Side Mission

Watched “Clayface.” I wasn’t familiar with the character from DC, but I enjoyed the film. I’ve always loved the science fiction films of the 1950s and ’60s, particularly those about lonely men who gradually transform into something monstrous through scientific experiments, accidents, clinical trials, and the like. Richard Matheson’s novel “The Shrinking Man” (1956), and films such as “The Fly” (1958) and “4D Man” (1959). The facial disfigurement also reminded me of “Eyes Without a Face” (1959), “The Face of Another” (1966), and “The Skin I Live In” (2011). As a body horror film, “Clayface” will undoubtedly be compared to “The Fly” (1986) and “The Substance” (2024). But this is the story of a method actor who can become anyone through his performances, only to suffer a disfiguring facial injury and eventually gain the extraordinary ability to physically transform into anyone. Whether you see it as the story of a man who takes his revenge and descends into villainy, or as a tragedy, changes the very face of the film. While I was there, I also picked up a reprint of the original theatrical pamphlet for “The Man Who Stole the Sun.”