r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • 3h ago
Trailer Clayface | Official Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9bNA42dPgQ•
u/r_rayted 3h ago
One of the plane passengers: “I am telling you right NOW, that motherf— that mother fuker is not real”
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u/brandonsamd6 2h ago
Tootises
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u/Comic_Book_Reader r/movies Veteran 3h ago
Meet the new face of Gotham. #ClayfaceMovie only in cinemas October 23.
DC Studios’ “Clayface” is a horror thriller from director James Watkins, starring Tom Rhys Harries in the title role of the cult favorite villain from Gotham’s rogues gallery.
Matt Hagen’s meteoric rise from Gotham street kid to Hollywood leading man is tragically cut short when a local crime boss’s actions leave him horribly disfigured. Abandoned by his team and with nothing left, Matt seeks out a cutting edge treatment that miraculously returns him to his former self… but also unexpectedly affects his grip on reality, spiraling him down a destructive path of all-consuming revenge.
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u/thegreataustini 2h ago
This sounds pretty similar to the Feat of Clay pt. I & II episodes from Batman the Animated Series, for those interested.
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u/Comic_Book_Reader r/movies Veteran 1h ago
Mike Flanagan has very openly stated that was the main inspiration for making a Clayface movie.
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u/whitepangolin 3h ago
Love that mask he has. Has echoes of Eyes Without a Face and The Skin I Live In.
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u/maskaddict 3h ago
Probably worth mentioning Phantom of the Opera there too.
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u/PickleInDaButt 1h ago
I want to name something too
Mask (1985)
By your username, you’re extremely qualified for this topic too btw
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u/maskaddict 45m ago
I've found that usernames can say a lot about a person's interests and talents, u/PickleInDaButt.
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u/JakeDoubleyoo 2h ago edited 31m ago
"Oh no my face has been hideously deformed. Someone get me a mask that's even more disconcerting to look at."
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u/NoDaddyNotTheBelt25 3h ago
Nothing really earth shattering here but Max Minghella absolutely crushed it last season in Industry, so I would check it out just to see what he brings.
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u/TheJoshider10 3h ago
Been a fan of his since The Social Network. Feel like he's always in supporting roles though.
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u/theoneandonlyamateur 2h ago
Max is great. Speaking of him, there's not a single american actor in this film despite it being an american story with american characters taking place in a fictional american city. It was also shot entirely at Warner Bros. Leavesden.
My beloved UK is truly conquering Hollywood. Well done lads
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u/OrangeFilmer 2h ago
He was incredible as the villain in that show. The "Dear Henry" episode especially, man what a performance.
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u/DatabaseAcademic6631 3h ago
Looks like Jake Paul after his fight with Anthony Joshua.
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u/Aranthos-Faroth 3h ago edited 3h ago
Spending millions on a production and this being the top comment on the trailer post is fukin wild lol
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u/InformationFun8865 3h ago
I’m sure DC is mortified that one of the top comments of a Reddit post is a Jake Paul comparison
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes 2h ago edited 2h ago
I mean, the point is that he's not supposed to look pleasant, so I don't see how it's a problem?
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u/Driz51 3h ago
I hope he’s actually the villain of the movie and not just tragically misunderstood. Hollywood always seems terrified to make the villains actually be villains when they make a movie about them.
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u/Rainy_Wavey 2h ago
They are going for a similar vibe to that episode of batman the animated series, aka, tragic villain
He is a villain, but we're gonna see his descent into becoming, well, a villain, he's not going to become like the venom movies, but the movie will definitely lean towards a sympathetic portrayal of his
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u/TheImpLaughs 2h ago
I think as long as they lean into him being psychologically broken by the end I’ll be happy. Not every villain needs to be 100% sympathetic.
I like Batman villains that are tragic. He could’ve been the greatest actor ever, but the side effects ruined his mind and now he’s a narcissist, envious monster. I not only want to see him kill people, but see the fucked yo reason he does and still go, “Damn he’s too far gone”
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u/SonovaVondruke 2h ago
He can be both a sympathetic (at first) protagonist and a monstrous villain. See: Falling Down, Joker, Wolf of Wall Street, Clockwork Orange, most mob movies, etc.
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u/Scrublime5 1h ago
Alex from Clockwork is not meant to be a sympathetic character at any point in the film
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u/-Snippetts- 1h ago
Considering how much I hated Oswald Cobblepot by the end of The Penguin, they've managed to stick to making villain-protagonists despicable already
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u/SherlockJones1994 1h ago
I suspect it’ll be like the fly where he starts off as the protagonist that you root for but as the transformation becomes more and more extreme the more of a monster he becomes. By the end he’ll probably kill or try to kill the doctor lady.
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u/EntrepreneurOk7488 2h ago edited 2h ago
Clayface is literally canonically a Tragically misunderstood antihero/villian
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u/condition_unknown 1h ago
Tragic, yes. Misunderstood, no not really. Anti-hero, definitely not. He has a very sympathetic backstory but all of his actions post-transformation are villainous with little to no remorse.
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u/zestr0136 1h ago
He was briefly an anti hero that joined the bat family in dc rebirth. Didn’t last very long though tbf.
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u/SoaringSwordDev 1h ago
pretty sure clayface is a villian in every iteration after his transformation. he might not be as bad or evil as the other villians batman fights and probably doesn't want to cause city wide destruction or world ending events which is when he becomes "good" but thats like saying a theif is a good guy cus he doesn't want to become a serial killer
clayface isnt even close to azrael,punisher or venom when speaking of anti-heroes
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u/BigBlubberyBirb 1h ago
We've already seen what he turns into in the Creature Commandos show, so I bet most of this movie is gonna be Matt Hagen convincing himself he's the sympathetic anti-hero while it becomes more and more obvious he has always been a scumbag
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u/adamtaylor4815 34m ago
Have you seen The Penguin? They absolutely nailed that. Dude made my skin crawl with how villainous he was yet was still so charismatic he had me rooting for him most of the time lol.
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u/Shakmaaaaaaa 3h ago edited 3h ago
The airplane eye scene grabbed my attention. It looks like a good body horror time. I hope he gets some wicked kills in. As a kid I was always scared when Clayface would merge into Batman to drown him in TAS.
I get they don't have a Batman casted and they are afraid of causing issues that have to be retcon later but the DCU needs to be bolder. Especially with all eyes on the health of everything DC. They should obviously know how much Sony got dunked on for its Villain films and Joker even found a way to somewhat include a meaningful "Batman presence". I'm not saying they do a full Batman reveal but they could have moments that feel like Batman is stalking the situation and making things happen in the background that would be cool.
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u/Varvara-Sidorovna 2h ago
Eye stuff always freaks me, out when he grabbed the little nail scissors in the airplane toilet I gagged involuntarily, so thats a good hook, think I'll go see this!
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u/adrian-alex85 2h ago
My ultimate hope here is that this works as a stand alone body horror set in Gotham. I think that if we’re sitting in the theater wondering about when Batman will show up or where Batman is or how Batman will figure into the story, then it’s likely to be a failure.
With that being said, I do agree that this formula hasn’t really worked so far, and it’s a leap of faith for DC to try and prove they can succeed where Sony failed. But in their defense, The Penguin was quite impressive without any mention of Batman, so if this can build off of what that show was able to do but in a body horror space, then we might be in for a treat.
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u/OkayAtBowling 2h ago
I kinda hope this is more standalone as well. I know DC desperately wants their own version of the MCU, but the longer the MCU goes on, the more I find myself wanting movies that are more self-contained and aren't watered down because of the larger franchise's need to include characters and plotlines that don't intrinsically have anything to do with each movie's specific story.
I was just rewatching the first couple Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies and they just feel so much more focused than the MCU Spider-Man movies.
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u/_Football_Cream_ 2h ago
I think people need to stop comparing this to Sony's attempts with Morbius and all that.
This is a lower-budget, likely R-rated horror film without any real significant star power. It's significantly less risky than what Sony was trying to do with the Venom-verse where they were geniunely trying to launch a connected universe without Spider-Man with attempts at big-budget blockbusters with recognizable names. This costs $40m to Morbius' $75m (which still actually made a profit btw).
So while this is a bit of a swing, it's likely going to be profitable. If it's not critically acclaimed, it's pretty easily relegated to an inconsequential project in the new DCU. If it is well-received, though, it's a proof of concept for DC that a swing like this worked. And we do know a Batman is coming eventually, so if this works out, he's got a cool villain established right out the gate as well.
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u/adrian-alex85 2h ago edited 29m ago
While I understand your specifics, and I completely agree that the metrics for success of this film are massively different from what Sony was doing, I also think the expectation that people not compare the two is unreasonable.
All of the background machinations aside, these are films based on a comic book hero’s rogue gallery without any intention of including said hero in the story. They deserve to be compared on that basis alone. But I do think that the comparison should be couched in the appropriate context that, other than trying to make a successful film based on a Batman villain, they don’t share much else in common.
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u/TheImpLaughs 2h ago
Agree completely. I’ll be spending so much time wondering where he is, unless a lot of this takes place outside of Gotham.
I hope they do something early to show that he’s either occupied, somewhere else, or nonexistent early in the film. Otherwise he’s going to haunt the narrative the entire time. The only other way I see it paying off is if he shows up at the end of the movie to put Clayface away in the same way a jump scare builds and releases tension — so too would this. Maybe just before the co-lead is slain?
I’m hopeful, though!
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u/TheHouseOfGryffindor 2h ago
The airplane eye scene grabbed my attention
I just know that the plane's going to hit some turbulence and cause him to stab himself in the eye
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u/ClubMeSoftly 25m ago
He's gonna stab himself in the face/eye and go "ah" but not because it hurt, but because he's still mostly human at that point and expecting it to hurt.
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u/MeiNeedsMoreBuffs 2h ago
I was impressed by that shot as well, I thought this would be about the same level of "horror" as Venom but that looked insane
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u/Latest-greatest 2h ago
What the fuck are these comments lol
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u/mattbozle 1h ago
I thought I was the only one, scrolling to see any genuine conversation about the trailer posted.
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u/dallascowboys93 48m ago
Yeah I thought the trailer looks great, can’t wait to see it. How’d you like it?
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u/EverythingStillSucks 1h ago
You start to understand why everyone thinks everyone’s a bot. And why is reddit humor so bad jesus, it’s so witless it’s almost impressive.
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u/InternationalArm1938 3h ago
The day before yesterday: Doomdays trailer
Yesterday: Spider-Man Trailer
Today: Clayface trailer
What’s tomorrow?
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u/Kiddo1029 3h ago
HL3 trailer
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u/Lordbungus 2h ago
Starcraft Ghost release and remaster same day.
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u/I_paintball 1h ago
I remember reading about Ghost in a Nintendo power magazine when it was planned to come out for Gamecube...
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u/Lordbungus 44m ago
Which Is crazy because it was originally an n64 title. Man what could have been
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u/RyanLynnDesign 2h ago
I am the guy who thought of "taking a normal song and slowing it down" for movie trailers. I am worth 68 Billion dollars.
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u/Robofetus-5000 3h ago
i wish marvel had the balls to lean into genre projects for each individual IP like this, and I say this as a marvel fan.
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u/TheJoshider10 3h ago
Werewolf By Night was such a promising idea and then they didn't make anything like that again. Deadpool is probably the ballisiest thing they made and it only came after Fox did it twice before anyway.
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u/My_Favourite_Pen 3h ago
Give Wonder Man a check if you havent already. Was definitely something diferent than the schlock theyve been churning out. You cant tell effort and care was put into it. Its
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u/lynchcontraideal 3h ago
> Its
I really wanted to know where this paragraph carried on to
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u/VictorChaos 2h ago
Daredevil: Born Again is definitely honoring the Netflix series
And the punisher one off was fun
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u/Robsonmonkey 2h ago
Werewolf by Night was great but they could have gone bigger by making a proper R rated horror film.
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u/psycharious 2h ago
Which is funny because Deadpool and Wolverine felt like a live action Fox animation.
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u/Surturius 3h ago
I would've loved a Doom movie to set him up before Doomsday honestly
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u/Earthpig_Johnson 3h ago
One of the only villains whose origin could support a full movie.
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u/Foodstamps4life 3h ago
Lots of them could. Magnetos true origin would be unreal if they did it.
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u/Earthpig_Johnson 2h ago
I think X-Men First Class covered Magneto pretty well.
Doom and Bane are a couple of the only ones that I think are interesting enough to support a full origin movie.
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u/Knowingspy 3h ago
It kind of shows how badly the last few phases have been planned out. Unless you read the comics, we are suddenly expected to know who Doom is and why he’s a massive threat in a phase-ending finale type movie. Thanos took multiple films to get to that point.
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u/SlimSieber 3h ago
To be fair it seems there was a plan. Whether it was good or not we'll probably never know. But everything involving Jonathan Majors and his legal issues royally fucked up those plans.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_MONTRALS 2h ago
They could have recast him, no?
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u/Morgan-Moonscar 2h ago
He contractually required that ALL versions of Kang be played by him. So on top of the mess he caused and the fact Kang flopped in "Ant-Man 3" made it easy for Marvel to decide to just drop the character all together than try to reinvent him.
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u/doozyjr 3h ago
Didnt they try it with Moon Knight, Wonder Man, Jessica Jones etc
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u/Geminilasers 3h ago
She-Hulk is a wildly different genre spin. Personally I loved it.
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u/Professor_Poptart 3h ago
Eh, I'd say most of those had the textures of different genres, but didn't really full-on commit to the bones of the genre. Like when people say CA: The Winter Solider is a political thriller--- sure it kinda postures in that direction here and there, but it ends with two dudes punching each other in a helicarrier.
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u/CobaltPanther 2h ago
Mind you, we’ve yet to see how Clayface turns out. It could still end with a similar third-act big action set piece.
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u/FDJT 3h ago
Wonder Man is the perfect example. That show was one of the best things Marvel has done. Problem is a lot of "fans" say they want something then simultaneously complain when anything is different.
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u/DataDude00 3h ago
I feel like they did very early on, between the Netflix shows and even projects like Iron Man 1, but once the popularity soared everything became "Disneyfied" and safe
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u/ArktikosUrsa 3h ago
the Netflix shows weren't handled by Marvel Studios, they were handled by a different Marvel television division that wasn't under Fiege's control at the time.
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u/Slimonite 3h ago
Putting money on the final stinger being “I’m gonna Clay your Face”
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u/Boring-Toe-1424 3h ago
I'm not going to lie..this looks good and captivated me specially because I have no idea about the comic or the character,let's hope is good and mature because I am sick of movies that have a nice trailer and when they are released are the same dumb PG-13 shit.
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u/CrazyLlamaX 3h ago
I think Clayface (as with many Batman villains) is particularly well suited to a horror movie. Actor tragically maimed in some way seeks out something to put his life back the way it was but instead ends up sliding into being a villain/monster.
I think people are missing that the movie doesn’t want to make him an anti-hero but I see it as as he realizes his magic solution isn’t actually working and is actually making things worse he decides to go all in on revenge on the people who ruined his life initially, cue murder spree that cements his downfall (and potential Batman cameo).
Just because it will probably be satisfying to see him get his revenge on the people who wronged him doesn’t mean what he’s doing is heroic in even the most grey interpreted way and it will hopefully be balanced out by him becoming a literal monster.
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u/bepeacock 3h ago
how did he get those scissors on his carryon bag?
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u/rodion_vs_rodion 3h ago
I flew multiple times with the same carry on bag. Hadn't checked the side pockets in a while. Did one day and found that I had been traveling with a wine bottle opener with a corkscrew and foldable blade that had never been found. I learned that day that TSA was more illusion of security than I realized.
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes 2h ago
Less an illusion and more of a product of working adults under tight schedules with technology that's simply not going to catch absolutely everything.
It's more about deterrence and catching what you can.
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u/peon47 3h ago
He's flying into Gotham. They won't let you on the plane unless you have an edged weapon and a history of mental illness.
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u/N8CCRG 3h ago
ugh
Right away a dramatic remix of a pop song just because one line of the lyrics lines up with the theme of the movie.
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u/976chip 1h ago
They just used a sample from Matt and Kim's 2021 cover which is really just a cover of the first verse of The Flaming Lips song.
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u/SuicideSkwad 2h ago
Hmmm why do I feel like that shot of him becoming the big Clayface we know is going to be the end of the film
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u/Owww_My_Ovaries 3h ago
Hey. Villains being anti heros in their own solo movie without the main hero being introduced in their universe
Worked for Sony with Mobrius and Kraven
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u/titusandroidus 3h ago
ignores Venom's near 900mil box
(I get your point, but it can work.)
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u/ChickenInASuit 3h ago edited 2h ago
Points to the first Joker film’s over $1bn box office.
(I don’t even like that film but it still reinforces your point)
EDIT: If you’re about to tell me Joker was a villain and not an antihero, you’ve been beaten to the punch twice already.
I’m also gonna preemptively follow you up by saying it doesn’t look like Clayface is really going to be much of an antihero either.
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u/Ninjamurai-jack 3h ago
The Synopsis is: “Rising Hollywood star Matt Hagen descends into a horrifying revenge-filled monster when scientific ambition strips him of his identity and humanity.”
That doesn’t sounds like a anti-hero story.
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u/Filabustied 2h ago
Right. There's nothing in these trailers that make me think he's gonna be some sort of misunderstood hero.
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u/Not_Your_Romeo 3h ago
Fair point, but I feel like clayface is a better standalone concept. The body horror aspect alone makes it more approachable than Morbius or Kraven. Plus, I don’t think clayface is portrayed as an anti-hero in this trailer, more as a tragic villain.
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u/Earthpig_Johnson 3h ago
What’s more approachable than a vampire movie?
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u/jamesdefourmi 3h ago
A vampire movie that doesn’t have Jared Leto in the starring role
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u/nosayso 3h ago
- The creative team for Clayface is *vastly* more talented than the sonyverse folks
- The budget is $40 million and it's got a baked-in Halloween horror audience
For this movie to succeed it needs to be a critical success (which seems pretty likely, the team making it is talented) and make ~$100 million which seems very doable (but I will concede - not a sure thing).
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u/scenicsquid 3h ago
I mean, it worked for the first Joker movie at least. Here's to hoping it's more like that and not Morbius, Kraven, or Joker 2...
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u/CrazyLlamaX 3h ago
Not really getting anti-hero vibes, mostly just a revenge story which is fitting for Clayface.
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u/TerminatorReborn 3h ago
These movies looked like shit from the very first trailer. This one looks great so far, I doubt its gonna be as bad as Morbius and Kraven
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u/alex-2099 2h ago
I don't think this is positioning Clayface as an anti-hero, but rather the monster of a monster movie.
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u/smolhouse 3h ago
Meh, good writing/production is good writing/production.
I personally greatly enjoy the Batman world building they've been doing lately since I grew up loving the dark and gritty (as much as it could be for a kid's cartoon) animated series.
I just hope they don't eff it up by letting hacks get involved.
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u/SonicBatman2 3h ago
Ironically, looks to be more lively and colorful than Supergirl was. And if nothing else, so far the DC verse is following Gunn’s word that all movies would deviate in tonality/genre
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u/costeleo 2h ago
I’m curious long long it will take for him to morph into someone else completely. My money’s on the beginning of the third act.
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u/neauxah 3h ago
Really feel like the success of this movie hinges on general audiences perceiving it as a true horror flick like Obsession or Backrooms instead of some weird Batman adjacent thing without Batman like Sony did with Madame Web, Morbius, Kraven, Venom, etc.
This trailer is unfortunately giving weird Batman adjacent thing without Batman in it.
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u/Ninjamurai-jack 3h ago
I don’t think so, the trailer is basically just the main beats from his backstory in Batman TAS.
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u/CrazyLlamaX 3h ago
What makes it seem Batman adjacent?
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u/jayhawk_dvd 2h ago
There's the DC logo and a one second flash of "Gotham Police" on the patrol car but that's it. Seems like a judgement made with no evidence.
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u/neauxah 2h ago
Comic book adjacent probably would have been better phrasing on my part.
It just doesn't have the edge that a lot of trailers for hit horror movies lately have had. I didn't get a sense that this was a legit horror movie from that trailer. It is paced like a comic book movie trailer and I'm afraid it will read like that to audiences.
It's slightly concerning because it seems that the plan for this is to sell it as a horror movie to draw in horror fans on top of DC/comic fans.
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u/neauxah 2h ago
Not so much Batman adjacent I guess but more so comic book adjacent.
The trailers for movies like Obsession, Longlegs, and Backrooms read more as straight up horror while this trailer feels somewhere in the middle of horror and comic book movie. There was nothing in it that personally gave me the heebie-jeebies or made me think this movie was going to be particularly scary.
It honestly reminded me of the Morbius trailer (I think Clayface will be way better than Morbius) in the sense that it's a comic book movie that's drawing inspiration from horror movies but will definitely be way more of a comic book movie at the end of the day.
I just feel like it won't go far enough to tap into the true horror elements and true horror fans will kind of tune out because they've seen this kind of comic book-first/horror-second thing play out before, especially if there is another good horror movie that comes out around the same time.
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u/Chief_White_Halfoat 3h ago
Venom made tons and tons of money. So did Joker. If it gets decent reviews it will do well.
Also Mike Flanagan is credit as the writer isn't he? He's got a real impressive track record.
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u/neauxah 2h ago
Venom and Joker are way more popular characters than Clayface and they're also both very different movies than Clayface.
Venom is way more of a screwball action/comedy that doesn't take itself too seriously. Joker was serious but again the Joker is a massively popular character that almost everyone knows even if they don't keep up with this stuff.
As for Mike Flanagan, I agree with you. He's awesome and I love a lot of his stuff but I would have never guessed he was involved with this if I didn't already know. He's also in a weird zone where he's notable but at the same time not quite a household name like Joker had with Phoenix as the star and Scorsese producing.
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u/FightTheDead118 2h ago
The original script was by Flanagan but afaik he exited the project before any production got underway, so who knows what they might have done to his script since then
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u/Chief_White_Halfoat 2h ago
He's still credited, so there's presumably a reasonable chunk. The other credited writer has a mixed record of of very good and lousy movies. But they did the adapted screenplay for Drive and they've got a (old) academy award nom for writing so they are certainly capable.
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u/RailMobot 3h ago
I actually am excited for this but it seems like The Substance for straight men (whereas Ryan Murphy's The Beauty was The Substance for gay men). Either way Tom Rhys Harries has such a great face.
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u/Ninjamurai-jack 3h ago
I mean, that’s just his origin from Batman TAS.
Matt Flanagan himself said that he was inspired by it.
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u/trizzo0309 3h ago
The scene where he jerks off for the first time is gonna be epic
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u/hardy_83 3h ago
Looks fine. Trailer kind of sucked though. It was paced weird and had some odd cuts and sound effects.
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u/HotOne9364 3h ago
You're laughing. He's turned into a clay monster and you're laughing.