Clayface review: "Skin-deep thrills and spills mask an uneven DC horror"

Over the years, Clayface has come in many shapes and sizes: thespian comedy sidekick in the Harley Quinn series, meme minifigure in the LEGO Batman games, and even as the focal point of Emmy-nominated two-parter 'Feat of Clay' in the seminal 1990s show Batman: The Animated Series.

2026's Clayface – the first outright horror in the DCU – taps into the rich narrative vein of the latter, molding the comic book villain into a tragic, deeply troubled figure that manages to escape the long shadow of the Bat for his own flawed, grisly rampage through Gotham.

Fresh off an Oscar nomination, the world of sandy-blonde actor Matt Hagen (a starmaking performance from Tom Rhys Harries) soon crashes down around him after bedding the girlfriend of crime boss Markos Szabo (David Dencik). The repercussions are severe and instant in a breezy first act: Hagen's face is slashed to pieces. His one saving grace is experimental nanocell surgery by outcast scientist Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie).

From there, Hagen's internal strife is quickly swept to one side, despite Rhys Harries' best efforts (the first casualty of Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini's underbaked script), for a full-throated revenge quest as a shapeshifting Matt lashes out at those who have left his career in tatters.

What follows is a pulpy, predictable trail for Hagen to follow, though sprinklings of a will-they/won't they dynamic between the former actor and Corr, suffering through a rocky relationship with a GCPD detective (Max Minghella), adds early intrigue to the villain's origin story.

While your mileage may vary on the Frankenstein-flavored romance, it never quite amounts to anything more than set dressing for scenes filled with buckets of the red stuff. For audiences, though, that red-hot passion being substituted for dripping claret should be enough – a real shock to the system from a DCU that is quickly learning that its biggest strength, like Clayface himself, is in its malleability.

Face off

Much like the utensils Matt uses to disfigure his face, director James Watkins wields the camera in tricky, suffocating fashion – and deploys gory special effects with a razor-sharp mastery.

One particular hide-behind-your-hands moment involves plane turbulence and travel scissors as Matt's treatment fails, creating a vivid sense of dread that isn't always present throughout its cornucopia of splattered brains and sliced-off fingers. It just might make you reconsider how you pack your carry-on luggage in future.

Another gripping sequence comes later on at Gotham's Vesuvius nightclub. There, a more mutated Hagen passes through undetected as his Clayface powers morph the action into something more tangibly closer to a Hitman level or Trap-esque navigation of social spaces.

Not only does it confidently stand out as Clayface's highest point with its frenetic fighting, it also acts as an ingenious blueprint for the Batman villain to be torn away from the murderous excesses of his R-rated backdrop. Should it materialize, a future showdown with the Caped Crusader won't feel like his edges have been sanded off. If nothing else, it's proof Clayface can survive just fine beyond his own movie.

If only that same care and attention to detail were present elsewhere. Fittingly for a film that revolves around disfigurement and plastic surgery, Clayface's themes are only surface-level in their explorations.

Instead of interrogating the fascinating to-and-fro between Hollywood's impossible beauty standards and body dysmorphia, Clayface continually runs the risk of being too simple and too safe. But if you're only here for gnarly kills and squeamish, uncomfortable horror as Matt's dashing good looks and chiselled features melt away, you'll no doubt walk away with your bloodlust satiated.

Watkins and the production team working its magic with special effects, though, doesn't necessarily mean the (admittedly sensible) budget stretches beyond its means.

Clayface's CGI can be shonky in places, while Gotham is a big letdown. The best portrayals of Batman's home turf paint it as a diseased and decaying city, rotten down to its very brickwork. Clayface's take doesn't inspire, coming across as tawdry and more Joker-lite than a confident first taste of the streets where Batman will soon make his name in the DCU.

Clayface, then, struggles to balance its dual personalities. As a superhero movie, it's a freakishly good time, setting itself apart from anything put out by DC and Marvel in terms of tone and terror. But as a horror movie, its skin-deep thrills and spills mask an uneven tragedy that even the emerging star power of Tom Rhys Harries can't overcome completely.

Clayface releases in cinemas on October 23. For more, we have a guide on DCU Chapter One and other upcoming DC movies.