Clayface Movie Review

“Clayface” will have to answer the question: Can a Batman-related movie get by with only a Batman Villain? This same idea worked for the “Joker” movie a few years back. So now apply the same origin type story to Clayface, without any surrounding bats. That is a burden they will have to ‘Face’…

 

The place is, of course, Gotham City. It is a ‘wretched hive of scum and villainy’, as somebody once said – about another terrible place. There is trash in the streets and dark alleys with no lights. A perfect place for crime and larceny. If Batman was around, he would be cleaning up the joint.

 

But another local boy has made good. The guy is Matt Hagen (played by Tom Rhys Harries), who grew up on the rough West End. His best friend growing up is Corey (played by Joshua James). Now they are celebrating. Matt was just announced for a Best Actor award, so he is pumped!

 

They go to drink and party at a ritzy club. This place is operated by a notorious mobster in Gotham City. That is Markos Szabo (played by David Dencik), and he runs a ruthless gang of thugs and henchman out of the club. His long-time girlfriend is Mia (played by Joana Riberio).

 

She is beautiful and attracted to the local movie star – Matt. His friend Corey tries to prevent Matt from hooking up the Mia. But it is too late. Szabo has his goons slice up and disfigure Matt’s face because he slept the mobster’s girl.

 

Matt has no luck with Gotham police, because has too much control. Matt has a successful lawyer named Frankie (played by Eddie Marsan). He tells Frankie to sue Szabo in court.

 

Matt Hagen loses against Markos Szabo. There were too many fake stories dredged up about Matt in his younger days. Corey was silent, and he said he could not help in court. His lawyer, Frankie, was sneaky and got almost all of Matt’s money. Now, Matt is alone and broke. He is out of his penthouse suite and back into the West End, in a crummy little apartment.

 

His career in the movies is over, due to his facial disfigurement. His money is gone. His life has crashed out into despair and remorse. But then he reads a story about some doctor who is researching cutting-edge nano-technology. She thinks there might be a way to make cells regenerate and heal themselves.

 

The research person is Dr. Caitlyn Corr (played by Naomi Ackie). She has lost a lot of funding for her studies, and is years from beginning any human trials. But the persistent urging of Matt Hagen persuades her to start the initial trial on him.

 

She documents the damage to the skin and structure of his face. The nano-cell injections will include special AI that will determine which cells need to be replaced. Within a few sessions, Matt’s face begins to recover.

 

He is overjoyed and wants to tell the world how well Dr. Corr’s treatments have done. But she scolds him that her funding has been yanked, and she will never get anymore if word gets out. She is relying on her fiancée to help get her through all of this. She is engaged to Det. John Borrelli (played by Max Minghella), with the Gotham City Police.

 

Matt, of course, does not listen to Dr. Corr’s advice. He goes out in public and wants to be admired. But this comes to an end when his face begins to droop. The nano-cells are overwhelmed and he needs a new booster shot.

 

While Dr. Corr is distracted, Matt grabs the injection needle and gives himself ALL of the remaining supply. Not a common practice for an unlicensed and unregulated test situation!

 

But now, Matt says he feels even better than before. He finds out that any wound on his body is self-healing. Also, he has the odd ability to mimic and match any other person that he talks to.

 

He can reproduce that person’s face, their hair, their voice, and even what they are wearing. Boy, this come in handy if he ever decides to try and get revenge on any of the people who have wronged Matt Hagen.

 

That is exactly what he sets out to do. Finding his old lawyer Frankie, he finds out he is now working for the mobster Markos Szabo. Frankie was not helping Matt at any point in the civil lawsuit, and he stole of all Matt’s money. Matt goes to Frankie’s office. But now he needs to know: Does anyone know any good ‘dead lawyer’ jokes?

 

Matt has also found out that his best friend sold him out during the trial. Corey was paid by Szabo to get names of people from Matt’s past that would testify against Matt. One of the main reasons Matt lost the suit was that Szabo made him look like a sleazy guy growing up in the West End.

 

Corey is now following in Matt’s footsteps, and is working as an actor. Matt comes to make a call on his old friend. Matt cannot allow something like this to pass. Matt’s honor and background was dragged through the mud. Most of this was due to Corey. Matt shows Corey a new trick — how to act like a dog and ‘play dead’…

 

Dr. Corr is seeing that Matt Hagen is letting his emotions run wild and control his actions. Matt is starting to have deep feelings for Dr. Caitlyn Corr. She tries to have Matt keep his distance. But his ability to take over the look of anyone nearby, it always leaves her in doubt. Also, her boyfriend is a cop, and there is now some suspicion around Matt.

 

Det. John Borrelli goes to talk with Matt. He cannot find anything to link Matt to any of the deaths, at least not so far. But Matt knows that he is not finished. The Gotham City crime lord, Markos Szabo, is still out there with his ruthless gang of thugs and henchman at the club. Matt Hagen has a little unfinished business to take care of over at the club.

 

Yup, there will be a big bloodbath the club tonight, when Matt Hagen gets there. He is able to flip faces and bodies pretty much at will. All of the thugs and henchman at the club are fair game. That goes for Mia, and for Markos Szabo too. Det. John Borrelli is going to have quite a time figuring all these murders in the Homicide Department.

 

It appears that Matt Hagen has gone off the deep end, and his emotions for Dr. Caitlyn Corr have gone too far. His need for revenge also spills into the relationship between Dr. Corr and her fiancée John Borrelli.

 

Dr. Corr has a special ‘kill switch’ that she could trigger in such a case. It would trigger a reaction in the nano-cells and kill them off. But that would also kill Matt Hagen.

 

Is this the end of the ‘Clayface’ monster that has been created? Will Dr. Corr make that decision to eliminate her research, and also eliminate Matt at the same time? Will we need to wait to find out, if there is a ‘Part Two’, or if this character will show up in a future ‘Batman’ movie? I just can’t bear to ‘Face’ it…

 

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“Clayface” handles the ‘Batman movie without any Batman’ with no issue. This is a clear cut stand-alone horror movie, and it just happens to be based on a ‘Batman’ super villain. This is a compact little origin story only about the main character, Matt Hagen.

 

This movie does not have any need to overlap with the bigger universe of ‘Batman’ movies. There is no reason that some of these threads in this story could not be picked up again later. It is very distinct possibility that it could part of a bigger ‘universe’.

 

Tom Rhys Harries does a good job in making Matt look to be a sympathetic character. But then later the slow slide into madness takes over and Matt becomes a killer. Naomi Ackie is fine playing the doctor who might have a permanent fix for Matt Hagen’s problems.

 

This movie leans a whole lot more into the tense body horror than a normal ‘super villain’ movie might get into. This allows the story to move a good pace, and really swings hard on some disgusting and scary images. It has some stylistic similarities with the movie “The Substance”.

 

“Clayface” gets a lot of things right, in that it takes a horror-based approach to a comic book villain origin story. You can take this movie on ‘Face’ value!