The comic book movies genre is a guaranteed box-office interest (not necessarily a surefire profit—Thunderbolts*, sorry, but we're looking at you). However, the one subgenre it has never seemed to master is horror.
Before Mike Flanagan, the absolute ingenue of streaming horror (see Netflix's Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor, the Stephen King-kissed Doctor Sleep), wrote the idea for DC Studios Clayface project, there was no hope for an authentic scary superhero film.
Now, he's here. Clayface sounds fascinating, as in a firm reason for superhero fans and horror fans alike to get excited. In an exclusive with ComicBook promoting his new project with Stephen King, The Life of Chuck, Flanagan chatted up his work with DC Studios. More importantly, he talked about his inspiration: "Feat of Clay", the gripping two-part episode of Batman: The Animated Series.
Although he's not directing the movie, the screenplay and vision is Flanagan's. He shared that DC Studios is working on some revisions to the script but "really hopes it remains true to the spirit of what [he] wanted it to be."
"“Of course it was. I mean, that is the perfect [story]... Feat of Clay,’ Ron Perlman, to me, that’s it. That two-parter knocked me out. The short answer is that is absolutely what inspired my script. That is the world I wanted to live in. Batman: The Animated Series when I was growing up was my Batman. As much as [Michael] Keaton was my Batman, The Animated Series really was my Batman.”"Mike Flanagan, ComicBook.com
Batman: The Animated Series' version of Matt Hagen is a disgruntled actor who turns to a highly addictive drug called Renuyu to soothe his pain and misery. Because of the experimental chemicals in the narcotic, Hagen's face becomes mush and can transform into anything he wishes. Eventually, the rest of his body undergoes a similar fluid transformation.
As is the case with most drugs, his mind turns to mush too. Eventually, his disdain for life changes him into the shapeshifting villain known as Clayface. In structure and origin, the guy is supposed to be terrifying. Animation can only bring a terrifying origin so far.
Yet, Flanagan's vision is in good hands. On one side of the conference table is James Watkins, director of the recent thriller Speak No Evil. Anyone who saw James McAvoy in that movie knows Watkins has some skills. As for the screenplay on the other side, Hossein Amini of 47 Ronin fame sits there. He also worked on the underrated Snowman and The Alienist, so we can hold on to hope that the movie will deliver.
That said, fans of the genre and subgenre may give us what we wish this time.
Where the superhero genre has failed horror
In 2020, Marvel brought us a potential thriller in The New Mutants. It starred Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones, Charlie Heaton from Stranger Things, and Anya Taylor-Joy from just about anything intense and creepy recently. Yet, nothing spine-tingly came from that other than the rush out of the theater.
What about Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in 2022? It's Sam Raimi, the guy who brought us the original Spider-Man trilogy, but also Ash and the Evil Dead. Surely, that was going to be frightening. Well, if you call "Cyclops Strange" scary, then okay. Otherwise, not so much.
A year before the X-Men flop, James Gunn coincidentally got fans the closest to adult horror themes in a comic book movie with Brightburn. By the end of the movie, Brandon Breyer (Jackson A. Dunn) was a fan-favorite anti-hero. It was a solid film with dark plotlines, providing entertainment, but it also proved that superhero stories can "go there."
Schmaltzy flicks like Morbius, The Toxic Avenger, Spawn and Hellboy tried to bring the scary, but didn't quite reach the mark. Perhaps the closest the two genres have come to converging was one of the OG CBMs, Blade. Of course, he was supposed to get a reboot in the MCU, but moving on, right, Marvel?
And, while we're on the subject of DC and horror, anyone remember this short-lived venture from the short-lived streaming service DC Universe? This was a heartbreaker!