CLAYFACE Star Tom Rhys Harries Says the Villain’s Final Form Is “F**king Sick!”
The trailers for Clayface have already served up melting faces, bulging eyeballs, and some seriously nasty body horror, but DC is holding its biggest monster reveal for theaters.
Tom Rhys Harries, who stars as Matt Hagen in the upcoming DCU horror movie, has seen what Hagen ultimately becomes, and he sounds pretty damn excited about it.
“It’s f*cking sick!” Harries teased in an interview with Empire, although he couldn’t reveal anything else about the character’s final form.
That reveal is being kept completely out of the marketing, so don’t expect a future trailer or TV spot to spoil it before the movie arrives.
Director James Watkins, whose horror credits include Eden Lake and the Speak No Evil remake, has previously explained that he wants audiences to experience the full transformation in the theater, saying, “you don't want to show the shark.”
While the finished Clayface is staying hidden, Watkins has made it clear that the movie isn’t backing away from its horror elements.
“When we were at San Diego Comic-Con, people were like, 'I hope you don’t go soft.' And I'm like, 'Trust me, we don't go soft.' But at the same time, there is that line. It’s a ride. It's fun. It's not torture. It's a rollercoaster.”
Watkins has cited David Cronenberg’s The Fly and the recent body-horror hit The Substance as influences, which gives us a pretty good idea of the kind of grotesque transformation the filmmakers are playing with.
The footage released so far definitely supports that. Hagen is a Hollywood actor who undergoes an experimental medical treatment after being disfigured by a crime lord, and the procedure leads to some increasingly disturbing changes.
We’ve already seen his face melting, while a more recent TV spot featured his eyeballs popping out of his head during a movie premiere. Apparently, that’s still only a taste of what’s coming.
Harries even got to have some fun with the melting-face makeup away from the set, showing it off to friends and family during FaceTime calls.
“I’d have family members or friends of mine who, after time, normalise the fact that they’re talking to me but half my face is disintegrating,” he recalls, “and then they would introduce me to somebody on FaceTime. That was funny!”
Clayface’s monstrous appearance has taken several forms across DC projects, including Creature Commandos and Batman: The Animated Series, where the character becomes the giant, shape-shifting mass of clay most fans recognize.
Whatever Watkins and his team have cooked up for the live-action version, they clearly want that first full look to be part of the theatrical experience.
If melting faces and exploding eyeballs are what they’re comfortable putting in the trailers, it’s probably safe to expect something wonderfully disgusting when Hagen finally completes his transformation.
Clayface hits theaters October 23.