Clayface is the third film in the newly rebooted DC Universe, and while Supergirl wasn’t a hit with critics (or myself), this movie rights the ship. A completely standalone film (it takes place in Gotham, but nary a mention of Batman), it is a body horror thriller that will make your stomach queasy and your pulse quicken, in equal measures.
In DC lore, Clayface isn’t a household name, more of secondary villain opposite Batman, and I think it was a good choice to use this story to try to build DC’s foundation. The film opens on Matt Hagen, a celebrated actor recently nominated for his first Oscar. Matt came from a poor background and rough childhood, but clawed his way up to the pinnacle in his field, and success has finally arrived. Unfortunately it disappears quickly, as Matt sleeps with the girlfriend of local mob boss Markos Szabo, who then cuts Matt’s face up in a gruesome scene. Facial reconstruction can only do so much, and Matt is left horribly disfigured. His agent and financial planner disappear, and before long Matt is broke and living in the slums of Gotham City. Just when he thinks all is lost, he sees a magazine article about a woman, Caitlyn Corr, who was experimenting with nanobots, tiny AI robots that get injected into the skin, that could possibly restore his face. Matt reaches out, eventually convincing Caitlyn to use him as a test subject.
At first, the minor procedure works, and over weeks, Matt’s face is restored to look like nothing happened. However, the first time he goes out in public, his faces literally starts to melt. He flees back to the lab, turns off the safety precautions, and injects himself with an overdose of the tiny nanobots. This seemingly cures him for good, but with a disturbing side effect: anytime he is cut, the rip in skin instantly heals, with blood even pooling up back into his body, as if the nanobots always return to the source. Now virtually indestructible, Matt hatches onto a plan to hurt those who hurt him. He gets a boost in his vengeance when he learns that the nanobots also allow him to change his face and figure, so that he can impersonate any person. Now he is truly Clayface, and no one is safe.
There are lots of stomach churning scenes in this film with a high level of gore; myself and others in the theater were squirming in our seats, so it is not for the faint of heart. But it is a thrilling film with action scenes and psychological rushes to go along with your feelings of nausea. I’d love to see Clayface turn up in a future DC film and square off against the caped crusader. ★★★★★
