Clayface Review: A Horror Triumph for DC Studios

It’s been a wild year for the movie industry and the world, which might explain why so many folks were nervous about whether DC Studios’ highly-anticipated, big swing of an R-Rated Clayface would be able to deliver the goods. Walking out of director James Watkins’ shockingly extreme, and enjoyable, entry in the Gunnverse, it felt silly any of us ever doubted Watkins or the incredible team both behind the camera or in front of it, caked in appropriately muddy, runny clay.

Watkins previously burst onto the scene with the hauntingly brutal “Broken Britain” horror entry, Eden Lake, and almost 20 years later brings the same frenetic, terrifying energy to a specifically nightmarish vision to Gotham—albeit with more of an empathetic and mature heart in this superhero offshoot. There’s a sense of fun here that fits the world of DC and the neon-hued streets of Batman‘s hometown. As our gateway into James Gunn and DC Studios’ Gotham, it works splendidly, establishing a lived-in, working class world that is familiar and yet unlike any version of Batman’s old haunts we previously watched. 

Beginning at the precipice of his stardom, Clayface follows a young Gotham actor named Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), who has crawled his way up from the gutter to the edge of immense fame. Unfortunately, a night out and some bad choices lead him into the bed of a gangster’s moll Mia (Joana Ribeiro). Her beau is less than happy when he finds out and in a scene that will set the stage for just how far Watkins was allowed to go, Matt’s face is gruesomely sliced and diced by some henchies. That along with some false assault allegations from Mia —a plot point that should have stayed in the first draft —destroy his career, leaving him bitter and desperate. It’s here he finds his savior, Dr Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), an experimental scientist whose research was stolen by a cosmetics company which left her in ruins. 

Once the exceptional Harries and even better Ackie are on screen together, the film finds its pace and purpose as it explores the lengths we’ll go to “be the best version of ourselves,” and the chemistry crackles as they try to use her nanites to fix his once beautiful face. That would be a nice silver lining, but Caitlyn is married to John Borrelli (Max Minghella in a career best performance), the only likable and not corrupt cop in the GCPD, who is investigating a series of murders that seem to be connected to Matt’s horrific attack. This tragic romance element is played as a delightful Gotham set Phantom of the Opera tragedy, as Matt tries to understand who he is on the other side of disaster, loss, and of course mad science experiments. 

To go much deeper into plot would veer into spoilers but as a horror fan who adores comics, it is quite honestly magnificent to see what Watkins has created here. There is an extreme nature to the horror that feels like the sort of thing we’d usually see in torture porn like Matryrs or a Terrifier sequel. But here Watkins wields gore with the precision of a surgeon; he knows just how much to show us and when to give us a little more than we can handle. It’s been a long time since I saw a studio horror that could make me wince and cover my eyes while simultaneously shed a tear for the complicated humans at the heart of it. Clayface made me do both, multiple times. 

For a while many of us have wondered if DC Studios was hoping for an Obsession style word-of-mouth hit with this one and after seeing the atmospheric, bloody, and brilliant concoction that Watkins put together, it feels like they really might have something remarkable on their hands. But what really blew me away was how that was still balanced with a love for the often operatic and over the top elements of the character of Clayface, as well as Gotham itself. There are recognizable landmarks and Gotham-specific nods that feel right out of Batman: The Animated Series, and a clear love for the source material that somehow always makes any extra homework feel unnecessary. This is a movie you can jump right into with only a hunger for a classic monster movie and a lot of blood. And after you fall in love with Matt Hagen, you can dive into the guy and his comic book history—literally in the former’s case.

With no other big horror releases on the slate this spooky season, it feels like DC Studios could be about to make a big impact, because while Marvel has dipped its toes into horror before, Clayface is a big FU to the family-friendly Disney approach. As the newspapers used to say, “This isn’t your father’s superhero movie,” and while I have long complained about the danger of only making grim and gritty yarns, here Watkins—working on a script co-written by Mike Flanagan—has shown you can make comic book movies for adults that shock and push boundaries. Or at least you can at DC. 

Clayface opens on Friday, Oct. 23.