CLAYFACE (2026)

In theaters now from Warner Brothers and DC Comics!
Directed by James Watkins.
Written by Mike Flanagan, Hossein Amini.
Check out the trailer here!

Actor Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) is becoming one of the biggest names in Hollywood. He was a rags to riches story having grown up in the slums of Gotham City. But after spending the night with a mob boss’ wife (Joana Ribeiro), the boss Marcos Szabo (David Dencik) and his goons decide to scar up Hagen’s face as payback. Distraught and with no other options, Hagen seeks out a brilliant scientist named Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) who has developed nanotechnology the helps repair damaged cells. After convincing Corr to do unethical human trials on himself, Hagen is injected with the cells, and the process works like a charm. But only for short periods of time. It appears the new cells begin reacting to Hagen’s dark feelings of revenge and other past traumas, turning his face into a mucky goo when he is upset. Once Hagen begins to control this new power, he sets out to get his fame back and revenge on those who took it from him.

I’m totally jazzed about covering CLAYFACE as it mixes my love of two media—film and comics. Not often do comics cross over into horror, though that seems to be changing with Marvel’s new Midnight line. And often, when comics do cross over into the horror genre, they end up simply being wandering super-hero stories wearing the mask of a monster (WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, BLADE, GHOST RIDER, and even HULK, for example). DC and specifically Batman, is more adaptable to the horror genre as his foes are often dark and downright monstrous at times. So, it’s a no-brainer to take a Batman villain that hasn’t been adapted before and give him the horror treatment. Villains like Man-Bat, Killer Croc, Mr. Freeze, even the Joker or Poison Ivy, have roots in horror, but none of Bats’ foes are closer to the horror genre than Clayface. And CLAYFACE the movie envelops some of the best body horror films.

Make no mistake, CLAYFACE is first and foremost, a horror movie. It borrows heavily from Cronenberg’s THE FLY and to a lesser extent Amenabar’s OPEN YOUR EYES and more so it’s American remake VANILLA SKY. There are the usual cautionary themes of delving into sciences that shouldn’t be dealt with but also themes of identity. While the film doesn’t get into the uncomfortable themes of attempting to cope with a scarred face by covering it up and acting as if nothing has happened as Cruise does with VANILLA SKY, it does hint at it as Hagen rushes to get back to his posh life once he gets his new face, only to find the procedure only works for a short period of time. These themes of identity and the way Hagen’s face sags when the procedure runs out of time reminded me of a stroke victim desperately trying to get one’s life back after the stroke causes devastating damage. It’s these types of ripe themes that makes CLAYFACE a bit more than your average comic book movie and a more effective horror film.

There are very little moustache-twirling moments from the villain or a hero to swoop in and save the day. From the get-go, those who know Clayface from the comics, know things aren’t going to work out well for Hagen, but unlike characters like Batman, Superman, or even Marvel’s Spider-Man or Captain America, the origins of Clayface are not as well known. So, this feels fresh as the story has never been adapted to the big screen. Now, this film does resemble the Clayface episodes from the original BATMAN: ANIMATED SERIES quite a bit, but as far as film is concerned, it hasn’t been done. So, seeing Hagen’s metamorphosis into Clayface felt fresh and new and will feel that way for newcomers to the character.

Still, the story of CLAYFACE does follow a pretty standard anti-hero structure. Hagen’s story is steeped with tragedy. We sympathize with him and some will have an issue with that. Most of the film, he is targeting people who are much worse than him. But the film makes this slippery slope logical and incremental, so we can see Hagen manifest from good guy actor to murderous monster in a way that feels natural. Hagen’s first murders are accidental, and it isn’t until these powers begin to corrupt him and give his darker side form that he becomes the villain we all know. The smart and refined script does a good job allowing time for this transformation make sense.

There is a ton of gore. This is a hard R movie with a whole lot of cringey, toe-curling moments of body oddity. The scene in the airplane is a highlight, and I wish they hadn’t spoiled it in the trailers. Other scenes, like most of the kills, thankfully weren’t. I also enjoyed the grossness of the initial transformation as Hagen spits out what looks to be chunks of bone and skin during a seizure reaction to the treatment. It all really does make the stomach churn and the sphincter wince in a gloriously gross way. But again, this isn’t just a superhero movie with gore and scares. The gore makes sense with the plot and tone of the film.

Tom Rhys Harries is not just a pretty face. He carries this movie as Matt Hagen. Yes, there’s a whole lot of special effects to help make his plight that much more monstrous, but for a relative unknown (I’ve never seen him in anything), he does a great job in the lead, selling quite a bit of the dark drama of Hagen’s past. I also really liked Naomi Ackie as Caitlyn Corr, who has a lot of charisma and can carry the weight of having to choose between a man she is engaged to (Max Minghella) and a man who represents the love of her work in Hagen. It’s nice to see her relationship with Hagen develop, even though she is a bit star struck when she first meets him. Seeing her struggle with these difficult emotions, sometimes with only using her face to sell them, shows how talented she is. As villains go, David Dencik is decent as the mob boss, but his character is very clichéd and ultimately uninteresting. The most interesting aspect of him is his death. Finally, Mia Torrez does her part at being hot and adds little else to her performance, though her part isn’t written as being more than just a nice piece of tail.

Now I’m going to stand on my soapbox for a moment. CLAYFACE is a part of James Gunn’s DC Cinematic Universe. Like the bulk of Gunn’s films, expect lots of swears, nudity, blood, and uncomfortable feels. Yes, at a young age, I did watch films with these things in them and there is a kind of cool factor to seeing the heroes and villains of the comics of my youth saying and doing naughty things. At the same time, more than half of the stuff Gunn has released are for more mature audiences. GREEN LANTERN, PEACEMAKER, SUICIDE SQUAD, bits of CREATURE COMMANDOS, and now CLAYFACE all have nudity, gore, swears, and other factors that make it not-so-kid-friendly, with only SUPERMAN and SUPERGIRL being relatively all-ages. One might even argue that the message from Krypton for Clark to go forth and reproduce an army of Super-people in SUPERMAN and the drinking and child trafficking plot of SUPERGIRL make them more adult-centered as well. I understand the age of the super-hero film might be over, but while Marvel often reflected the world outside one’s window, DC felt more like a simpler and more all-ages Universe. Seeing every character cast through a rated-R lens really doesn’t sit well with me. So, while I like some of Gunn’s films, I really think he should remember that children are interested in these films too. I’d love to take my nephew and niece to this film, but there’s no way I could with the amount of nudity, swears, and gore present in not just this film, but most of DC’s current crop. And that’s completely missing the point in my book. Exit soapbox.

Never mind how it fits in with DC’s cinematic direction, CLAYFACE is a good horror film. It’s filled with body horror ripe with resonant themes of insecurity, obsession with fame, abuse, shallow pop culture, and betrayal. Sure, THE SUBSTANCE did it better a few years ago, but CLAYFACE did it again here, making it feel more substantial than just a bunch of gore and jump scares. For me, CLAYFACE worked on many levels. It made me wince, think, and even got my comic book feels acting up. I’m curious to see how this monster factors in with the rest of the DCU, but more importantly, I’m glad this is a comic book movie that does horror right.