Clayface review
An odd choice for the DCU…with some worthwhile parts.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Clayface
Directed by James Watkins
Screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini
Starring Tom Rhys Harries and Naomie Ackie
Clayface Review
The idea of Clayface has always been a bit of an oddity. Ever since James Gunn and company announced a horror movie centered on the B-tier (at best) member of Batman’s rogue’s gallery…people have wondered what in the world it would look like. There was no fear that it would be afraid to offer a pure horror experience…Peacemaker has shown that Gunn’s DCU isn’t afraid to do much of anything. What was exciting about the project is that it was greenlit at all. In the world of comic book films, a horror version of a villain’s origin sounds like a genuinely fresh take. A risk…but one worth taking.
So, how is Clayface as a movie instead of a concept? I don’t know. Pretty good, I guess.
More than anything I was left asking the same kind of question I had going into it. I now knew what it looked like…but I was left wondering what the point was. There is a way to view Clayface that worked very well for me…but we’ll get to that in a minute. The questions I had were all about the larger vision of Gunn’s DCU. Projects focusing on characters no one is clamoring for can be exciting propositions…but why are there so many of them? I’m not going to pretend that Supergirl isn’t a strong character…but before Wonder Woman or The Flash or…you know…Batman? Now…the Batman issue is mitigated somewhat by the fact that a separate, unrelated Batman series exists. Allegedly. It’s been so long since The Batman came out you would be forgiven for forgetting. But the others?
Lanterns was a smash hit for HBO. That shouldn’t be surprising since it’s more of an A-list character than you’ll find outside of Gunn’s own Superman film. Kicking off with a Creature Commandos animated series was strange. Making Supergirl the second tentpole film was too. Clayface is a downright headscratcher. The next movie in the DCU is about…who? What? I don’t know what the master plan is over at Warner Bros or Skydance or whatever it’s called these days. But I know, at some point, someone in power is going to have to ask what that plan is.
Now…with that being said…there is an argument for doing things this way. You won’t find a movie like Clayface in the MCU. Its relatively low budget (compared to other comic book films) gives it a good chance of recovering some losses from other projects. And they’ve been clear about courting the horror market…not just comic book fans. Which turns the question from “why is the next movie Clayface” to “is Clayface something that horror fans wanted?” The answer is…sometimes.
I’m not going to turn a blind eye to other reviews that talk about how unflinching Clayface is when it comes to packing in the gore and body horror. Those are selling points to horror audiences. I’m just not sure how true it is. You couldn’t confuse this with a splatter movie. Sure, there is an uncomfortable scene or two in the mix…but “gory body horror” isn’t what I would use to describe the film. It is what someone who doesn’t watch horror movies would describe it as…which is part of what makes Clayface a fascinating experiment. Non-horror fans who want to see the latest comic book movie might walk away from it thinking it’s a gross movie full of horror they don’t get elsewhere. Horror fans might just kind of shrug at the suggestion. This is the part where it’s important that you understand that it doesn’t really matter. What matters is whether or not Clayface is good. It is. But not in the way I’ve seen described leading up to its release. Which brings us back to that way of viewing the movie I was talking about.
Clayface, at its best, feels like a modern version of a classic Universal Monsters movie. Yes, it is gorier than that. Yes, there is more body horror than you’ll find in those. But…that’s not when Clayface is at its best. It’s at its best when it’s evoking those classic movies. It often feels like one. It’s often scripted like one too. And that’s the best thing about it, if we’re being honest. Scenes of gore and violence scratch a necessary itch…and the climactic battle of the film turns itself into something you’d never see in older movies. But it’s everything that leads up to the climax that really works here. The climax feels like a different animal…somewhat enjoyable in its own right. The resolution that follows is far too rushed…but, really, it’s the first two acts that do the heavy lifting here.
Picture a classic Universal Monsters movie in your head. Now listen to how Clayface navigates its first two acts. A man (in this case a famous actor) has his face cut up by a mobster. His life ruined…he turns to an experimental scientific procedure to heal his face. After injecting too much of the miracle substance he is able to transform his face into anyone or anything he wants. It’s tied to his rage…and it becomes uncontrollable. He heads out on a mission of revenge against those who harmed him…and anyone who gets in his way.
That sounds like a movie that I would have killed for James Whale to direct after he gave us Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man. And it would have been a damned good one too. Because the Universal Monsters pacing, story beats and feel are what makes Clayface work in 2026. Viewed through that lens…this is a good movie. When it tries to be anything else it’s just kind of a weird one. Both in the DC Universe and as a horror movie.
Scare Value
Clayface is at its best when it leans into telling a classic monster story. The good news is that it’s very much a part of its DNA. The bad news is that it deviates from that path in ways that distract rather than elevate the story. A rushed ending follows a strange, but entertaining, climax…and you’re left thinking about how much you enjoyed everything that came before that. Tom Rhys Harries gives a great performance…so do the other actors who get a turn portraying the main character. That classic monster movie stuff still works after nearly 100 years. And, frankly, it works better than the modern sensibilities that Clayface layers on top of it.
3/5
Clayface Link
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