DC’s latest origin story has been compared to many things, not all of them complimentary. Because it’s the first film in the new DC Universe set in Gotham City — but has absolutely no mention of the city’s Caped Crusader, Batman — Clayface’s easiest point of comparison might be Sony supervillain movies like Venom or (shudders) Morbius. At turns it evokes the beats of another Batman-less solo movie, Joker, and at its best, it reaches for the pulp and dread of a Universal monster movie. But there’s another element to Clayface that might make or break our understanding of the film: Is it also kind of... a rom-com?
Tom Rhys Harries, who guides the titular villain (formerly known as Matt Hagen) on his descent from Oscar-nominated superstar to murderous monster, certainly seems to think so. Though the first half of Matt’s journey is appropriately harrowing, packed with flashes of body horror gruesome enough to churn anyone’s stomach, the violence isn’t really what drives him. “Matt isn’t aware that he’s in a horror film,” Harries tells Inverse. “I think he thinks he’s in a romantic comedy.”
