Image courtesy of IMDb
Hello, everyone.
I know it’s been some time since I last posted on here, but I figured what better way to come back than with the Halloween review I had planned for this year.
After some consideration, including one from earlier this year that is pretty much already done, I decided this one would be a better idea, since it would be coming out right around Halloween.
It’s also been a long time since I last covered one of these kinds of movies, so now also happened to be the perfect time for that.
It may be part of the new DC Universe, but technically, it takes place before everything else, so I can cover it now and it’s perfectly fine.
At long last, we have a DC horror movie, and it’s surprisingly really good, despite being based on a Batman villain that’s lesser known outside of the comics community, and that is Clayface.
The story follows actor Matt Hagen, fresh off being nominated for an Oscar. He seems to have it all until he goes to a nightclub and gets involved with the wrong people, as he finds out he slept with a gangster’s girlfriend. It’s not long before the gang comes in and damages his face to where it’s unrecognizable. On top of that, the justice system fails him, and everyone in his life turn their backs on him. He thinks he’s lost everything… that is, until he comes across an experimental procedure that might just be able to repair his face, but with an unintended consequence, and then some.
What Worked: First of all, the performances all around are really good, but the standouts are the two excellent main performances from Tom Rhys Harries as Matt and Naomi Ackie as Caitlyn Corr, the scientist who helps him. Tom in particular is a star in the making, and that’s no hyperbole, folks.
Yes, Matt does end up becoming a villain, but it’s how he gets there that really sells it in addition to his performance. You really sympathize with him, even in knowing the path he’s taking, which makes it all the more tragic.
He also slowly goes on a quest for revenge against those who wronged him, and it never feels like a different movie as a result of that. Think of it almost like The Crow with a hint of Sam Raimi’s Darkman. In all three cases, it’s so compelling and so satisfying to see him take these guys out one by one, often in very gruesome ways.
That leads me to my next point, and another parallel between the three movies. They waste no time in establishing the plot. You learn everything you need to know about the character within the first ten minutes, and then it goes from there, and I loved that.
Speaking of which, what really makes this work aside from the story and the arc that Matt goes through is what they were able to pull off with practical effects. The budget was around 30-40 million, and it doesn’t show with the effects, they’re that good. They promised us a body horror comic book movie, and they delivered. We are given some very nasty kills in this, and one of the most brutal ones comes near the end.
There are some moments that’ll make you especially squeamish, or at least want to cover your eyes, like the plane sequence they’ve featured so prominently where he’s trying to get his eyes to open. Tom even said this himself: He’s actually cutting a real prosthetic there. Having said that, those moments and the scares are very effective.
I should also note before I continue with the review that if you’re sensitive to flashing lights, you might want to look away, mainly any time there’s a club scene.
With those forewarnings out of the way, let’s continue.
Another thing that should be noted is the cinematography from Rob Hardy, who shot such movies as Mission: Impossible - Fallout (the best one in the series), Ex Machina, Annihilation, and more recently Civil War. Then he followed that up with Supergirl (which I thought was fine). You couldn’t really tell it was him there, but you definitely can here. This is a gorgeous looking movie.
It also gives us our first look at this new version of Gotham. However, having just said that, do not expect Batman to show up in this. He’s not even mentioned, and they haven’t officially cast him yet anyway. The only connection here is that it’s set in Gotham*, and that’s it.
This also isn’t afraid to be a horror movie despite that, courtesy of a story and script cowritten by Mike Flanagan, one of the best modern horror directors working today, and solid direction from James Watkins (coming off of the surprisingly good Speak No Evil).
One thing you can really tell is that it delivers on faithfully adapting the origin for the character as established in the two-part episode of Batman: The Animated Series “Feat of Clay”, which is also something they set out to do. In fact, that was even part of the pitch for the movie. Obviously, it’s not one-to-one, but it’s close enough. Another clear parallel is that in both, the character arc is reflected beautifully through the score.
Though I don’t touch on this as much, it’s necessary this time, because the marketing team should be commended for how they handled showing Clayface himself leading up to the movie. They showed a shot from behind him of what looks to be the big reveal… and then it’s not, they thankfully saved the true look at it for the movie.
That leads me to one other positive: Without giving too much away, this does something another adaptation of a beloved property did recently with its ending, and yet here, it did it in a way that made sense. For those who have seen that movie, you’ll get where I’m going with this. One thing I can say about it that makes it better here is that it comes back around to where it still feels like a one-shot movie**.
I could go on, but there are two main issues I had, besides some plot conveniences and some predictable moments.
What Didn’t Work: The first issue is that because of it having such a low budget, you can tell they had to hold back on some of the kills by showing the setup and the aftermath, but not the acts themselves.
While some are pointing out how some lines of dialogue are a bit cheesy or there were pacing issues, that’s not what bothered me the most.
The biggest issue I have is with the villains. They’re not just forgettable gangster villains, but these are some of the dumbest ones ever. For example, at one point, they try to shoot him not realizing he can reform himself after being shot. You can probably figure out what happens from there.
If more established gangster characters had been used, then it would’ve made more sense. However, it might’ve been too on the nose, particularly for hardcore comic fans like myself, so I get having to compromise (if they had to do that, anyway).
Overall: DC has delivered the best villain movie since Joker***, and their best horror movie since Joker: Folie à Deux (easy joke, I know, but still). It also shows that you don’t need Batman to make a great movie. While it is nice to have that, it’s been proven with Joker, The Penguin, and this that villain-centric projects can work. This works because it did it in the easiest way possible: Choose a story involving a character that already made them interesting, and go from there. Clayface is one of three Batman villains that excel at being tragic figures, the others being Two-Face and Mr. Freeze.
Not only do I want to see Tom Rhys Harries in bigger projects after this, I would love to see more villain-centric movies in the vein of something this good. Plus, Batman has probably the best rogues gallery out there, so it’d be way easier to pull off with his than even that of someone like Spider-Man.
Ironically enough, it also accomplishes something that really only Marvel has been able to pull off consistently: Take a lesser known character and make audiences love them (hero or villain).
It’d be even better if you could make it feel like its own contained story like this, to make them stand out that much more.
Next time, we go from a man fighting to save himself to something the film community (and society at large) fought to keep alive.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
*No, it’s not the Gotham that Matt Reeves has established, either, despite him being among the producers here.
**In comic book terms, a one-shot is when a whole story makes up one issue, and so it applies here because it still feels like a single contained story.
***Though it’s not hard, since Sony tried to do it so many times, and failed to make it compelling every time (though Venom is an antihero at times, so I can let that slide).