The Jarring Clayface Scenes No One Saw Coming

Contains spoilers for "Clayface"

DC Studios is taking a big swing with "Clayface." Only two other movies have been released so far: "Superman" and "Supergirl." Both of those make sense for fleshing out this new universe, but "Clayface" is a massive departure. Rather than making a straightforward Batman movie, we're getting an R-rated horror flick following one of the dark knight's most fascinating villains; a figure who's been sorely lacking in terms of big-screen adaptations.

Matt Hagen, aka Clayface (Tom Rhys Harries) is an actor who suffers a horrific injury. An experimental treatment causes his DNA to mutate to where he becomes a shape-shifting monster. There's a lot of tragedy and pathos to explore with that kind of set-up, and the new movie largely succeeds in giving this character depth. Looper's review of "Clayface" praised the movie's "strong scares" although our critic also conceded that it offered a mixed bag of results. 

Still, for horror fans looking for something freaky to enjoy right before Halloween, "Clayface" is bound to scratch that itch. And even though we knew going into it there would be plenty of chilling moments, there are some scenes that took us by surprise.

Matt Hagen begins "Clayface as a Hollywood pretty boy whose rise to stardom is on the ascent. While celebrating a massive nomination, he goes to a club in Gotham and winds up sleeping with an attractive woman, Mia Torrez (Joana Ribeiro), despite warnings from his friend, Corey (Joshua James), that she's with notorious gangster Markos Szabo (David Dencik). The following morning, Markos and his men find Matt in bed with Mia, and while they let her go, they hold Matt down so that Markos can slice up his face.

It's a grueling scene to sit through. Going into "Clayface," you have to know something like that is going to occur, since it gives Matt the reason to pursue his experimental regeneration treatment in the first place. But since "Clayface" is rated R, it doesn't hold back from showing Matt's disfiguration in its entirety. 

And Markos really goes for the gusto. In a moment reminiscent of the Joker's (Heath Ledger) monologue in "The Dark Knight," Markos even puts the blade inside Matt's mouth and cuts open his cheek. A PG-13 film would've shown Markos beginning to cut open Matt's face before cutting away to show us Matt recovering, wrapped in bandages. But here, we feel every ounce of Matt's pain, so when his psyche begins to deteriorate later, we understand precisely what he's been through. 

One jarring "Clayface" scene that we were able to prepare ourselves for before going into the movie itself was the sequence aboard a plane. The "Clayface" trailer showed Matt on an airplane that's going through some turbulence. It causes a problem with the nanobots within his body; that new tech that is able to repair the injuries he sustained from Markos. While his face looks normal at first, his skin begins sagging over his eyes. He takes a pair of scissors out from his luggage and hides in the bathroom so that he can see what he's about to do.

The full sequence in the film is even more harrowing, because we get close-ups of Matt placing the scissors right between his eye and the extra skin. Zoomed in moments like that are always going to be more disturbing than bloodshed — it's intimate now. Later in the film, Matt beats a guy's face in by transforming his arm into a giant mace. It's a cool kill, but it's from further away. On the plane, we see exactly how close Matt is to disaster.

To make matters worse, the plane is shaking while Matt is carefully trying to remove the saggy skin. Granted, even if Matt accidentally stabbed himself, his body is able to recover, so he wouldn't be in pain for long. But still, it's a scene that anyone who's even a little bit squeamish — sit down, Cronenberg veterans — will have a hard time getting through. 

Matt seemingly has one friend throughout "Clayface" — Corey Bowery. The two have been through thick and thin together, but later, Matt discovers that Corey sold him out to Markos. Following Markos' attack on Matt, the crook pays off the jury and witnesses to get off scot-free. Apparently, Markos also intimidated Corey into giving him information about some of their childhood friends; people who would defame Matt before the media. 

As good as friends as Matt and Corey might've been, it's kind of understandable Corey would do this. Even without that additional testimony, Matt likely didn't have a chance against such a well-connected gangster in Gotham's corrupt court system. But Matt is well on his descent into madness at this point, and he kills Corey by shoving his face into his clay-like body, suffocating him. 

It's a harsh death, and it's made all the more devastating with Matt crying as he does it. You get the feeling like he doesn't want to do this. Maybe part of him even understands that Corey was scared and didn't know what else to do. But he's too far gone at this point. Matt went through terrible agony and experienced everyone in his life — doctors, lawyers, his agents, and even his best friend — discarding him when he was inconvenient for them. He's now on a quest to get revenge, and sadly, he can't even spare his friend at this point. 

Of course, Matt's main target during his rampage is Markos, the guy who scarred him in the first place. Once Matt has a better handle in transforming to look like other people, he infiltrates the Vesuvius club and tries to make his way to Markos. There's plenty of fun to be had, as he morphs from one person to the next, trying to get closer to his target. But once he reaches the room Markos is in, the time for fun and games is over. 

Mia, the girlfriend, takes a bit out of Matt, but the clay winds up suffocating her. Meanwhile, Matt has a very special punishment for Markos. After pinning him down, Matt takes a knife and carves up his face similar to how Markos did it to him. Matt's blood drains onto Markos' face with Matt pointing out how it's now seeping behind Markos' eyes. As we've seen earlier in the film, anytime Matt bleeds or loses skin, it returns to his body. The nanobots are able to repair any damage he might endure. Here, Matt's using that tech to its fullest, and with Matt's blood now within Markos' body, it returns to him, tearing up Markos from the inside.

It's an appropriately grisly death for the film's big bad. And it allows Matt to show off the true extent of his powers, making him a formidable foe if he should ever return in a future DCU project. 

The ending of "Clayface" is appropriately dour for a body horror film. Throughout the film, Matt has harbored romantic feelings toward Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who gave him the nanobots to save his face. By the end, Matt is fully insane and kills Caitlyn's fiancé, John (Max Minghella) so that the two of them can be together instead. Matt may have killed a cruel gangster, but it's obvious by now that he's not an anti-hero. He's a full-blown villain, and Caitlyn stops him by activating the kill switch within the nanobots, turning Matt into goo and sending him down the sewer. 

Sometime later, we see that Matt is still alive. He's holed up in the sewer, and at first, we think Caitlyn is paying him a visit as the two embrace. But then, we realize that Matt has created a facsimile of Caitlyn with his own clay. There have been plenty of gory and twisted kills throughout "Clayface," but one of the film's most jarring moments is simply seeing how lost Matt has become.

Matt had understandable desires when he approached Dr. Corr for that untested treatment. He wanted his looks back so that he could regain the life he had stolen from him. In the process, he lost his mind and couldn't move past the pain Markos caused. Even Caitlyn being out of his reach due to being engaged to another man was too much. Now, Matt is all alone. He still has the power to turn into his regular movie star self, but the final image shows him as a monster. That's who Matt Hagen is now; someone lost in his own clay reflection.