Clayface brings a Universal Monster sensibility back to the DC Universe
You wouldn't like him when he's squishy.
Image: DC Studios
The original incarnation of the Batman villain Clayface first appeared in the summer of 1940, with the name Basil Karlo as an homage to a pair of genre-movie actors. That tribute was particularly important because the character was not yet made of clay or in possession of shapeshifting abilities, as he would be in later versions; he was just a B-movie actor using a clay mask to assume the identity of Karlo’s former horror-movie character. Even without the aid of the supernatural, however, Clayface was a natural fit for that year, which saw the release of no fewer than three Universal Monster movies, as sequels to The Invisible Man and The Mummy joined a second wave of monster cinema that would continue for the remainder of the decade.
The new film version of Clayface does not feature a mask-wearing Basil Karlo. Like some of the character’s later iterations in different media, it mixes and matches a few different comics elements, keeping the acting background but using the name Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) and some mad-science experimentation. But it very much feels of a piece with the Universal horrors that served as sidelong inspiration back in 1940. That year is key; we’re not talking about a James Whale-level monsterpiece like Bride Of Frankenstein or The Invisible Man. But The Invisible Man Returns or The Mummy’s Hand? Sure, Clayface can live up to that.
Hagen has his eye on greater prestige, however. As the movie opens, he’s nervously awaiting news of Oscar nominations (or their DCU equivalent), then basking in his relief and elation upon finding out that he’s among the five Best Actor honorees. When he celebrates in his hometown of Gotham City, however, he accidentally angers gangster Markos Szabo (David Dencik), and receives a facial slashing for his trouble—the first sign that despite a nominally contemporary setting, this movie will be rooted firmly in a pulp world where it’s not only possible for the mafia to slice up a handsome celebrity with impunity, but for the gangsters to somehow plant enough negative rumors in the press that it’s the cracked actor who comes out of the situation looking like the bad guy. (In a nicely noirish touch, it’s never fully specified what those stories about Hagen’s hardscrabble Gotham youth are, or whether they’re actually true. The vague implication is that they probably are.)
After some unsuccessful attempts at reconstructive surgery and a career time-out in Gotham, a heavily scarred Hagen tracks down Caitlyn Corr (Naomie Ackie), a scientist perilously close to losing the funding to experiment with her breakthrough nano-cell technology, which somehow involves using microscopic A.I. to rebuilt damaged tissue. Hagen aggressively volunteers his body to test her work, and despite the potential legal messiness, the prospect of an enthusiastic human subject is too much for her to resist. She’s also drawn to Hagen himself, and the movie makes their maybe-pairing both less likely and less unappealing by handing Caitlyn a working-stiff cop fiancé (Max Minghella), a character with classic (and classically dull) monster-movie functionality.
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