James Gunn has brought a new tone to DC’s superhero movies, and now the director’s latest trailer is testing how far audiences are willing to go with body horror. The new Clayface trailer, directed by James Watkins, shows Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen turning into a melting, shape-shifting villain, and it is pushing some viewers to their limits.
Harries plays Hagen, a young Hollywood star whose face is scarred beyond repair after a brutal attack. He opts for an experimental treatment that goes badly wrong, and his body starts to melt. The trailers have shown increasingly disturbing images, and the latest one includes scenes that are making viewers uncomfortable.
The Trailers So Far
The first trailer arrived back in April, and Kotaku posted about it with a headline that summed up the split reaction: “DC’s New Clayface Looks Great—Wait, Oh My God, No, Absolutely Not.” That post noted the horror-film look of the movie, set within the same universe as the breezy Superman, and praised the final jumpscare where Hagen smears his face away.
Zack wrote about the second trailer, titled “Oh, Man, The Clayface Movie Is Even Grosser Than I Thought It’d Be In New Trailer.” That trailer added more grotesque imagery, including the scene with scissors in the airplane bathroom. Hagen reaches up to snip the tendrils of skin growing across his eyes, and the trailer cuts away before showing what happens next. The writer found that scene particularly unsettling, even though nothing explicit is shown.
Now there is a third and final trailer, and it is reprising footage from the earlier trailers while adding new scenes. The bathroom mirror scene returns, and once again viewers twist their heads away from the screen. But this time the trailer cuts away before anything happens, just as it did before.
What The New Footage Shows
The new footage in the third trailer is the problem. It moves the horror from Hagen’s body to other people, and it gets disturbing fast.
- Hagen’s face presses through a man’s stomach as he suffocates him.
- Facial features push through the victim’s back.
- Hagen’s face twists with tears and misery, not a villainous grin.
- He presses his hands into a person’s face, punching it into a mush.
- He stares at the whole thing with incredible sadness.
The writer of the Kotaku piece admits that body horror is one thing, but miserable, devastated body horror is another. The scene that worries them most is not the violence but Hagen’s expression during it. Rather than enjoying the moment, he looks miserable and devastated.
Why The Scissors Scene Matters
The scissors scene in the airplane bathroom is the one that has viewers worried. It is the scene where the entire audience gasps in disgust and hides their eyes, and it is the kind of moment that makes a movie memorable.
But the writer is concerned that the movie itself will not cut off that scene. The trailer shows Hagen reaching for the scissors, and it cuts away before anything happens. The worry is that the finished film will not trim that scene.
The writer says they still really want to see the movie, but they are genuinely concerned that the movie itself won’t cut off that scissors scene. They are squirming in their chair just thinking about it.
The Sadness Factor
The pervasive sadness is getting to the writer most of all. Body horror they can cope with, but miserable, devastated body horror might be too much.
The trailer shows Hagen reacting to his transformation with terror, but the writer finds the sad, miserable moments harder to watch than the gross ones. Watching him press a man’s face through his stomach while looking miserable is far worse than watching him melt in the first place.
The writer is close to nope-ing out. The movie looks great, and the jumpscare from the first trailer was perfect. But each new trailer has pushed them closer to walking away.
- The first trailer introduced the horror tone and the jumpscare.
- The second trailer added the scissors scene and made the writer waver.
- The third trailer adds new footage of Hagen hurting others and looks at his face as he does it.
- The scissors scene remains uncut, and the writer fears the movie won’t trim it.
The writer is torn between wanting to see the movie and being genuinely concerned that the movie itself won’t cut off that scissors scene. They are squirming in their chair just thinking about it. But the pervasive sadness is getting to them most of all.
The movie has to decide how much is too much.
Source material: “I’m Not Sure I’ll Be Able To Cope With Clayface After Latest Trailer,” Kotaku.
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