Clayface (2026)
Clayface (2026)
Written by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini
Directed by James Watkins
Runtime 108 min.
4 out of 5
Underdog actor Matt Hagen rises to stardom but through one careless night that infuriates one of Gotham’s crime lords, Matt is given a message by way of having his face carved up. Now disfigured, his career is over and he has no one to turn to. In a move of desperation, he discovers Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who has an experimental treatment that restores cells to a perfect state. He begs for help and offers himself for human trials. The treatment works and Matt’s face is restored . . . except there’s one problem: the treatment left his face malleable with the inability to fully hold its form. Wanting a cure, Matt overdoses on the formula and soon finds he can turn into anyone he wants to and go after the crime lord who ruined his life. As his body transforms into putty, so the descent into madness begins.
This was a good one. It was simple. Direct. Nothing fancy but nothing boring either.
Marketed as a “body horror” film, Clayface hits the mark on multiple fronts and explores obsession, risk, and Stockholm Syndrome.
The good:
This flick cuts to the chase right away and it doesn’t take long for Matt to get himself in trouble thus kicking off the main Clayface transformation storyline. That was appreciated.
Tom Rhys Harries was a great pick for Matt Hagen. He has the looks, the smile, and the acting chops to go from a movie star who came from nothing and made it to a man who is willing to do anything to get that stardom back.
The “science of Clayface,” so to speak, was sound. Nothing crazy but plausible enough to suspend disbelief about the treatment he undergoes.
In terms of Matt shapeshifting and discovering his powers, this was really cool. There is a certain mirror-over-the-sink scene that was especially awesome and a unique—and bloody—way to show elements of Clayface’s powers that are familiar to fans of the character.
What was really awesome were the camera cuts that showed Matt transform into whoever he needed to be to fulfill his vendetta. Yes, they definitely showed morphing, but to do that over and over would defeat its magic so the clever camera-cutting via a subtle now-you-see-him-now-you-don’t added a sense of unease and had you wondering where he went as the tension built in different scenes.
While Batman references were absent, that was actually a good thing for this flick because even mentioning Batman’s (or Bruce Wayne’s) name—the flick doesn’t make it clear if Batman is operating yet or not; most likely he is but that’s this fan’s assumption—or even James Gordon would have distracted from focusing on Matt given the name power those characters hold.
Clayface is a lot like Joker in this way: the audience is caught up in the villain’s world and their life and you don’t really give thought to any of the overall Batman/Gotham mythos.
What’s gonna be great is Clayface will return at some point (Gunn confirmed it) so when we see him next, we won’t be looking at—to general movie audiences—some supervillain but rather Matt Hagen and what happened to him.
The last scene, for me, was the kicker. It was the official stamp Matt had fully fallen into psychosis and really locked down the guy we met at the beginning of the movie is now someone else.
The not so good:
Because it was marketed as “body horror,” I expected much more of that. Technically, it is the genre but drops the ball on how much of that stuff horror fans got to see. (Maybe there’s more in a director’s cut?) It’s understood this is a DCU film so I’m sure those kind of visuals were held back for that reason, but a few more scenes with some gross-outs would have amplified the dark tone it was trying to convey.
That’s really my only issue with this film, all else being fun. As a horror writer, I was expecting a trip through the dark but instead got a trip through dim lighting instead.
According to James Gunn, this film sits at the beginning of the DCU chronologically and does fulfill its purpose as a supervillain origin story.
I don’t want to get into spoilers and go over some really horror-cool moments so will leave that to you to discover, but all in all, it was a good movie, carried a low-budget horror movie vibe without looking cheap, and adhered to the trick of making a monster movie great, which is don’t show the monster. (Don’t worry, fans, this last bit is a storytelling technique and there is a payoff.)
This DC fan is excited to see what’s next for Clayface and what will happen when he eventually faces off against the Dark Knight.
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