Ew. Surprisingly gross entry in the kaleidoscope that is DC Comics film adaptation.

Actor Matt Hagen has reached the pinnacle of his career; an Academy Award nomination. But after he sleeps with the wrong woman, a crime boss has his face mutilated. Now he resorts to drastic measures to regain what he has lost…

Clayface is directed by James Watkins (2024’s Speak no Evil) and is co-written by Mike Flanagan. While James Gunn has, naturally, a producer credit, Clayface is more in line with Joker or Matt Reeves The Batman. Significantly unrelated to Gunn’s colourful Superman or Supergirl. For a start, this is an R-rated / 18 certificate movie.
Starring Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie (Mickey 17) David Dencik, and Eddie Marsan. The film is a stand-alone story for the DC Comics villain Clayface. Which from my light research picks from several sources. In fact, the character dates all the way back to the 1940s, even if the cartoon series Batman the Animated Series is one of the most iconic representations of the character.

So does Clayface rise to stardom in the DC pantheon, or does he turn into slurry?

Our story follows Matt Hagen (Harries), a pretty-boy actor who was just nominated for an Academy Award. His life is on the up and up. But he is drugged into a stupor by a crime boss’s girlfriend. After they sleep together, she not only frames him as the instigator, but the crime boss ruins Hagen’s face with a knife.
His career in ruins: his agent moving on to other actors; all of his money going into lawsuits and settlements; unable to accept people fearful of his disfigurement… Hagen has nothing else to live for. He convinces a scientist, Caitlyn Corr (Ackie) to aid him. The solution? An experimental flesh composite with built-in artificial intelligence. It works. But it seems to be reactive to his moods… and he is anything but calm.

That synopsis is a big generalization for the psychological and technological complexity of this backstory. The film is less Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and more… Beauty and the Beast. If the Beast was a shape-shifting vengeful actor. What the film underplays in its exposition, is that the intelligent material injected into Hagen afflicts his entire body. Not just his face.

This is a gross movie. Comparisons to 2024’s The Substance aren’t entirely wrong. Although it is like comparing a roadster to a Formula 1 car. But Clayface is a unique movie for it. With comic-book movies, we often lower our guard. We don’t expect much to really happen. Oh, they are going to cut his face a bit? Sure, bet we don’t see any… Oh! Oh no. Ew. This is a lot.
What follows is some surprisingly gross body-horror. It can be reliant on CGI, which muddies the quality a bit. But again, for a comic book movie, we’ve certainly not seen anything like this before.

It is ultimately an anti-hero story. Like what a lot of Batman’s rogue gallery would be if given their own stories. It is why the characters are so compelling. This is also Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe; things are grim. Hagen’s entire life was destroyed just when he was starting to succeed. He quickly gets a hit list, and while his actions aren’t entirely his own, his emotion is raw and convincing.

Finally, since this is Gotham, we do have police action here too. Hagen’s saviour, Corr, has a fiance police detective who unfortunately is trying to solve the murders that are inexplicably following Hagen around. But with Hagen literally able to warp his face into other people’s identities, it is a string of mysterious murders. Grisly murders, too. It is a fun movie to see this inter-personal drama unfold beside the murders. But it is also quite disturbing.

The CGI does let it down a little bit. There’s the odd cityscapes of Gotham that are clearly tinkered with. The scene on an airplane (featuring prominently in the trailers) could have been cut entirely. It sold the movie, but it did nothing to move the plot along. The suspension of disbelief to make the character work is a lot. People unfamiliar with the character might find it uninteresting.

Personally, it would be fun to see Pattinson’s Batman investigating Clayface murders. But this is highly unlikely. As it stands, this is a good, solid, unique comic book horror movie. “Comic book horror” is not what we usually get. It should be commended.

Additional marshmallows: Similar to the Joker in The Dark Knight, it is fun to hear a new villain musical motif. Very nice.