CLAYFACE (Official Trailer) The Popcorn Junkies Reaction

[00:00:00]Hello popcorn junkies. Welcome to this trailer reaction to Clayface.

[00:00:05]>> [gasps] >> Do you remember the trailer? This was perhaps one of my favorite superhero trailers. Forget Avengers Doomsday.

[00:00:11]Forget Spider-Man: No Way Home, Far From Home, No Way To Home, Where's This Home, Go Home.

[00:00:16]Forget all that [ __ ] I'm interested in the stuff at the edges of a cooked up superhero franchise. I'm interested in the bit of pastry that burns a little bit in the oven, gets a bit gloopy, gets a bit sweet, isn't perfect, but is actually the tastiest bit. I like the dark edges of the superhero franchise genre. I'm not a fan, I'm becoming less and less of a fan of the >> [clears throat] >> really cumbersome, unwieldy giant films like Avengers Doomsday that has six zillion superheroes. And we're just going, "Yeah, it's got it, you know, checklist score. Yeah, seen him. Oh, yeah, seen him."

[00:00:53]Yeah, no, get back to Yeah, yeah, no, seen you, seen you. So, I'm looking forward to this. The The teaser for this very much part of this in a sort of body horror genre, which immediately made me go, "Ooh, interesting." Cuz I'm into anything that basically is breaking boundaries. And I have to say, I think I'm a little bit more on the DC side of things these days than I am on the Marvel. They're a bit darker, they're a bit more unpredictable, they're a bit more surprising. And um if I'm really honest, the Marvel stuff is so predictable. And you need a ring binder with 85 light pages of instructions. So, it's with all of that in mind that we approach this. Directed by James Watkins.

[00:01:30]James Watkins directed a film recently called Speak No Evil. Is that the one Is that the one with James McAvoy, who was the kind of munching, gnashing, grinning psycho killer who lured a family that they met on holiday into his house to kill them.

[00:01:45]And did he want to eat them? Can't remember. Something like that. Uh this stars Tom Rhys Davies. I don't really know him. Uh but it also stars Naomi Ackie. She from End of the [ __ ] World and all that kind of stuff. And James Watkins, also the director, has also directed some episodes of Black Mirror.

[00:02:01]So, I hope this doesn't do that thing that sometimes trailers do after a really successful powerful teaser, which is the teaser is such a tease. It does its job and it teases you, but then a trailer comes in, seeks to make sense of it all, starts to reveal the aching narrative story, and you lean into it and you start to go, "Oh god, this is as predictable as the rest of the other blah blah blah blah blah." Um so, my fingers crossed. We're a very different trailer reaction channel. We don't just go, "Yeah!" I've noticed with the Avengers things, everyone's just going, "Yes, great!" I mean, yeah, I'm sure some of you think it's great, but it's all right not to feel excited about it. What's the point of us all sitting in an echo chamber going, "Yeah, everything's brilliant. Yeah, everything's great." The stuff actually The stuff should have to work for its appreciation. Oh, and what I also like about this is he's an actor nibbling at that a series which I actually really enjoyed. In fact, I think the fact I think the best thing Marvel have done in recent years is Wonderman. And he's an actor.

[00:02:55]He's an out-of-work actor, a wannabe actor, wanted to make it make it big.

[00:03:02]>> Show me.

[00:03:05]Show me.

[00:03:07]>> [music] >> Do you realize >> [singing] >> freak?

[00:03:20]>> What do you want, Mr. Eagan?

[00:03:22]>> I want my life back.

[00:03:24]>> [music] >> I know you. You're famous.

[00:03:28]>> the most beautiful face.

[00:03:33]>> It's a tragedy what they did to him.

[00:03:34]>> Boo!

[00:03:35]>> No, that's the >> I'd like to volunteer for human trials.

[00:03:42]>> This is not cosmetic surgery.

[00:03:45]>> Even if it kills me, I'll be better off than I am now.

[00:03:53]>> Hi.

[00:03:57]Hi.

[00:03:58]>> [gasps] >> What?

[00:04:01]I'm okay.

[00:04:02]>> You okay?

[00:04:02]>> Yeah, I'm okay.

[00:04:04]>> [sighs] >> I feel great, actually.

[00:04:08]>> I have no idea what side effects you'll have or how to treat them.

[00:04:18]Sorry. Sorry. We don't find it funny.

[00:04:20]>> We're in unknown territory.

[00:04:22]>> Oh.

[00:04:24]Oh.

[00:04:27]Uh-uh.

[00:04:29]Uh-uh.

[00:04:33]>> [singing] >> What's happening to me?

[00:04:37]>> If you're harboring feelings of anger, you need to let them go.

[00:04:42]>> You want to know how I feel?

[00:04:45]The people I trusted betrayed me.

[00:04:47]The justice system failed me.

[00:04:50]They [music] stole my career, my money, my life.

[00:04:55]I'm a monster.

[00:05:01]>> [music] >> I have no idea who you are.

[00:05:21]>> [ __ ] hell, guys. That looks good. Um liked a lot about that, actually. It didn't fall foul of trying to cohere make everything coherent, make sense, sensible.

[00:05:32]Now, I mean, obviously, it's giving you more bones, but it's putting more skin on the bone. Putting more flesh on the bones, even more flesh on the bone. It's a proper body horror, isn't it? Um I I was getting also vibes of the substance. Do you remember the Demi Moore film? Uh Margot Quigley, is it? Uh you know, the kind of the side effects of an injection that's supposed to resolve an issue in her case it's age and this it's facial disfigurement. Uh you know you've got the kind of you've got the violence you've got the mobster you've got the Gotham City you've got the science you've got the tech you've got Naomi Ackie you've got him being an actor for whom his face is important.

[00:06:03]And what about the scene on the plane where his eyes start to seal up? What is going on? Lots of reflections lots of looking at himself film noiry I like the lighting even on the plane. Uh getting his getting his nail scissors out to cut his eye his eyelids that looks just so heady. So it looks like he's not at all afraid to go really really scary horror. And like when he gets punched you know his face flaps and flops and splats. And what about the sack of flesh in the bath? I mean it's very very the substance. Um and whereas in the other trailer he puts his hand across his face and it's all covered in in skin. In this one his face comes back but it's it's really grim isn't it? And and and then where does the clay bit come in? Isn't his character one where he has a giant arm and then sand goes everywhere and all this kind of stuff.

[00:06:49]I'm just fascinated to see you know but again what's interesting is what unusual character to home in on brilliantly unusual. He has strange superpowers or is it a superpower or is it more of a curse super curse?

[00:07:00]And the manifestation of his disfigurement becomes his strength. And you can see he's actually potentially quite a nice guy or a normal guy to begin with.

[00:07:09]But what does he become?

[00:07:11]Does he occupy? I mean most superheroes and even supervillains have a have a narrative arc that justifies either their goodness or their malevolence. And so is this guy how's he going to be stood up? I'm excited about that. I I like the way it's shot I like the way it looks I like the pace of it I like the lighting I like him. I like the fact that he's not a I mean maybe some people know who he is for me he's not a massive star.

[00:07:32]It looks intimate it looks intricate it looks disgusting.

[00:07:49]>> Mhm.