Clayface Review: DC Studios Delivers a Brutal Body-Horror Tragedy That Makes Gotham Feel Dangerous
By Klep Napier | WeAreCritiX.com
A message to James Gunn and Peter Safran: if this is how y’all are going to introduce Gotham’s rogues gallery, then your Batman better be badass.
In this Clayface review, I’m breaking down why the film is not just another comic book origin story. It is a dark, twisted, tragic horror drama that plants the DC Universe firmly inside Gotham City and makes that world feel dangerous long before its Batman ever steps out of the shadows.
Directed by James Watkins from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, from a story by Flanagan, Clayface stars Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, with Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan, Nancy Carroll and Joshua James. Matt Reeves, Lynn Harris, James Gunn and Peter Safran produce the film.
Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen before his transformation in Clayface. Official publicity still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
A Star on Top of the World
Matt Hagen is an actor at the height of his career. He is talented, beloved and up for an Academy Award. People know his name, and it feels like he has the world in the palm of his hands. Harries sells that confidence without making Matt impossible to root for, which matters because the film is about to drag him through hell.
After a night celebrating his nomination, Matt gets involved with the wrong woman and crosses the wrong man. He wakes up brutally disfigured, his face and career taken from him in one vicious act. From that moment forward, the film drops us into his downward spiral and refuses to let us look away.
Naomi Ackie plays the scientist who tries to help Matt recover, while Max Minghella enters the story through the Gotham City Police Department. Their relationship adds another layer of tension, and the film’s twisted romance goes much further than you expect. It sneaks up on you, then gets over the top very quickly.
This Is a True Supervillain Origin Story
What makes Clayface work is that the movie allows us to understand Matt without pretending he is a hero. For a while, you may find yourself rooting for him like an antihero. Then the film keeps pushing. His pain curdles into obsession, and the character becomes something much more frightening.
This is not a Venom-style story built to soften the villain into a lovable franchise lead. Clayface gives us a real supervillain origin story. It is tragic, dramatic, gory and committed to the idea that sympathy and terror can exist inside the same character.
The writing and character work are what hold everything together. The movie does not feel padded, and it does not feel interested in checking boxes. It cares about telling a solid story. We see Matt’s success, pride and happiness, then sit beside him as all of it collapses. That journey is the reason the horror lands as hard as it does.
The Body Horror Makes You Look Away
Once Matt’s cellular deconstruction begins, Clayface becomes one of the most uncomfortable comic book movies I have seen. The physical side effects are not treated like cool powers waiting to be unlocked. They hurt. They disgust. Sometimes they are almost tear-jerking because you can feel how badly this man wants his own body back.
Matt Hagen’s body begins to betray him in Clayface. Official publicity still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
The airplane scene seen in the trailer, where Matt has to cut at his eyelids as the side effects take over, made me turn my head. Harries has discussed performing that moment by cutting into practical prosthetics, and that blend of in-camera effects with CGI gives the transformation a weight that digital spectacle alone would not have.
The practical work, prosthetics and visual effects do not exist just to show off. They bring the character to life in a way that is grotesque, physical and strangely emotional. Even when you know you are watching a comic book movie, the body horror feels immediate.
Watch the Clayface Video Review
Gotham Has Finally Entered the DCU
Clayface also gives us our first real taste of this new DC Universe’s Gotham. We have seen Robert Pattinson’s Batman in Matt Reeves’ separate world, but that is not the Batman connected to Superman, Supergirl, Lanterns and the larger continuity being built by Gunn and Safran.
The Gotham Police Department, the criminal underworld and the film’s grim atmosphere immediately separate this city from Metropolis. Gotham does not look or feel like Superman’s world, and it should not. Clayface sets the tone for a city shaped by fear, corruption and monsters that can hide behind a human face.
That is one of the movie’s smartest decisions. It expands the DC Universe without turning the story into homework or stuffing it with cameos. Gotham arrives through the people who live there, the institutions that fail them and the violence that creates one of Batman’s most dangerous enemies.
A Villain Worthy of Batman
Harries carries the film. He lets us see the man Matt was, the victim he becomes and the villain growing underneath both. The supporting cast does strong work around him, and the mobster at the center of Matt’s tragedy is especially menacing. He does not need to be physically huge. The way he moves, speaks and commands respect makes him feel like someone no one should cross.
By the time Matt becomes Clayface, I was on the edge of my seat thinking about the eventual confrontation. Clayface is so powerful, so unpredictable and so terrifying here that the DCU’s Batman cannot afford to feel soft. If this villain is the standard, Bruce Wayne has to walk into Gotham like he belongs there.
That may be the biggest compliment I can give the film. It does not simply make me want more Clayface. It makes me want to see the Batman capable of facing him.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed Clayface. I would watch it again. It never felt too long, and almost everything on screen felt necessary. The character work, prosthetics, special effects, tone and twists all serve the same tragic descent.
Clayface is the dark side of the DCU: a bloody body-horror drama with a twisted romance, a committed lead performance and a fresh supervillain origin story that makes Gotham feel alive. The film understands that the best villains are not frightening because they were born monsters. They are frightening because we watched every step of the transformation.
Verdict
Clayface delivers one of DC Studios’ boldest swings yet. Tom Rhys Harries brings Matt Hagen to life with enough humanity to earn our sympathy and enough fury to make his fall terrifying. Gotham is here, its first major monster is ready, and now Gunn and Safran’s Batman has a very high bar to clear.
Clayface Opens Only in Theaters October 23
DC Studios’ Clayface opens exclusively in North American theaters on Friday, October 23, 2026, with the international rollout beginning October 21. Fans of Batman’s rogues gallery, villain-led origin stories and full-tilt body horror should experience this one on the big screen opening weekend.
Find tickets, trailers and official updates at the Clayface official movie site.
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