DC is taking a different approach with its latest film, Clayface, bringing one of Batman’s best-known villains to the screen in a gruesome body horror story. Directed by James Watkins, with a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, the film stars Tom Rhys Harries as a young actor whose promising Hollywood career takes a horrifying turn. I recently attended a screening of Clayface in London, and while I knew this wasn’t going to be your typical DC film, I was still surprised by just how far it goes with the horror.

The story follows Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), an actor who has managed to leave behind his difficult upbringing in Gotham and build a successful Hollywood career. With an Oscar nomination under his belt and a promising future ahead, things are finally looking good for Matt, until an encounter with a woman connected to notorious gangster Markos Szabo (David Dencik) changes everything. A brutal attack leaves his face badly disfigured, and with his career and personal life falling apart, Matt becomes desperate to find a way back to the life he once had.

Matt turns to scientist Dr Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who has been working on an experimental treatment that could restore his face. At first, it appears to work, giving Matt the chance to get his old life back, but the treatment soon starts causing some pretty horrific side effects and he begins losing control of what is happening to his body. As his condition gets worse, so does his obsession with getting revenge on the people who destroyed his life.

A DC film that’s not afraid to get nasty

One of the things I enjoyed most about Clayface was how completely it commits to being a horror film. This isn’t a superhero story with a few frightening scenes thrown in for good measure. James Watkins, who previously directed Eden Lake and the 2024 remake of Speak No Evil, makes full use of the film’s 18 rating, and some of the scenes are pretty horrible to watch. Matt’s initial attack is especially brutal, and the moments involving his changing face only get more uncomfortable as the story goes on.

The body horror is easily one of the film’s strongest elements. There is a lot of blood, skin and some truly horrible things happening to the human face, but the practical effects are excellent and make it all feel disturbingly real. One sequence involving Matt trying to deal with his deteriorating face during a flight is especially grim, and there were definitely a few moments during the London screening where I had to hide behind my fingers. Of course, I still kept watching.

Watkins also does a good job of keeping the film moving, especially during its first half. There’s very little time to settle before something else goes wrong for Matt, and the film makes good use of the tension surrounding his transformations. It helps that the horror comes from more than just the violence itself, as there’s something quite upsetting about watching a character slowly lose control of his own body and appearance. Although the film eventually becomes more reliant on CGI, the earlier practical effects are impressive and give the horror a more physical, uncomfortable feel.

Tom Rhys Harries makes Matt Hagen a character worth caring about

As much as Clayface delivers on the horror, it wouldn’t work nearly as well without a strong performance at its centre, and Tom Rhys Harries is excellent as Matt Hagen. He manages to make Matt sympathetic even as his behaviour becomes harder to defend, taking him from a confident young actor with everything going for him to someone completely consumed by anger and desperation. There’s a sadness to the character that makes his story more interesting than a straightforward villain origin, and Harries carries that side of the film very well.

Naomi Ackie is great as Caitlyn Corr, the scientist behind the treatment that gives Matt a chance to get his old life back. As she starts to realise how badly things are going wrong for him, their scenes add a bit more emotion to everything happening around the horror. David Dencik is also very easy to hate as the gangster who sets so much of the story in motion, while Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan round out a strong supporting cast and help make Gotham feel grimy and corrupt without Batman needing to appear to remind us where we are.

I also liked that the film gives Matt a reason for becoming a villain beyond simply wanting revenge. His whole life has been built around his appearance and acting career, so losing his face means losing much of what he’s worked for. There’s something rather sad about how desperately he wants to return to the person he was, even when it becomes clear that doing so might no longer be possible. The more he tries to regain control, the worse things become, and Harries does a brilliant job of showing that change.

A strong first half, even if the story loses some of its edge

While I enjoyed Clayface quite a bit, I do think the first half is stronger than what follows. The early scenes are frightening because Matt has no idea what’s happening to him, and neither do we know exactly how far his condition will go. Once he begins to understand his abilities, the film moves further into familiar comic book territory, with revenge becoming the main focus and some of that initial horror giving way to bigger action sequences.

That doesn’t mean the second half stops being fun. There’s a wild nightclub sequence that makes great use of Matt’s ability to change his appearance, and the transformations only get stranger as things go on. I did miss some of the tension from earlier in the film, though, when even the smallest change to his face was enough to make you uneasy.

A few of the character relationships could also have done with more time, especially as the story heads into its final act. At just under two hours, Clayface has a lot going on, and although it moves quickly, some of the emotional moments feel a little rushed. That’s a shame, because the scenes that spend more time with Matt as a person give the horror a lot more impact.

The CultureCues Verdict

For CultureCues, Clayface surprised me with just how much I enjoyed it, and it feels like one of the more interesting directions DC has taken with its films in recent years. I loved that it wasn’t afraid to embrace the horror side of the character, and Tom Rhys Harries gives a brilliant performance that makes Matt Hagen someone you can feel sorry for, even when he’s doing some pretty awful things. The first half is easily my favourite, with some excellent practical effects and scenes that had me squirming in my seat, although I do wish the film had held on to a little more of that tension towards the end. Still, there was something refreshing about leaving a DC film having watched a proper horror story rather than another superhero adventure, and I’d love to see the studio take a few more chances like this. It’s bloody, disturbing and occasionally difficult to watch, but I had a great time with it, and for horror fans, there’s plenty here to enjoy.

CultureCues Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

Clayface is in UK cinemas now, having been released on 23 October 2026. Rated 18.

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