Movies
Kill of the Week: Axe to the Mouth in ‘Curse of Chucky’
Every week, we spotlight a kill that we just can’t get enough of. This is Kill of the Week.
Earlier this year, I wrote at length about my love for Don Mancini’s Curse of Chucky, which completely restored my faith in a franchise I wasn’t all that into in the wake of the one-two punch of Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky.
With Curse, released in 2014, Mancini went back to basics, scrubbing most of the over-the-top silliness from the franchise in favor of a darker, gothic sequel that remarkably managed to continue literally all of the series’ main storylines while completely resetting the overall tone.
Curse of Chucky is as legit suspenseful as a Chucky movie can probably be, and with it Mancini pulled off something that was seemingly impossible at the time…
The sixth installment in the franchise actually made Chucky scary again.
But we’re here to talk about gory kills, and Curse of Chucky has one in particular that stands out. Towards the end of the movie, heroine Nica Pierce and Ian, her sister’s husband, are (seemingly) the only ones left after Chucky slices and dices his way through the rest of the characters. Nica of course survives, while Ian meets a gruesome fate.
Lying on his back after being knocked to the ground by Nica’s wheelchair, a helpless Ian is approached by an axe-wielding Chucky. The killer doll lifts the axe up over his head, and you assume he’s going to crack it down into Ian’s chest or forehead. Instead, however, Chucky brings the axe down onto Ian’s mouth, literally splitting the bottom of his jaw off.
As an added touch, Ian’s tongue wags around in his mutilated mouth before he expires.
Editorials
4 ‘Clayface’ Trailer Details That Put Fan Fears to Rest with Comic Ties and Body Horror
I was never against Sony’s initial idea to produce solo movies based on Spider-Man’s most memorable supervillains. After all, a hero is only as good as his Rogues’ Gallery is intimidating, so it stands to reason that there were plenty of dark stories to tell here.
While rushed productions like Morbius and Kraven the Hunter didn’t quite turn out as I had hoped, it’s a relief to see James Gunn and the DC Extended Universe learn the right lessons from Marvel’s flops by investing in supervillain stories that aren’t afraid to step into the horror genre.
The new trailer for James Watkins’ upcoming Clayface movie is a great example of this, as the new footage confirms our suspicions that the movie is set to be a full-on piece of body horror focusing more on telling a standalone scary story than setting up a brand.
With that in mind, I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer in order to find out what we can expect from this highly anticipated comic-book adaptation from hell.
So without further ado, here are four things we learned from the new Clayface trailer!
4. Matt Hagen is a Club Vesuvius Regular

A seedy nightclub owned by “former” mobster Johnny Sabatino, the comic books have established Club Vesuvius as a hotspot for criminal activity and metahuman action since 2009. Throughout the years, the club has seen everything from an attempted arson by Firefly to magical acts performed by Zatanna herself.
The trailer for Clayface appears to suggest that Vesuvius will feature prominently in this story as well, as the footage shows us several shots of Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) casually attending the club as well as a couple of more concerning moments where Gotham City Police roll up to the establishment to deal with some kind of emergency.
3. The Movie Will Not Adapt Any Single Specific Comic

As I mentioned before in my Clayface primer for horror fans who aren’t all that familiar with the character, the initial teaser for the film had me convinced that the project would be more of an adaptation of Batman: The Animated Series’ two-part episode Feat of Clay rather than any specific comic-book.
This latest trailer has only confirmed my suspicions, with Hagen’s predicament here feeling much more in line with Marv Wolfman and Michael Reaves’ sympathetic vision of the character than the more traditional criminal that we usually see in the comics. That being said, I’m curious to see how the filmmakers intend to connect this tragic version of Clayface to the more unpleasant monster we saw in Creature Commandos now that it’s been confirmed that these are indeed the same person.
2. James Watkins is Combining Practical and Digital Effects

I’ll always prefer a well-executed practical effect over CGI simply because the former is closer to the stage magic that inspired early moviemaking. That being said, there’s an undeniable artistry to well-crafted visual effects, and I’d argue that a character like Clayface requires the best of both worlds in order to be convincingly brought to life on the big screen.
I’m clearly not the only one who thinks so, as the trailer has shown us that Watkins is combining digital imagery with prosthetics and plenty of flesh-colored goop to depict Hagen’s unique brand of monstrous body horror. James Gunn had already promised us that the film would feature plenty of old-school practical effects wizardry, so it’s exciting to see that this approach in action.
1. Hagen Will Eventually Transform into Clayface’s Iconic True Form

In the comics, whenever Clayface isn’t pretending to be someone else, the character spends most of his time in his “natural” form resembling a gigantic golem-like monster. This look has certainly evolved over the years, but, at this point, most artists have settled on a vaguely humanoid shape accompanied by a gaping maw (though the villain’s terrifying re-imagining in DC’s Absolute Universe is a bit more complicated than that).
While fans were initially skeptical regarding whether or not the upcoming adaptation would even feature this admittedly outlandish design, the trailer has basically confirmed that Hagen’s condition will get progressively worse until he finally resembles the hulking monstrosity from the comics!
Be sure to comment below if you think we overlooked any interesting details in the trailer, and keep in mind that Clayface will be hitting theaters on October 23.
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