Clayface Review – DC’s R-Rated Body Horror Gamble Beats Superman and Supergirl

The James Gunn-led DC Universe is best described as a mixed bag, beginning with the entertaining but overstuffed Superman reboot and the clunky Supergirl, making me wonder if a proper footing will ever be firmly established. Now, the third movie in the cinematic universe, Clayface, seemingly risks itself as a creative misstep that instantly reminds me of Sony’s Spider-Man-less standalone villain origin-movie debacles. Clayface opens in US theaters on October 23.

But after watching Clayface with low expectations, I was surprised the movie turns out to be a better DCU entry so far. It helps that director James Watkins and co-writer Mike Flanagan, who originally wanted to helm the movie himself but couldn’t direct due to scheduling conflicts with the Carrie series and the new Exorcist movie, embrace the R-rated psychological body horror tropes rather than succumbing to a soulless, studio-mandated by-product cashing in for the brand recognition. And, in this case, the Batman universe. Flanagan has since said the film “very much is not mine” and that he hasn’t seen it, per /Film.

Clayface Plot: Matt Hagen’s Tragic Origin Story

They trust the material enough to stand on its own, prioritizing the tragic story of Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), an up-and-coming actor hailed from the gritty Gotham City slums of Narrows, who made it to the top after his recent movie received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Everything seems to be going well at first: He becomes the center of attention during a live talk show and gets VIP treatment entering the highly popular Vesuvius nightclub.

Then, while at the bar, Matt can’t take his eyes off a sultry girl, Mia (Joana Ribeiro), on the dance floor, and decides to flirt with her despite Matt’s best friend, Corey (Joshua James), warning him that she is the girlfriend of a powerful criminal kingpin, Markos Szabo (David Dencik). Matt chooses to brush it off and ends up sleeping with her, a mistake that ultimately seals his fate after Markos teaches him a cruel lesson by mutilating his face with a switchblade.

With his face heavily disfigured, he has since hidden his bandaged appearance, wearing a plastic mask while in public. His costly attempt to file a civil lawsuit against Markos fails to put him in jail; not even Matt’s manager (Eddie Marsan), who’s been backing him all this while, can do much to help with his case. His once-promising acting career goes down the drain, forcing him to move back to his slum neighborhood until he discovers an article in a magazine about Dr. Caitlyn Corr’s (Naomi Ackie) experimental nano cell research. He decides to reach out to Caitlyn, convinces her to use him as a human trial for the procedure, hoping she can help restore his face using the cutting-edge technology. She hesitates at first, then finally agrees to run the experiment on him.

How Clayface Borrows From Batman: The Animated Series

By injecting the regenerative serum in stages, things look progressively better for Matt’s facial disfigurement, with the heavy scars eventually subsiding. Flanagan and Drive’s Hossein Amini’s screenplay draws inspiration, as Flanagan has said, from Batman: The Animated Series’ two-part Feat of Clay, among the best episodes ever made in this four-season television series. But instead of introducing the malleable face cream seen in the series, the movie leans heavily into a blend of medical and body-horror elements through a serum injection that pays homage to Preston Payne’s third Clayface incarnation in DC Comics.

This allows the movie to delve into Matt’s psychological state of mind beginning to corrupt him from the inside out, as the serum gradually alters his DNA, causing him to suffer physical and emotional instabilities. Watkins, who is no stranger to gritty horror seen in Eden Lake and the English-language remake of Speak No Evil, uses this opportunity to push the visceral horror elements, combining practical and CGI effects that don’t shy away from graphic violence to an uncomfortable, squirm-inducing level.

Clayface Effects: Practical Gore, Spotty CGI and Squirm-Inducing Scenes

The CGI may have been inconsistent and, at times, breaks the immersion from the otherwise palpable, in-your-face, gory visuals of watching Matt’s eyes literally drooping and facial skin melting like candle wax. Watkins’s camerawork also goes as far as using close-ups to amplify the unsettling look at Matt’s unusual clay-like physical condition, notably in a scene in the airplane lavatory as he tries to snip off the mutating skin stuck between his eyes with a pair of scissors amidst the rough mid-air turbulence.

The stakes subsequently elevate with Matt’s quest to find whoever is responsible for his career downfall, resorting to a series of personal vendetta-driven killing scenes, in which at one point, a victim has his windpipe completely ripped out clean by a hand shoved into his mouth. One of the most fascinating traits about Clayface is his face-shifting ability, capable of mimicking anyone’s physical appearance and even their voices, allowing Watkins to explore Matt’s increasing loss of identity, reflecting the toxic manifestation of his character being a committed actor.

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Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie’s Performances in Clayface

For such a challenging role, Tom Rhys Harries does a great job in his volatile portrayal as Matt Hagen, transforming from a sought-after actor with huge ambition to a hollow shell of his former self desperately trying to return to normal life, only for the nano cell experiment to shatter the illusion of his possible comeback. The movie also equally highlights the on-screen chemistry between Matt and Caitlyn, where their initially professional patient-and-doctor relationship turns into a conflicted, yet unfulfilled romance, benefiting from Rhys Harries and Ackie’s subtle dynamic.

Clayface Review Verdict: Flaws, Credits Scenes and Final Rating

While I appreciate the deliberate build-up of Matt’s origin story turning into a clay-like monster, the movie isn’t without its flaws. Aside from the aforementioned spotty CGI, the nightclub climax comes across as a strangely underwhelming payoff, as Matt wants to eliminate Markos and his men, while the pace tends to be flat-footed in some scenes. In case you are wondering, there are no mid- and post-credits scenes in Clayface, marking the second time the DCU forgoes the teaser after Supergirl.

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Clayface is playing in US theaters from October 23, 2026.