DCU’s ‘Clayface’ Review: A Gotham Monster Story That Gets Under Your Skin

‘Clayface‘ is the 3rd film in James Gunn’s DC Universe, following ‘Superman’ and ‘Supergirl’, and it looks nothing like either one. Instead of capes and sunshine, director James Watkins serves up an R rated body horror story about one of Batman’s oldest foes. I walked in wondering whether a Gotham villain could carry his own nightmare without the Dark Knight anywhere in sight.

The story follows Matt Hagen, a Gotham street kid who becomes a Hollywood movie star until an affair with a crime boss’s girlfriend sparks a brutal act of revenge that leaves his face badly disfigured. Desperate to get his life back, he turns to scientist Caitlyn Corr, played by Naomi Ackie, whose experimental serum was meant to restore him but instead turns him into living clay. It is a tidy setup, and it unfolds across a lean 108 minutes.

What works best is the body horror, and it works very well. Watkins, the filmmaker behind ‘Eden Lake’ and ‘Speak No Evil’, relies heavily on practical effects alongside CGI, and the early facial surgery sequence is the kind of scene that has you gripping the armrest. This is genuinely ugly filmmaking in the best way, and it earns every word of its R rating for strong bloody violence and gore.

Tom Rhys Harries is the reason the horror lands emotionally and not just physically. He plays Matt as charming and a little vain at first, then slowly hollowed out and dangerous, so you feel the man slipping away as the clay takes over. Ackie gives the mad science side of the story a grounded counterweight, and the supporting cast including Eddie Marsan, Max Minghella and David Dencik keeps the world populated.

The film is not flawless, though. The opening stretch is slow, and it takes a while before the story finds its groove. The dialogue also leans pulpy, and the tone swings between sincere tragedy and B movie fun without always landing either one.

Gotham barely registers as a place, so the DC setting feels more like a label than a lived in city. The final scene also feels tacked on, as if it were assembled late, and it never delivers the emotional punch it clearly wants. Those stumbles keep this from being a classic.

Still, once the film gives in to its gooey, absurd instincts in the final act, it is a genuine blast. You do not need any comic book homework to follow it, which makes it a rare entry that works on its own terms first. It also proves this universe has room for a nasty little genre experiment.

Watch the first trailer for #Clayface. The new DC horror film is in theaters October 23. https://t.co/gqrrtJSou5

— Rotten Tomatoes 🍅 (@RottenTomatoes) April 22, 2026

I left ‘Clayface’ far more impressed than I expected to be. Its body horror is grotesque and inventive, Harries gives a committed star turn, and the shaky pacing and uneven tone only dent the experience instead of ruining it. My final score is 8 out of 10.

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