What To Watch Before ‘Clayface’

Batman: The Animated Series has offered the definitive take on several of Batman’s major villains. It defined the modern-day Mr. Freeze, and some fans will argue to this day that Mark Hamill’s Joker is still the definitive version of the character. But the show also gave one of the best depictions of Clayface ever put onscreen.

When Mike Flanagan was originally developing the idea for Clayface, he took inspiration from the BTAS two-parter “Feat of Clay,” which offered up a tragic introduction to Clayface, making him into both a victim and villain. While we don’t know exactly how Matt Hagen is morally aligned in the film, his appearance in BTAS is as a desperate former actor who mostly wants a chance to recapture his former glory, even if it means committing corporate espionage. When he eventually transforms into Clayface, then we start to see the revenge-driven angle that the film seems to be going for, but that first episode paints Clayface as a tragic figure that deserves sympathy more than scorn. It’s one of the best depictions of the character for a reason, and watching the “Feat of Clay” two-parter should be essential viewing if you want to see Clayface.

Clayface isn’t the only major Batman villain to receive a sympathetic adaptation in the past decade, lest we forget the Academy Award-winning Joker.

Joker is a different take on the Clown Prince of Crime, showing a man pushed to the absolute brink and broken by society, only to snap and let his nihilism infect everyone around him. It was a character study first and foremost, with Joaquin Phoenix going above and beyond to make Arthur Fleck into a truly sad and miserable person. There’s a certain air of bitterness that permeates the Clayface trailer, as we watch Tom Rhys Harries’ Matt Hagen lose it all and come to terms with his own actions. He’s not quite as sympathetic as Arthur, but there’s some fertile psychological ground that the movie could explore in the same way that Joker did. How will Matt respond to the treatment he’s undergone? Will he view himself as a monster to be pitied, or a powerful force of nature that can do whatever he wants? Flanagan is great at creating sympathetic yet detestable characters, and Matt Hagen could be a character worth examining in the same way Arthur Fleck was.

Something that has been made abundantly clear is that Clayface is not connected to anything Matt Reeves has done with his corner of the DC Universe. It’s admittedly a bit confusing, something that DC will eventually have to deal with, but even if The Batman technically isn’t in the same continuity as Clayface, it should still be seen regardless.

If you’re making a story about Batman or a Batman-adjacent character, something you’re going to have to figure out is how to depict Gotham City. Gotham is just as much of a character as any villain or Robin, and The Batman presents a cruel and unsympathetic Gotham that is gritty and hard to stomach. Bad things happen in Reeves’ version of Gotham, and it isn’t afraid to be outright morbid with what happens to its citizens. That similar tone and style is palpable in Clayface, with Hagen’s fall from superstardom to the Gotham gutters very in line with Reeves’ take on the city. That, and the film was developed alongside Reeves, so there’s a pretty good chance that the fingerprints and stylistic choices that made The Batman the hit that it was can be found throughout Clayface.

One of the most trusted names in horror working today is Mike Flanagan. The man is so good that he can take a certified turd like Ouija (2014) and deliver a sequel, Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), that eclipses the original in every category. Between film and television, Flanagan’s name is one you can trust, but his best film, by far, would be Oculus. 

Flanagan excels as a writer, and Oculus is a film with a tight screenplay. It’s a ghost story that shifts between two time periods, with a story that prioritizes tension and dread over jump scares and gore. It helps showcase how, even with a 104-minute runtime, Flanagan can craft characters who have complicated backstories and a solid dynamic between each other. That, and it’s actually pretty scary. Some of the segments and shots in the film are genuinely unnerving and lead to sequences that make you question just what’s going on. Flanagan knows how to scare audiences, and if the man behind Oculus wrote Clayface, then the scares inside and the psychological torment its cast will undergo will be the stuff of nightmares.

A lot is being said about Mike Flanagan’s involvement with the film, with both initially pitching the film and developing the screenplay, but he didn’t actually direct it, mostly due to scheduling conflicts filming Carrie (2026). Instead, James Watkins is handling directing duties, and most audiences will know him from the recent Speak No Evil. 

Speak No Evil is a slow-burn horror movie. It’s very easy to see early on in the film’s 110-minute runtime that something isn’t right with the English couple that the Daltons go to visit. It’s clearly giving off the same vibes as Nana and Pop Pop’s home in The Visit (2015), and once the secret is out, all hell breaks loose. It’s a competent horror film, but it works thanks to James McAvoy’s performance as Paddy, who deftly balances being terrifying and charming. Watkins knows how to work with actors, and if he’s able to get the same kind of performance out of Tom Rhys Harries that he did with McAvoy, then Clayface will be a-okay.

While Clayface will undoubtedly have elements of psychological horror peppered throughout, it’s a body-horror film first and foremost. If the trailer is showing Hagen taking a pair of scissors to his eyes and warping and twisting his own flesh, then you better believe that there’s going to be some gross-out physical sequences, and when it comes to body-horror, nothing can compare to The Fly.

David Cronenberg is the master of body-horror, and The Fly is his most gruesome film. Like Clayface, we witness a charismatic man turn into a monster right before our eyes, though the gradual transformation that Jeff Goldblum undergoes is much more severe and disgusting than what Tom Rhys Harries will experience. That isn’t to say that Hagen’s fall from superstar to monster won’t be emotionally gripping, but Goldblum literally became an unrecognizable creature you couldn’t help but pity. Clayface is clearly looking to The Fly for inspiration, including prioritizing practical effects instead of CGI to depict Hagen’s metamorphosis into a mound of living clay. After all, imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

The fall of a superstar into irrelevancy isn’t a new concept. It’s been a running theme in Hollywood for centuries, but combining it under the veil of body-horror isn’t as common, and if you want to see what happens when a former celebrity follows the same path that Matt Hagen will take, look no further than The Substance.

Some movies are subtle with their themes, and then there’s The Substance. It refuses to hide behind subtext and instead shows the lengths Elizabeth Sparkle will go to reclaim her relevancy. It’s a very avant-garde and minimalistic film, using its cinematography and special effects to sell just how depraved Elizabeth’s wish becomes. Clayface definitely won’t be as unconventional as The Substance—it is a DC superhero movie after all—but it’ll definitely channel that same emptiness and loss that Hagen internalizes after his disfigurement. Whether or not Clayface will also lose its mind and go for the jugular with a climax that’s equal parts terrifying and glorious is yet to be seen, but The Substance will definitely scratch that same itch and show off how good practical effects can be.