Tom Rhys Harris stars as Matt Hagen, an actor who got out of the Gotham City slums and is now Academy Award nominated. His high flying life comes crashing down when he has a one night stand with the girlfriend of a prominent Gotham mobster and is left hideously scarred by the scorned gangster's vengeance. With his career in ruins, he finds showbiz loyalty in short supply as his manager, lawyer and possibly even his best friend quickly abandon him. Scientist Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) and her experimental technology offer him a dubious lifeline but the procedure's body transforming side effects, and his own thirst for vengeance, send Matt down a dark path.
For those keeping score, this film technically takes place in the same world as last year's Superman and not Robert Pattinson's The Batman and its upcoming sequel. Not that it really matters. Set years before the Man of Steel's adventure, it looks and feels nothing like any other film in the universe and with nary a mention of any other DC character, Clayface is best viewed as its own thing.
And it is its own thing with some fairly serious horror credentials. The script is by Mike Flanagan (Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep) and its directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake, Woman in Black). There are elements of both creator's previous work here, most notably Flanagan's focus on damaged characters and Watkins's sense of impending dread, but Clayface isn't aiming for scary. After all, you are on the monster's side. For most of the film anyway.
What Clayface does want to do, is disturb you with its body horror. It is likely to be semi-successful. There certainly is plenty of body maiming going on, as pieces of Hagen peel off and he has to, amongst other things, re-cut his own eyeholes. These scenes don't come across as gruesome as they could, possibly down to the putty-like nature of Matt's condition (and the fact that the title of the film reference literal clay) making him feel a little less actual flesh and bone and more like an amorphous collection of malleable tissue. As a result, the most unpleasant scene is probably his original scarring, although one of his foes does meet a particularly blood splattered end. Regardless, if you go into this expecting a standard comic book movie you might be in for a stomach churning time.
Even without any effects, Tom Rhys Harris has a great face for the lead character. He absolutely has the movie star looks to play an in world A-lister, but there is a natural malevolence to him. We don't get much time with Matt before his disfigurement so it's hard to know how much of his downward spiral is down to the type of person he is and how much is brought on by his circumstance. That's either a strength or weakness of the story depending on your point of view. The supporting cast is also strong, especially the always excellent Naomi Ackie, and Eddie Marsan as Hagen's scummy lawyer, who it would have been fun to see more of.
The story is fairly predictable (even if you aren't aware of Clayface as a Batman villain) and Caitlyn's detective fiancé feels like he was crowbarred in to create a love triangle, but there is enough mood saturating the piece that the thin plot is forgivable. A mix of neon lighting and muddy grey/browns give the film its own noir atmosphere, underpinned by a melancholic and quietly menacing score from Volker Bertelmann.
And that is what carries the day (or more appropriately night) for Clayface. It doesn't really excel in any one particular area but it has its own unique and original style and that's good enough. With a face changing protagonist out for revenge and no desire to pull its punches, it has more in common with something like Sam Raimi's 1990 cult classic Darkman than it does its flashier DC cousins, and with blockbuster comic book movies proving to be hit or miss at the box office, lower budget, more originality takes like this may be the way forward for the genre.
7 forlorn sewer dwellers out of 10.
Comments
Post a Comment