Published 21 October 2026
James Gunn’s developing DC Universe takes an unusual detour with Clayface, a grim transformation story that blends superhero cinema, crime drama and body horror. The concept has promise, but the finished film struggles to make its central character or supporting cast compelling.
A tragic origin with little emotional weight
Directed by James Watkins from a story by Mike Flanagan, the film follows Matt Hagen, played by Tom Rhys Harries. Hagen is a rising Gotham actor whose good looks and recent best actor nomination have made him a Hollywood success story, despite a difficult childhood.
His fortunes collapse after he sleeps with the wife of mob boss Markos Szabo. In retaliation, Szabo slices up Hagen’s face. A series of operations saves Hagen’s life, but leaves him grotesquely disfigured. His agency abandons him, his lawyer takes money from him and he is forced back into a shabby Gotham flat.
Hope arrives through Dr Caitlyn Corr, played by Naomi Ackie. Corr has developed an experimental treatment using “nanocells”, which initially restores Hagen’s appearance. The technology soon malfunctions, turning him into a melting, monstrous figure with the power to change into anyone he chooses.
Why the character fails to connect
Clayface moves rapidly through Hagen’s life before the accident, spending only around 15 or 20 minutes establishing him. That brisk opening feels less like confident storytelling than a rush towards the film’s more visually striking material. It leaves too little time to understand who Hagen was before his transformation.
The screenplay needed to make Hagen either genuinely sympathetic or irresistibly compelling as an unpleasant man facing the consequences of his behaviour. Instead, he comes across as a shallow and unappealing Hollywood operator. That makes the revenge plot difficult to invest in, because the audience is given little reason to care whether Hagen succeeds.
The same problem affects much of the supporting cast. David Dencik’s Szabo is meant to be the dangerous crime boss at the centre of Hagen’s revenge, but the performance feels too slight to create a convincing Gotham villain. The film lacks the imposing criminal presence previously brought to similar roles by actors such as Tom Wilkinson in Batman Begins, John Turturro in The Batman and Clancy Brown in Penguin.
Ackie gives the strongest performance as Corr, the scientist trying to help Hagen. The film hints at a romance between Corr and Hagen, but the relationship never becomes persuasive. Max Minghella’s honest Gotham police character is more appealing in principle, yet he is given so little to do that the story never builds much interest in him either.
Body horror without enough horror
The film’s most effective material comes from its physical transformation. The nanocell failure produces some suitably unpleasant, cringe-inducing effects, and the imagery occasionally delivers the gooey discomfort promised by the premise.
However, these moments do not make Clayface a genuinely frightening horror film. There is little sustained tension or fear, and the gruesome effects are surrounded by a conventional superhero-style revenge story. The character may have worked more naturally as part of a Batman film, where his abilities and grotesque appearance could deepen an existing conflict.
An awkward starting point for the new DC universe
The film also raises questions about its place in James Gunn’s DC Universe. It arrives before that universe’s Batman has been established, making a standalone Clayface story feel premature. Like Supergirl, it seems to introduce a less central character before the new shared world has established its foundations.
Marvel’s post-Avengers: Endgame period sometimes felt like a parade of leftovers, but this film presents a different problem: Gunn’s DC universe appears to be serving its peripheral ideas before audiences have met its central heroes. That could work if the individual films were strong enough to stand alone. Unfortunately, Clayface has an intriguing premise, some effective body horror and too little else to sustain it.
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