One of the most surprising things about the Clayface movie may be that it exists at all. Clayface likely wasn’t on many people’s shortlist of DC characters who would be the first to get the big screen treatment. (Heck, it wasn’t even on James Gunn’s.) And yet, the movie works well as a horror film because of how scary Clayface's story is. Considering we've got a lot of Halloweens ahead of us, it’s a good thing that Clayface isn’t the only DC character with the ability to terrify us. But who else among DC's roster of characters might make for a good horror movie? Here are ten that we’d love to see.
 

Man-Bat

If we're drawing from body horror-evoking Batman villains who have never been depicted in live action cinema before, the next choice is an easy one. Dr. Kirk Langstrom feels like the member of Batman's rogues gallery who most evokes the classic horror films of early cinema—a bit of Frankenstein, a bit of Dracula, and a lot of Mr. Hyde and the Wolfman. Addicted to a serum that transforms him into a hybrid human/bat creature, Langstrom is an easy visual contrast for Batman...but to see him as the focus of his own story about a mission of altruistic scientific research perverted into a physical abomination would be a tried-and-true tale that continues to be relevant today.
 

Solomon Grundy

There's nothing quite like a good zombie story, and the tale of Solomon Grundy is one of DC's best. An immeasurably powerful hulking creature far removed from his origins, perhaps the most interesting thing about Grundy is how every time he comes back, he returns a little bit different. We could easily imagine a story where our heroes must contend with a new, more terrifying shambling killer every time they seem to slay him and escape. And can you imagine the horrifying potential of Slaughter Swamp? We can picture the Halloween walkthrough maze already…
 

The Spectre

One of the cornerstones of the horror genre, particularly in the slasher variety, is that the victims always have it coming. If done well, their ends match their misdeeds with a certain degree of irony. Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily were doing precisely that with the Spectre, arguably DC's most terrifyingly powerful hero, all the way back in the 1940s. Turning his righteous vengeance on the wicked in film would be a real popcorn-worthy treat, as those he punishes are led to the horrible fate they have earned for themselves.
 

Toyman

Of all Superman's recurring villains, Luthor is certainly the most notorious, but it's Toyman who really gives us the heebie-jeebies. Maybe it's the doll-like exterior he presents in Superman: The Animated Series, in much the same way that Batman: The Animated Series brought new life to Matt Hagen. Maybe it's the domineering nature behind his childlike facade to control others like his personal playthings. In either case, like Jigsaw riding around on his tricycle or Chucky looking to further extend his family, Winslow Schott's creation feels like a perfectly creepy choice to spook us on a more Super Halloween.
 

Psycho-Pirate

If we're delving into psychological horror, what could be scarier than a man with a mask that can manipulate your emotions? Prisoners of their own minds, the victims of Roger Hayden are forced to feel whatever their captor wants them to feel. And if you want to get really metaphysical—or, perhaps, metafictional—there's also the fact that Psycho-Pirate is often depicted as the sole keeper of the true history of the DC Multiverse, the knowledge of which has driven him mad. There's a lot you can do with that, especially in a cinematic landscape besotted with reboots.
 

Reverse-Flash

Every Halloween season, we think about Eobard Thawne, the man with the power to rewrite his past. The control he has over his life and others is existentially dreadful, forever altering reality to his whims, each time making the world around him a little more degraded, a little bit worse. The horrors of time travel are ripe ground for headier sci-fi horror, and Thawne is the perfect vehicle to get us there.
 

Scarecrow

This one almost seems too obvious, but we feel like all the depictions we've seen of Scarecrow to date could go heavier on the fear gas. When chemically driven to face your greatest fears, what do you see? What would happen if a fear canister went off in, say, a school or an office? Or Arkham Asylum? We've been gifted a perfect horror device here, and it would be a shame not to use it.
 

Blue Devil

The story of Dan Cassidy, if played the right way, can be just as horrifying as Clayface. Blue Devil wasn't born this way. He was originally a Hollywood actor, stuntman and visual effects designer who got caught on a demon's bad side and found himself trapped inside the devil suit he created for a movie. In the comics, this is mostly played for comedy. (The studio claims to own the rights to his likeness, and he trips around as he learns to accommodate for the change in his size and pallor.) But being cast in a new body against your will is a concept horror movies have mined forever, and we could easily imagine Dan from the inside of the monster of his own creation, screaming to get out.
 

Swamp Thing

Actually...let's put a pin in this one for now. Mess us up, James Mangold.
 

Batman: Creature of the Night

This one’s probably unlikely, but hear us out. We've been told from the very beginning that the purpose of Batman is to strike fear into the hearts of criminals. But Batman's fear factor doesn't tend to be much of a focus for most versions of the character, as he's usually portrayed more heroically. One exception to that is the supernatural horror of "Bruce Waynewright" in the criminally underrated Batman: Creature of the Night by Kurt Busiek and the late John Paul Leon. By taking Batman back to his first principles and reimagining him as a force of terror, Busiek and Leon have us confront the idea of DC's darkest knight in a way others have rarely ever approached. If we ever got this one as a movie, people would lose their minds.
 

Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC, Warner Bros. or Skydance, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.