2026 Reviews – Clayface

Oh, Clayface is getting his own movie 🤗 When surveys swirl around which untried Batman villain fans would like to see hit the big screen, Clayface is often at the top of the list, and he often has my vote. I go into this movie still remembering part of my childhood that’s devoted to Batman: The Animated Series and the masterful two-part episode where Clayface is born. I also understand the body horror element this movie is probably wanting to exploit by giving Clayface his own MA 15+ rated movie. Popcorn, ready!🍿

First things first; the actor they have chosen to portray Clayface completely looks the part 😍 I admire his devilishly good looks, his wild hair; even down to the voice that seems perfectly befitting a young Matt Hagen. I like the idea of Clayface as a villain for his youth and foiled ambition, compared to the old and jaded that usually populate Batman’s rogue gallery, through Penguin, Joker, Two-Face, Victor Freeze to name a few. Matt Hagen truly is a good guy who suffered ‘one bad day’, which I think is the name of the film the actor who beats Hagen for Best Actor stars in – nice touch there. For me, I’m actually coming at this movie from 3 angles, since I’m familiar with the animated cartoon, and while sitting in the cinema chair, I also realise how we’ve already had a highly successful Batman villain spin-off movie with Joker, and so there will be comparisons to be made there too. I’m also most keen to see how this movie fits along the DCU timeline under the helm of James Gunn 🤔 But with Joker in mind, it’s a good place to start, and it’s quite clear that Clayface aims to set a mood rather well through as much yellow-to-red, amber lighting as it can muster, often through neon signage all over Gotham – I like that, with Clayface mostly portrayed with an orange-brown body himself in all media. This movie also takes moments to showcase some musical choices, and whilst they might be succinct to the movie – and perhaps the Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) character mostly – in no way are they as punchy for the movie as Joker, through Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life” and more. This movie made me miss Joker more and more as it went on, actually… But more on that later. The production designers have also had a field day in their task of designing Gotham City for the movie too, and there’s a lot of love in the end result.

I quite like the romance element between Hagen and Caitlyn Corr – and Naomi Ackie is the star of the show in my opinion – but I’m almost stating this as a detriment to the movie, because it’s the only splice of Clayface that really works for me. I’ve already said how Tom Rhys Harries looks the part, but the character of Matt suffers from inconsistent stupid syndrome. He has sex with the mobster’s girlfriend even though he has been warned against it. He overdoses himself on this experimental nanotech treatment. Even after he cuts his finger a teeny-tiny bit to test the restorative discovery, he immediately goes to cutting up his face, and I found that was so distasteful considering the entire story up until then had been about how precious his face was to him. In fact, I would argue that the movie doesn’t give Matt Hagen a latchable characterisation the whole way through. They set him up to be spiritually sensitive, in touch with his Mum – where does that go?! He doesn’t learn how to control his powers and then choose to act, which would have demonstrated some agency, but he accidentally kills his former money manager, Frank Fitzpatrick (Eddie Marsan) and scrambles from there. And the killing of boyfriend cop John Borelli (Max Minghella) comes completely out of nowhere. He’s killing good guys now?! I understand that he wants to feel close to Caitlyn Corr, but the conversation between Matt and John in the previous scene gave me no indication of murderous intent. It’s all coincidental. This movie would fail the famed South Park method of story creation, I reckon.

But nothing in this movie is more hilariously affronting than John Borelli, the dumb cop. Hello Max Minghella; this is the second movie I’ve seen you in where you are actually revealed to be duplicitous law enforcement in the final act, if you count Spiral 😄 John’s partner is openly telling him that the murder case must be handled sensitively, because the dead accountant is connected to mobster Markos Szabo, and John is antagonistic, in his face being like, “why? Why? Why?” You know why! I initially thought John must not have been aware of how corrupt and connected the Gotham PD was, but he admits that he does; yet still carries on, across all police scenes, like he has nothing to be worried about. And then he’s reportedly surprised when his life is threatened 🙃 I’m sure I’ve seen multiple portrayals of young Jim Gordan where he has to keep his mouth shut and go with the flow just to exist amongst his peers in the early years – John exudes none of that subtilty, and the movie demonstrates none of that awareness. Alternatively, I wonder if there is a version of this movie where John’s brashness gets John and Caitlyn killed, and thus further ignites Matt’s decent and complete decay into Clayface. That’s where I thought the movie was heading; that’s where I would’ve gone. Hagen says himself that Caitlyn is the only one who can balance him out, so it makes sense if she was completely gone. Keeping her alive truly feels like sequel bait and nothing more.

Clayface has slow-pacing, trying to be contemplative, but the material just isn’t there. No, what this clearly should be from the jump is a revenge tale; and it finally gets there, and the movie is better for it. It’s clear that Clayface has got a lot of ideas as to how to interpret the visual aspects of the character – the showdown in the nightclub utilises the face-changing, the rubberiness, the blood, the spikes; it’s all there, but as if the most heightened symptom of the entire movie, it’s almost like by showcasing it all, nothing stands out as special. It’s rushed, unfocused and lackluster. We get one vision of the iconic mallet for the entire movie, and it’s just a cliché shadow on the wall. The movie also only wants to show us Clayface in his most traditional form right near the end – it’s so formulaic. The movie wants to keep us invested with Matt Hagen for the majority of the movie, but I’d think the tragedy with Clayface is with Hagen being such a pretty boy at the beginning and not that again, and it’s like the movie doesn’t want to deal with that. It wants sexy Clayface all the way through. Casanova Clayface. Sad. Personally, I don’t need the tortured Phantom-of-the-Opera-esque monster-lover angle from Clayface, especially when we have Mr. Freeze for that, often in the Arkham cell next to him. After the movie, I had to look up how prominent this love angle is in the comics, but I could find no evidence – Dr. Caitlyn Corr is essentially a newly invented character, despite there being some crossover to a later episode of ‘The Animated Series.

And it’s amazing to me, the full-frontal nudity contained in the first minutes, indicating that this movie in no way cares to appeal to the family-friendly. But then if that’s the case, then it doesn’t go hard enough! Now, I know I had massive problems investing in the story of The Substance, but there’s no doubt that when it came to the body-horror gore factor, it was up there with the best. And again, it’s clear that this movie had a lot of ideas as to how to illuminate Clayface’s super morphic abilities, but in no way do I feel like this movie will be remembered for them. They’re included, but they’re not a feature. I was puzzled by the plane scene, wondering why Hagen was cutting his eyes apart on a plane in turbulence – and I acknowledged that the rickety plane does elevate the horror when it comes to scissors around the eye – but the movie still chooses to punctuate that moment with a woman throwing up in a bag and the like, as if the movie is indicating to us that the sequence is supposed to be grander than it is. It didn’t fully work for me. There’s also no scene where Hagen’s form morphs and spazzes out uncontrollably, which I remember from the cartoon – sure, it would be expensive to animate, but Spider-Man 3 gave us that amazing visual of Sandman’s creation back in 2007, and we still talk about it today. The only visual I found truly inspired was Clayface rotting in the bathtub towards the end; and his ability to wipe his face off as seen in the trailer is a given for this type of material, thusly added. I did squirm at one part, but I already can’t remember where. And one moment is just not enough.

Hey, I suppose this movie was up against it more than I thought; through my multiple reference points building up expectations. Nonetheless, this isn’t it, and Clayface is disheartening for me because I was a champion in its corner. I’m keen to see what the rest of the world makes of Clayface – and the resulting discourse for the path James Gunn has carved. This movie is meant to be a worthwhile deviation from the main DCU universe Gunn is already on his way to establishing through Superman and Supergirl. I think this is my only interaction with screenwriter Mike Flanagan too since Doctor Sleep, and I hear he’s a horror genius (I am palpably giddy from the trailer for The Exorcist: Martyrs next year). I thought this project would have hit on Clayface to accentuate the body horror, inspired by the success of The Substance from a few years ago; or because Clayface was an interesting villain with a story to tell – but we accomplish neither. During the movie, I got nodes of Kraven the Hunter, for how bland and indecipherable our main anti-hero is and who he is meant to be; and the 2024 remake of The Crow, for how in-depth the movie wants to focus on the technical legitimacy of the transformation – and I think they are two movies universally agreed upon that you don’t want to be compared to in any situation 🙁 Anyway, as I write this, if I am to concede anything, it is that there is a possibility that my negative review is not a true reflection of the validity of the movie itself, but I’m spoilt by other works of reference all distinctly better for their chosen outputs, in Joker, The Substance, and Batman: The Animated Series. I’ll let the fans decide. 2.0

P.S. On the casting, I thought David Dencik was amateur as the intimidating mob boss, unfortunately. But somewhat happily, I did think Corey Johnson was a little old to be playing a thug enforcer, and Rob Brydon was wasted as a small-bit talk show host, and Eddie Marsan was too prominent to play a one-note corrupt accountant; but this trio of veteran British faces all get a turn at portraying Clayface, and that’s kind’ve neat 😄 I’d put money on director James Watkins being an English filmmaker with homely connections, and… Bing! ✅