DC shapeshifter horror short on substance, melts under pressure

Clayface (MA15+, 108 minutes)

⭐⭐

Clayface is the latest movie in the rebooted DC Universe after the disappointing Superman (2025) and the more enjoyable Supergirl (2026). Refreshingly, instead of making another superhero movie, director James Watkins (Eden Lake, Speak No Evil) and writers Mike Flanagan (Hush, Doctor Sleep) and Hossein Amini (Drive) have drawn on their experience with horror movies and thrillers to tell a dark tale focusing on a minor comic-book character.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

or signup to continue reading

Tom Rhys Harries isn't given much to work with. Picture Warner Bros

Unfortunately the results are not great. The budget is lower than usual, giving Clayface a bit of a B-movie look, and there's an occasional clumsy moment in the visual effects. But there are worse problems: it's hard to care about anyone and the storytelling is a bit messy.

Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) is a young, handsome American actor who rose from a rough beginning to become a successful, Oscar-nominated star. But then he sleeps with Mia Torrez (Joana Ribeiro), the girlfriend of mobster Markos Szabo (David Dencik).

The angry Szabo has his goons carve up Matt's face and the young actor learns how fleeting success can be. He is dumped by his agent and his career is kaput. His civil lawsuit against Szabo fails (witnesses are bought off or intimidated, with even his old schoolmates smearing him). And despite multiple surgeries, his face is still grotesque.

With all his medical and legal bills, Matt ends up broke and alone.

But then he reads about the work of Dr Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) who is developing nanobots to cure degenerative diseases. Her work is in the early stages and human trials are still illegal, but Matt persuades her to work on him. He has nothing to lose and she will gain a human subject.

And the results are, for a while at least, impressive. Matt crashes the red carpet at the premiere of a movie on which he was replaced, stealing the limelight, and might even be able to resume his career. But the effects don't last and, desperate, Matt gives himself a massive overdose of the treatment. Then things really get weird.

This is very much a body horror movie so be warned if you're squeamish about blood and gore. The attack on Matt and the resulting wounds are graphically shown and the makeup and visual effects depicting the ways in which Matt's post-treatment squishes and melts and otherwise changes are mostly very convincing and horribly fascinating to watch.

Less convincing are other elements. A scene in an aeroplane toilet where Matt tries to cut away inconvenient flesh during a bout of turbulence goes nowhere. Matt's condition changes in ways that sometimes seem designed more to keep the story moving along rather than being plausible developments - he goes from being able to reshape and heal his face (fine) to doing this with his whole body (okay...) to being able to transform himself into other people (this is a bit of a stretch).

It all comes in handy when he decides to wreak vengeance on those who wronged him - Szabo and his thugs, the manager whom he believes stole much of his money, a friend who betrayed him. There's little sense of the obsessiveness that drives him or the damage this wreaks on him internally; it's not just the outside that matters. And there's little excitement or suspense created.

There is also a not very compelling love triangle that develops with Matt and Caitlyn becoming closer over the months of treatment despite her relationship with her fiancé, honest police detective John Borelli (Max Minghella). Quite a bit of time is devoted to this and to John at work, to no great effect.

Rhys Harries is quite appealing but he doesn't have much to work with: there's not much feeling of tragedy at his losses or mounting horror at his later behaviour. The script and characterisation feel perfunctory most of the time. Clayface is just barely watchable but could and should have been better.

More from Arts & Entertainment