by FilmInk Staff
“Even though this is all a connected universe, it’s really important to me that the individual writers and directors on the projects give their own self-expression to it, just like they do in the comics,” James Gunn – the creative overseer and all-round boss-man on all things cinematic DC – said on the comic book giant’s official website when he took the reins. “Everything doesn’t always look the same. Everything doesn’t always have the same expression. Different artists bring remarkably different looks, feels and tones. This is not the Gunnverse. I want each project to have the feelings of the individual artist that’s working on it and to give them a lot of freedom – as long as it works – to create something special.”
With the likes of Superman, the TV series Lanterns and Peacemaker, and the upcoming Supergirl, James Gunn certainly looks like he’s remaining true to his word. And now the chilling, freaky trailer for the upcoming Clayface hammers this home even more. Based on the eponymous Batman villain (and likely leading somehow into The Brave And The Bold, which will see the introduction of The Dark Knight into Gunn’s DC Universe), Clayface unites two major horror talents in director James Watkins (Eden Lake, The Woman In Black, Speak No Evil) and screenwriter Mike Flanagan (the director of Doctor Sleep, The Haunting Of Hill House), with an impressive assist by noted scribe Hossein Amini (Drive, Wings Of The Dove).
Full of grotesque, body horror-style imagery and driven by an utterly disquieting sense of dread and menace, Clayface explores the horrifying descent of rising Hollywood star Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) from desired pretty boy to revenge-filled monster in a Jacobean tale that peels back the terrifying layers on one man’s loss of identity and humanity, and the dangers of overly ambitious scientific experimentation. Though barely glimpsed, Naomi Ackie, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan and David Dencik also star.
Aside from the DC logo at the end and a glimpse of a Gotham City police car, you’d never know that this dark, menacing and profoundly unsettling trailer came from the same creative powerhouse that gave us the best Krypto ever…
