than a full review. I’ll kick off this post by sharing my thoughts.
Kyra’s Thoughts
Clayface works well as an introduction to the character. Seriously, we watched the movie with someone who has never seen anything with Batman, and he left wanting to consume more. Clayface dives into the character’s psyche. As if we needed more evidence (beyond Joker and Penguin), Clayface proves that you don’t need Batman to tell a solid story steeped in Gotham City lore. These characters have pathos to spare. Clayface does an excellent job of showing how layered Matt Hagen is with a healthy side of body horror. For those who know the character, the movie goes how you would expect the movie to go. Clayface borrows plenty from Batman: The Animated Series, the Arkham video game series, and the comics. It’s a great watch. And I agree with Season’s sentiment (after leaving the theater), Clayface may have to go on our Halloween movie rotation.
I appreciate Clayface exploring Matt Hagen’s personality. Even before his “accident,” the movie presents Hagen as someone struggling with his identity. The moment he shares celebrating with his deceased mother. The scene with a late night show host asking him to do impressions and when he asks who the real Matt Hagen is, Hagen doesn’t have a good answer. He loses himself in his roles. He searches for himself. And I like how Clayface foreshadows with Hagen sharing with late show host Vic Chissler (great name) that he’s scared of finding his real self. Great foreshadowing.
This also ties into Clayface’s second half: the revenge plotline. I’m skipping over the body horror elements (which dominated Clayface’s first half) for now, so I can focus on Clayface/Matt Hagen as a character. I’ll return to the body horror. Don’t worry. Once Matt Hagen discovers his true self (Clayface), he goes on a killing spree. I want to share a great quote from the movie.
You wanna know how I feel? The people I trusted betrayed me. The justice system failed me. They stole my career, my money, my life! I’m a monster.
Clayface has great quotes to spare. I can see people reciting these for years. As you can tell from the above quote, the movie does a great job of building up Matt Hagen before he becomes Clayface. It puts in the work, so you care about who Hagen is as a person. While he does these horrible things, you can’t help but sympathize with him–to a point. And Clayface’s rampage borrows scenes straight from Batman: The Animated Series. Two of his kills are ripped right from the cartoon series. Ah! Now, I want watch BTAS again. Or at least “Feat of Clay” and “Mudslide.”
But Clayface explores the title character’s power set a little bit, providing a touch of new uses to his existing abilities. Clayface’s body always had the ability to reattach itself after getting flung elsewhere. Hagen uses this to his advantage, specifically his blood in a particularly gruesome death scene near the end. It makes sense for Hagen to cut himself, bleed into someone’s orifices, and wait for his blood to return to his body, ripping the other person apart from the inside. Ugh! So good though. The character who dies this way had it coming, and that’s a good segue to talk about Clayface’s body horror.
Our Geekly writers squirmed in their seats at the beginning of Clayface. It’s uncomfortable. By now, most of us have seen Clayface trailers that featured Matt Hagen’s eyes swelling shut. He runs to an airplane lavatory and uses a pair of scissors to cut open his eyelids. Despite having this scene spoiled (sort of) in the trailers, watching it in real time is something else. This was a tense scene, and there are a number of uncomfortable (in the best ways) scenes, but Clayface does drop the body horror midway through its runtime to focus on Hagen’s revenge story.
I appreciated Clayface’s practical effects, but the movie did use a handful of CGI sequences that looked painfully CGI. The story also tried to science up Clayface’s abilities. Let’s throw in nanobots, goofy futuristic medical jargon, and AI. What would happen if the AI goes rogue? That’s not as quotable as some of the other lines in Clayface. AI felt tacked on. The film doesn’t really explore the AI within Clayface’s body going rogue. This was a lame attempt to make the film feel “modern.” I could’ve done without the addition of AI. If you’re going to include AI, make it count.
I’ve mentioned the writing. A few hiccups aside, it’s solid. The direction and cinematography (outside of a couple of laughable CGI SNAFUs) are great. And the acting is spot on. Tom Rhys Harries nails it as Matt Hagen/Clayface. Naomi Ackie kills it as Dr. Corr. The supporting cast was phenomenal. They made Gotham City feel lived in. Clayface is a fun watch.
Clayface kind of has two endings. I prefer the second. It’s heartbreaking and shows Hagen/Clayface’s mental state. And we see Clayface in all his glory in the closing moments. Clayface made the right choice delaying its main character’s reveal. Clayface can be cartoony. I liked being grounded with the character and watching his descent.
Those are my thoughts on Clayface. Let’s check in with Skye.
Skye’s Thoughts
I’d like to start by saying that I was genuinely excited to see this movie. While Clayface isn’t my all-time favorite Batman villain, he’s one that I’ve been fascinated by for a long time, hasn’t had an official cinematic debut until now, and is a villain that has a lot of big-screen potential. After seeing Clayface in theaters with the rest of the Geekly Crew a few days ago, I’m very satisfied with the results. Clayface did a great job of delivering on the body horror elements built up in the trailers, and I liked the film the most when it made me squirm in my seat. Not only that, but Clayface managed to deliver a story that was both faithful to the character yet still felt fresh.
If I had to nitpick anything about Clayface, I’d say the romance didn’t quite fit with the tone of the rest of the film. While it’s necessary to humanize your characters from a storytelling standpoint, I don’t believe giving the lead a love-interest was the best way to do that in this case. Even if she was the best character in Clayface aside from Matt Hagen himself (Sidenote: the acting is stellar in this movie).
Overall, I had a very good time with Clayface and would enjoy doing a deeper dive on it after its inevitable release on streaming. Clayface is also a great spooky movie for Halloween, so if you’re looking for something creepy that’s hard to watch at times, Clayface might be the perfect fit for you. Happy Halloween!
Those are our writers’ thoughts on Clayface. What did you think of the movie? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
