James Watkins Reveals the Sam Raimi and Brian De Palma Influences Behind ‘Clayface’

The new trailers for Clayface have made one thing abundantly clear: DC Studios is not treating this as a traditional superhero movie.

Directed by James Watkins (The Woman in Black, Speak No Evil), the latest footage leans heavily into grotesque transformation horror, psychological collapse, and a far darker tone than audiences typically expect from a comic book adaptation.

Speaking in a new interview with Empire at last week’s San Diego Comic-Con, Watkins revealed that Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Darkman, Send Help) was a major influence on how he approached the film’s more extreme horror sequences.

“There were definitely some Sam Raimi influences,” Watkins said. “The way Sam Raimi can push horror almost to that point of ridiculousness, right? And humor. I mean ridiculous in a good way, right? But pushing it where we’re all walking that line of, ‘Oh man, this is extreme,’ and we know it’s extreme, and we’re in it together.”

Watkins added that it was Raimi’s boldness that inspired him, teasing that Clayface contains “a couple of Sam Raimi [inspired] sequences, as it were.”

That influence makes plenty of sense. Raimi has always understood how to push horror past the breaking point without completely abandoning the audience, using frantic camerawork, physical comedy, and outrageous violence to make viewers laugh and recoil simultaneously. Judging by the new footage, Clayface appears ready to play in that same dangerous space.