Clayface Review

Melting Faces, Moldy Ideas

By: Marc Kozak

Clayface

Melting Faces, Moldy Ideas

By: Marc Kozak

If you had to choose one of Batman’s greatest villains to make a solo movie about, Clayface probably wouldn’t be many people’s first (or second or third) choice. Sure, there’s some interesting visual potential — there’s plenty you can do with a giant, shapeshifting monster made out of clay — but the story of his origin is fairly played out, having originated in the 1940s as a comic-book homage to the classic monster movies from the golden age of Hollywood. There have been various iterations of the character throughout the decades, but most modern comic book stories have settled on recycling the same basic beats: a promising actor has his face disfigured and eventually turns into a big, angry, shapeshifting blob.

It doesn’t sound that enthralling, but then again, any character can sound dull when reduced to a one-sentence origin — who is the Joker other than some guy who fell in a vat of chemicals and went insane? There are no bad ideas, only bad execution, as they say. If someone were passionate about the character and had a good idea for a story — someone like, say, modern horror master Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass) — it’d certainly be worth considering a standalone feature, even if it’s not exactly a project with mainstream appeal.

Armed with a pitch that Flanagan developed back in 2023, director James Watkins (Speak No Evil, The Woman in Black) brings Clayface into James Gunn’s new DC Universe (surprisingly even before Batman himself), making it the third film in the rebooted franchise after 2025’s Superman and this summer’s Supergirl. Based on those three titles alone, it’s hard to discern what exactly Gunn’s overall plan is for his extended universe, but Clayface itself isn’t really concerned with any of that. It’s a small-scale, self-contained story with hardly any ties or hints that would indicate it’s part of a larger shared world. The name Batman is never uttered. No other superheroes make a cameo appearance. The story does take place in Gotham City, but it could really be set anywhere; there’s nothing particularly Gotham-y about it. Even the periodic establishing shots of the city don’t really resemble anything other than your typical urban area.

" The final third of the movie is so spectacularly gnarly that many people are going to leave the theater feeling satisfied.  "

For better or for worse, this gives Flanagan and Watkins an opportunity to focus entirely on the character of Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), a young movie star whose career is about to take off. Hagen seems like he has his heart in the right place, as he treats people kindly and seems to be genuinely thankful for the direction his life is taking after surviving a rough childhood in Gotham. After learning of his first Oscar nomination, he hits the town with his best friend Corey (Joshua James) to celebrate, attracting the attention of Mia (Joana Ribeiro) on the dance floor. Despite Corey’s warnings that he should probably back off from Mia, the girlfriend of local crime king Markos Szabo (David Denick), Matt couldn’t care less and takes Mia home with him; he’s on top of the world, what’s the worst that could happen?

Once Matt opens his eyes the next morning, he finds Szabo and his crew in the room, who not only beat the crap out of Matt, but also slice up his leading-man face beyond recognition. Matt’s career tanks in record time: his agent abandons him, his manager steals his money, he loses his court case against the untouchable Szabo (who also launches a public smear campaign about him), and before you know it, Matt is penniless and without prospects in a crappy apartment in the slums of Gotham. Without much left to live for, Matt throws a final Hail Mary by contacting scientist Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) who is developing a radical nanite treatment that aims to rapidly heal damaged tissue. In a somewhat refreshing twist, Caitlyn is a lot more cautious and empathetic than your typical mad scientist, but the movie is still called “Clayface”, after all; there’s only one way this course of treatment is going to end.

Once all of the wheels are in motion, there are very few surprises. The treatment appears to be a success, and Matt quickly jumps back into the public eye, desperate to get his life back to where he left off. However, he quickly learns that his former allies were all too eager to capitalize on Matt’s earlier misfortune, leading Matt down a path of bloody revenge. He also starts to develop feelings for Caitlyn, who is conveniently dating the cop (Max Minghella) assigned to the series of mysterious murders that seem to be following Matt around. It’s all pretty standard revenge thriller stuff, an homage to a genre that has already been homage-d to death.

Where the movie really excels is in its gruesome body horror and creative violence. As the nanites’ skin-healing properties waver between complete failure and supernatural effectiveness, Matt is frequently not in control of his body (and in particular, his face), which is often melting and shifting in truly upsetting ways. There’s a wonderful Cronenbergian moment on an airplane where Matt attempts to cut his merging eyelids with scissors in the bathroom while the plane is experiencing turbulence, a scene that will cause even the sturdiest stomachs to churn. When Matt is overcome with rage, his body morphs into a gross and deadly weapon, his hands flooding into the mouths and eyes of his enemies, his body absorbing blows like, well, a giant ball of clay. There is a novelty to seeing this kind of R-rated body horror in a mainstream superhero movie, and the movie is at its best when it leans into it.

Less impressive is Watkins and Flanagan’s refusal to engage with any of a number of interesting themes that present themselves. There are a few comments suggesting that Matt is such a good actor that we don’t really know who the real him is, but we rarely see this on display, barring a few shapeshifting moments when Matt takes on the appearance of someone else, an ability that seems to surprise him more than anyone else. There is automatic commentary about the nature of good looks and the unstoppable allure of fame (something The Substance spent a lot more time on), but nothing is ever explored here in any depth. There are bits about nature v. AI nurture that could’ve been worth exploring, but the movie is more interested in getting back to the action. There’s certainly no rule that says a movie has to be “about” something, but it’s notable that the script seems to go out of its way to avoid doing so.

Still, the final third of the movie is so spectacularly gnarly that many people are going to leave the theater feeling satisfied. The final raid of Szabo’s nightclub is full of “holy shit” moments, as Matt fully realizes the potential of his new abilities, completing his transformation into a full-on rampaging monster.

Ultimately, Clayface is a totally fine movie, even if it’s a bit of a shame that the story feels so much like a template. For a comic book movie, the horror elements are a bit of a differentiator, but there’s nothing here that’s all that different from any of the countless horror movies being released on a regular basis. It feels a lot like a project that was afraid to take too many risks, content to play with the standard genre elements instead of truly trying to take things to a new level. As such, it’s hard to imagine it having any kind of lasting impact, even if Clayface happens to make an appearance in a Batman movie down the line. If this is an example of the kind of “bold swings” we should expect in the new DC Universe, adjust your expectations accordingly.