CLAYFACE (2026)

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: James Watkins
Cast: Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Gore)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 22 October 2026

Synopsis: DC Studios’ first-ever foray into the genre, “Clayface” is a horror thriller from director James Watkins, starring Tom Rhys Harries in the title role of the Gotham City villain. It unravels one man’s horrifying descent from rising Hollywood star to revenge-filled monster in a story that explores the loss of one’s identity and humanity, corrosive love, and the dark underbelly of scientific ambition.

Movie Review:

There has been plenty of publicity about Clayface being DC Studios’ first horror movie, with the film marketed as a body-horror experience. Before anyone starts preparing to watch it through their fingers, however, it is worth managing expectations.

This is not The Substance (2024), where grotesque imagery and bodily mutilation come at you relentlessly. There is certainly enough goo, blood and icky business to make the more squeamish audience members squirm, but Clayface is not an all-out assault on the senses.

And one must remember that this is still a DC movie about a character from the comic-book universe.

As an origin story for a villain often described as an antihero, the film follows a familiar trajectory: a man suffers a terrible fate, finds himself pushed into increasingly desperate circumstances and eventually becomes someone capable of doing truly awful things.

Here, that man is Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), an aspiring actor whose face is horribly disfigured by mobsters. A desperate attempt to restore his appearance leads him to scientist Dr Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), whose experimental treatment gives him a second chance at life — but at a terrible cost. As Matt’s body begins to transform, the line between the man he once was and the monster he is becoming grows increasingly blurred.

Harries makes for a good-guy-turned-villain we can empathise with, and it is no small feat to convey emotion beneath a face that is progressively losing its human form. There is a tragedy to Matt’s predicament, particularly when his identity and appearance — essential to his livelihood as an actor — are taken away from him. Ackie also does a decent job as the scientist who helps give him a new lease on life, even as the consequences of her work become increasingly disturbing.

Clayface seems unsure of what kind of movie it wants to be. Is it a body-horror film, a story about beauty and the beast, a tale of a good man turning into a villain, or a dark thriller occasionally interrupted by awkward humour? These elements do not always gel. Still, its high production values and steady stream of unsettling developments make it engaging enough to hold our attention throughout.

Where the movie truly delivers is in its visual effects. Watching Matt’s face fall apart and morph into an unrecognisable mass of goo is the sort of movie magic that makes you grateful for the distance between the screen and your seat. There are moments when his eyelids become stuck together, forcing him to cut the sticky strands apart, that are particularly nasty. The scenes in which Matt dispatches his adversaries are similarly effective, offering enough blood and grotesque imagery to make the more easily frightened audience members gasp, mutter “Nooo!” and recoil with an involuntary “Ewww!”

These sequences are undoubtedly the film’s highlights, and the visual effects deserve credit for making Matt’s transformation so convincingly revolting. Yet for all the goo and gore, the emotional impact feels oddly restrained. We understand Matt’s suffering, but film delivers a only moderate level of devastating emotional punch that his tragic transformation deserves.

Clayface may succeed in making your skin crawl, but we wish it could have done more at breaking your heart. We would have loved getting hit harder with an emotional impact, rather than having it suppressed beneath all that goo. Still,

Clayface deserves credit for taking a less conventional route into DC’s cinematic universe, with its grotesque visuals and tragic central character offering something different from the usual superhero spectacle. If DC continues to give its darker corners this kind of big-screen treatment, there could be plenty more nightmares worth looking forward to.

Movie Rating:

(Tom Rhys Harries makes a sympathetic monster in Clayface, a body-horror tale that delivers the icky goods)

Review by John Li