Clayface, the new DC Universe body-horror film starring Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries, opened in multiple international territories on 21 October and reaches US cinemas on Friday, 23 October. It stands as the most unconventional test yet of James Gunn and Peter Safran's strategy for rebuilding DC's cinematic fortunes after Supergirl's box office failure four months ago.
According to TechRadar's review, the film is a partial triumph: a tragic, intimate character study that proves DC Studios will take genuinely strange risks, but one that hesitates to fully commit to its horror instincts.
A villain reaches the screen before Batman
Few observers predicted that a shape-shifting second-tier villain would beat Batman and Wonder Woman into cinemas. Yet Clayface, unveiled three years after Gunn first announced the DCU slate, arrives first, and its significance is as much commercial as artistic. After Supergirl's poor performance and the HBO Max series Lanterns, DC Studios needed evidence that its universe could sustain smaller, character-driven projects alongside its blockbusters.
TechRadar frames the film as a crucible moment for the franchise, and the early critical reception suggests the gamble has at least partially paid off. Variety reported that first reactions praised the film as freakishly awesome, dark and violent, while Looper noted that critics compared the work to David Cronenberg, high praise and a useful warning for squeamish viewers alike.
What is Clayface about?
The film follows Matt Hagen, a Gotham actor on the brink of superstardom, played by Harries. After Hagen sleeps with the girlfriend of mobster Markos Szabo, played by David Dencik, Szabo's henchmen disfigure him and destroy his career overnight. Abandoned by his allies and failed by the courts, Hagen turns to Doctor Caitlyn Corr, played by Naomi Ackie, whose experimental nanocell therapy restores his face before unleashing horrifying side effects and a descent into revenge.
It is a rare full origin story in a franchise that has deliberately avoided them, and TechRadar argues the approach is necessary given that Clayface remains obscure outside hardcore comic book circles. The film draws on Feat of Clay, a two-part tale from Batman: The Animated Series, and transposes it into a meditation on the artificiality of fame.
Tom Rhys Harries carries the tragedy
The performance at the film's centre has drawn near-universal praise. TechRadar credits Harries with a multi-layered portrayal that moves between fear, fury, dismay and infatuation, charting Hagen's psychological unravelling from grieving victim to calculating killer. The reviewer writes that Harries will leave audiences conflicted over whether to root for him at all, as his revenge shifts from tragic accident to cold premeditation.
In an interview with The Guardian, Harries described one gruesome scene as the film's tipping point of ickiness, and the paper likened the project to Darkman and The Substance, placing it closer to horror than anything in the superhero canon. The comparison is apt: this is a film about a face, and what happens when a man loses his along with his identity.
Naomi Ackie's Corr is more than a supporting foil. TechRadar highlights the co-dependent dynamic between the two characters, a bond that curdles from shared scientific idealism into a warped romance with shades of Fatal Attraction and Phantom of the Opera. Less successful is the underdeveloped love triangle with Corr's police officer boyfriend, played by Max Minghella, which the reviewer wanted examined further.
Where the film falls short
Two criticisms recur. First, the film never fully commits to body horror, retreating into shadow-draped discretion shots when a more confrontational approach, anchored in its excellent practical makeup, would have served it better. TechRadar describes an ironic identity crisis: a film about shape-shifting that cannot decide whether it is an uncompromising creature feature or a low-budget comic book adaptation.
Second, the shape-shifting powers themselves are underused. The climactic set-piece, in which Hagen merges his acting craft with his monstrous abilities, is gruesomely camp fun, but the premise's theatrical potential goes largely unexploited. Not every outlet has been forgiving; ComicBookMovie called the film DC's Morbius moment, a disappointingly tame affair that wastes its promise.
A Gotham worth visiting
The film's rendering of Gotham earns unqualified praise. TechRadar describes a neon-drenched playground blending rain-slicked noir with a heightened comic-book palette, drawing on the gothic style of Batman: The Animated Series and the gritty realism of Matt Reeves' The Batman. The comparison will irritate those campaigning for Robert Pattinson's Batman to migrate into the DCU, but it confirms that the franchise's world-building, at least, is on solid ground.
What Clayface means for the DCU
The verdict, then, is one of qualified encouragement. Clayface does not reshape the comic book film, and it raises more questions than it answers about the DCU's direction. What it demonstrates is more intriguing: that Gunn and Safran are willing to fund weird, character-focused gambles rather than retreat to formula.
If smaller offerings of this kind continue alongside the blockbusters, the risk will have been worth taking. The DCU's recovery will not be secured by one film about a disfigured actor, but a franchise confident enough to make one is a franchise with a future.
Frequently asked questions
When is Clayface released in US cinemas?
Clayface opens in US theatres on Friday, 23 October, and is already playing in multiple international territories.
Who plays Clayface in the DCU film?
Tom Rhys Harries, a Welsh actor, stars as Matt Hagen, the man who becomes Clayface, alongside Naomi Ackie, David Dencik and Max Minghella.
Is Clayface a horror film?
It is an R-rated body-horror origin story, though TechRadar's review found it pulls back from the genre's most viscerally repulsive possibilities.