Film: Clayface
Director: James Watkins
Screenplay: Mike Flanagan & Hossein Amini
Producers: Matt Reeves · Lynn Harris · James Gunn · Peter Safran
Studio: DC Studios
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Released: October 23, 2026 (USA)
Rating: R
Runtime: 1h 48m
Content note: Clayface is rated R and earns it. Expect graphic body horror, including several lingering close-ups of blades cutting into faces, bloody gore and some nudity. If you’re squeamish, this one will test you.
🔒 This review is spoiler-free until the clearly marked Spoiler Zone near the end, which stays collapsed unless you click it.
🦇 Know this first: there’s no Batman. Clayface is set in Gotham, but it’s a standalone villain origin story, with no Batman cameo, no Easter-egg tease and no post-credits scene. Go in expecting a horror movie that happens to star a DC villain, not a superhero movie.
🎭 A Villain Origin That Lets Its Villain Be a VillainMatt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) has made it. The Gotham street kid is now a Hollywood leading man with an Oscar nomination, and everything is going his way, until one bad night with the wrong people leaves him horribly disfigured.
Desperate to get his life back, he signs up for an experimental, not-ready-for-humans treatment from scientist Dr. Caitlin Corr (Naomi Ackie). It gives him his face back. It also gives him a lot more than that, and slowly costs him his grip on who he really is.
What follows is a tragic revenge story, and the best thing about it is that it doesn’t flinch. There’s no last-minute turn into a lovable anti-hero and no wink at the audience. Matt Hagen becomes a monster, and the film lets him.
New face. Same Gotham.
Directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake, The Woman in Black, Speak No Evil) from a story by horror favorite Mike Flanagan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Hossein Amini, Clayface is the third film in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU, and its first full-blown horror movie. It’s a small, R-rated swing, made for a reported budget of around $40 million, and so far it’s paying off: it opened at No. 1 at the box office, is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and earned an A- CinemaScore.
Our verdict: a solid, gruesome and refreshingly committed villain origin, anchored by a terrific lead performance. It just never quite hits the gas as hard as its premise begs it to.
Tom Rhys Harries Is a Livewire
⭐ A Star Is Born, Then UnmadeTom Rhys Harries is the reason Clayface works. One critic compared him to a young Willem Dafoe, not just in looks but in the live-wire energy he brings. He’s charming and cocky as the rising star, pitiable as the ruined man, and genuinely unsettling once the treatment starts to take hold.
It also fits the character perfectly. Matt is an actor who has spent his life becoming other people, so a man who can literally become anyone, and slowly loses track of who he is, is a natural fit. It’s a modern spin that will feel familiar to anyone who grew up with the tragic actor version of Clayface from Batman: The Animated Series.
Naomi Ackie is very good too, as a scientist with her entire career riding on an experiment that works, just not the way she hoped. Their doctor-patient relationship develops into something more, though not everyone felt the chemistry between them.
Not for the Squeamish
🩸 Body Horror, Up Close
Clayface is one of the goriest DC movies yet. Faces are cut, skin is sliced, and the camera doesn’t look away. The practical makeup is excellent, and one sequence, set in a plane bathroom during turbulence, is genuinely hard to watch. Reviewers we heard from were squirming in their seats.
How much you enjoy that depends on what kind of horror you like. For one critic, it was surprisingly satisfying body horror for a comic book movie, and a potential gateway horror film for DC fans who don’t normally watch the genre. For others, it leans more toward wince-inducing slicing than the wild, inventive transformations of something like The Substance. The cutting is graphic, but the monster spectacle is surprisingly restrained, with some of the most brutal moments hidden in shadow.
The Shape-Shifting Is the Fun Part
Where Clayface really comes alive is when Matt starts exploring what he can do. Without spoiling specifics, some of the film’s best ideas include:
🪞 The Healing
Small injuries, and the eerie sight of spilled blood flowing back into his body. Creepy, clever and a little bit gross.
🛏️ Watching Him Sleep
A scene that shows what his body does when he isn’t in control. Easily one of the creepiest moments in the film.
🪩 The Club
A tense, paranoid set piece where anyone could be him. The film at its most fun.
🔪 The Finale
A final confrontation that’s creative, gruesome, and the film’s best use of his powers.
The transformations themselves are often near-instant, a quick switch rather than a slow, horrifying reshaping. A few slower, nastier transformations would have gone a long way.
Where It Holds Back
⚖️ Above Average, Never Quite Great1. The psychological horror is underused. There’s a fantastic mirror scene where Matt starts to come apart, and it’s the kind of thing the film needed much more of. His descent into madness is mostly told rather than shown.
2. It’s more revenge thriller than horror. Several reviewers went in expecting a horror movie based on the trailers and came out feeling they’d seen a revenge story with horror elements. It’s not quite scary enough to be pure horror, or deep enough to be a full psychological thriller.
3. The villains are underwhelming. For one of the most dangerous cities on Earth, Gotham’s mob boss here doesn’t have much screen presence. The bigger the threat, the sweeter the revenge, and he needed to be meaner.
4. A bit restrained for an R. It’s undeniably gory, but some of the most brutal moments are hidden in shadow. If you’re going to make an R-rated monster movie, a few reviewers argued, go all the way.
Where Does It Fit in the DCU?
Clayface is part of the DCU’s Chapter One: Gods and Monsters, and James Gunn has said it’s set before Superman and “very connected” to the wider universe. The character’s DCU debut was actually in the animated series Creature Commandos, though Alan Tudyk, who voiced him there, doesn’t return.
Still, on screen it feels very much its own thing, and that cuts both ways. It’s refreshing to see the DCU tell a small, strange, genre-specific story. But it leaves you asking, as one reviewer put it, “Now what?” With the DCU’s Batman still years away, this Clayface is left hanging, a villain without his hero. For more on the DCU so far, read our Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow review.
📋 Before You Watch
• Rated R, 1 hour 48 minutes, and showing in theaters now
• No post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits roll
• Keep an eye out for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Aaron Paul cameo, reportedly the last trace of a set of flashbacks cut from the film
• Filmed in Liverpool and at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, with a score by Volker Bertelmann
• If you’re a body horror fan, it’s worth the big screen. If you’re on the fence, a matinee or waiting for streaming are both reasonable calls
Spoiler Zone
⚠️ Click to reveal full spoilers, including the ending
The fall: Celebrating his Oscar nomination at a club, Matt ignores a friend’s warning and goes home with Mia, who’s connected to crime boss Markos Szabo. The next morning, Szabo’s men hold Matt down while Szabo slices up his face. Mia then smears Matt in the press, his manager, whom he gave power of attorney, drains his money while secretly working for Szabo, and Szabo walks free after intimidating the jury.
The treatment: Broke and disfigured, Matt talks Dr. Caitlin Corr into illegal human trials of her AI-driven nanite treatment, which comes with a kill switch. It works, until his face starts to melt at a movie premiere. After being hit by a car, he injects a massive overdose of the nanites, and discovers he can heal and shape-shift.
The revenge: He kills his manager and takes his place to fool the secretary. He learns his childhood friend sold him out under threats from the mob, absorbs him, and takes his place on set opposite Mia. At Szabo’s club, he sows chaos by impersonating Szabo’s men until two identical lieutenants face off, and Szabo shoots both. Mia dies in Szabo’s arms, and Matt kills Szabo by forcing his own blood back through the crime boss’s face.
The end: Caitlin’s partner, detective John Borrelli (Max Minghella), closes in, and Matt kills him and takes his place. Caitlin sees through it, stuns him with a taser (electricity destabilizes his body), and triggers the kill switch. Matt dissolves into goo and washes into the sewers of Gotham.
The final scene: As her lab is seized, Caitlin insists he can’t have survived. A homeless man she passes is Matt, now living in the sewers, where he plays out a tender reunion with her, voicing both parts himself. The film ends on his scream.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
The Good
The Bad
The Ugly
Tom Rhys HarriesA magnetic, live-wire lead performance that makes Matt’s tragedy land.
Underused Psychological HorrorOne great mirror scene, and not nearly enough of what comes after it.
The Face-SlicingLingering, graphic close-ups of blades and faces. Great if that’s your thing, very much not if it isn’t.
It CommitsA villain origin that never turns its villain into a misunderstood anti-hero.
A Weak Mob BossGotham’s crime lord has little presence, which takes some edge off the revenge.
“Now What?”A standalone story in a shared universe, with no Batman and no clear next step.
Practical Body HorrorExcellent makeup and some genuinely tough-to-watch sequences.
Thin ChemistryThe central relationship needed more spark to make the ending hit harder.
—
The Club SequenceParanoid, inventive and fun, when anyone could be him.
Restrained TransformationsNear-instant switches, and the most brutal moments hidden in shadow.
—
The Verdict
Clayface deserves credit for existing at all. A small, R-rated body horror movie about a deep-cut Batman villain is exactly the kind of risk superhero studios rarely take, and this one takes its villain seriously. It doesn’t turn Matt Hagen into a joke, and it doesn’t soften him into an anti-hero. It tells a tragic, nasty little revenge story and sees it through.
Tom Rhys Harries is excellent, the body horror is properly unpleasant, and the shape-shifting set pieces are a blast. But the film rarely pushes its best ideas as far as it could. It’s more revenge thriller than horror, the descent into madness is only sketched in, and everything sits at “above average” without quite breaking through to great.
The honest read: if you love body horror or have a soft spot for Clayface, it’s well worth seeing. If you’re squeamish or just after a fun DC movie, a matinee or waiting for streaming is the safer bet. Either way, it’s a promising sign that the DCU is willing to get weird.
Hey, I’m Alex, but you might know me as Asmodeus. I’m a dedicated gaming content creator with a passion for helping communities thrive. I specialize in crafting in-depth guides for RTS and base-building strategy games, breaking down complex mechanics so players can master their favorite titles. Strategy is my playground, and I love sharing the best tips to build, defend, and conquer. Let’s strategize and win together! 🏰🎮
