‘Clayface’ Review: DC’s Body-Horror Tragedy Finds the Monster Inside Gotham
There was always going to be a question surrounding Clayface: can one of Batman’s strangest villains carry a movie without the Dark Knight standing beside him?
The answer is surprisingly yes.
Written by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini and directed by James Watkins, Clayface takes a character largely known as part of Batman’s rogues gallery and builds a standalone story around tragedy, ambition, romance and body horror. The result is a film that feels unmistakably connected to Gotham without requiring Batman to validate its existence.
Watkins is an interesting filmmaker to put behind the project. His recent Speak No Evil remake demonstrated his ability to operate within a larger studio production, but horror audiences will also remember him for Eden Lake, the grim 2008 survival thriller that remains one of the more punishing entries in the genre from that era. Clayface operates on an entirely different scale, but Watkins’ ability to create uncomfortable environments translates particularly well once the film begins exploring the physical consequences of Matt Hagen’s transformation.
Tom Rhys Harries stars as Hagen, an actor whose pursuit of success is violently derailed after his face is mutilated. His path eventually intersects with Dr. Caitlin Corr, played by Naomi Ackie, whose experimental treatment offers Hagen an opportunity to recover from what happened to him.
Anyone familiar with Clayface’s comic history knows that things aren’t going to remain that simple.
The screenplay doesn’t attempt to reproduce one specific comic-book incarnation beat for beat. Instead, this Matt Hagen incorporates elements associated with different versions of Clayface over the decades, including the tragedy and entertainment-industry ambitions traditionally connected with Basil Karlo. That approach works because the film is more interested in creating a convincing emotional foundation for this version of the character than checking boxes from any particular comic run.
At its core, Clayface becomes a dark romantic tragedy about how quickly ambition, identity and affection can collapse into obsession and revenge.
That emotional component gives the movie another entry point beyond its DC branding. There is plenty of body horror, blood and gore here, including several deliberately uncomfortable sequences that aren’t particularly interested in making Hagen’s transformation easy to watch. But Flanagan and Amini also spend enough time establishing the person underneath the monster for the eventual transformation to carry some weight.
Harries handles both sides effectively. Hagen doesn’t begin as someone audiences are simply waiting to see become a villain. There is a recognizable human tragedy underneath what happens to him, and that makes his deterioration considerably more interesting.
Ackie is equally important as Caitlin. Their relationship gives Clayface much of its unexpected romantic dimension, while Max Minghella’s Detective John Borelli provides the kind of street-level law enforcement presence that fits naturally into this corner of Gotham.
And Gotham may ultimately be the film’s greatest asset.
This feels like Gotham.
The grime, corruption, criminals, detectives and constant uncertainty over who can be trusted remain present throughout the film. Even when the story briefly expands into places such as Coast City, there is something satisfying about seeing more of DC’s geography represented onscreen rather than treating Gotham as an isolated location existing solely for Batman.
The inclusion of figures connected to Gotham’s criminal world further reinforces that environment without turning the movie into an extended collection of cameos. Clayface feels compatible with the kind of street-level criminal ecosystem audiences have recently seen explored through projects such as The Penguin and Gotham, while still establishing its own identity through Hagen’s transformation.
The biggest issue is how quickly everything happens.
Clayface has a considerable amount of story to establish, and the movie sometimes races through developments that could have benefited from more room. The pacing isn’t confusing, and the narrative remains easy enough to follow, but there are moments when the film feels determined to reach the next major event before the previous one has completely settled.
It brings to mind the first Doctor Strange in that respect. There is an enormous amount of mythology and character development being introduced inside a relatively streamlined origin story, and the concern is always that something important will get lost along the way.
Surprisingly, very little does.
The movie can feel rushed, but rarely sloppy.
More importantly, Watkins keeps audiences anchored in the environment while the screenplay continues moving. Gotham’s noir influence, its criminal underworld and the increasingly grotesque reality of Hagen’s condition give the film enough personality to prevent it from feeling like another superhero origin story moving through predetermined checkpoints.
That also makes Clayface potentially interesting for audiences who aren’t particularly invested in comic-book movies. The DC connection is obviously part of the attraction, but this functions just as easily as a tragic body-horror thriller about a man whose identity is literally and figuratively being destroyed.
How mainstream audiences respond to some of its more uncomfortable imagery may be another question. The horror isn’t simply cosmetic. Watkins allows the transformation sequences and physical damage to become unpleasant when necessary, and the movie is better for refusing to sanitize those elements.
What is most surprising is how well the different pieces ultimately fit together.
Clayface has romance. It has revenge. It has noir. It has crime. And when the transformation takes hold, it has legitimate body horror.
There is certainly more that could be done with this version of Hagen, particularly if DC eventually decides to place him opposite Batman. The current state of Batman onscreen makes predicting exactly where that could happen difficult, but Clayface doesn’t need a crossover to justify itself.
If this remains Hagen’s standalone story, it works.
I went into Clayface expecting the possibility of something considerably less interesting. Instead, the film understands one of the most important things about making a Batman-adjacent story without Batman: Gotham itself can be a character.
Watkins captures the city’s noir atmosphere and seediness while Harries and Ackie give the increasingly grotesque story a human center. The pacing occasionally moves faster than the material deserves, but the film never loses control of what makes its central character compelling.
Clayface isn’t simply waiting for Batman to arrive.
It gives the monster his own tragedy.
HMU Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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