Clayface is the newest entry in the new DC movie Universe and is much more akin to a horror movie than your standard comic book affair for the most part. Taking a member of Batman’s Rogues Gallery and giving them their own movie isn’t unheard of, as we had Joker (2019), another solo movie divorced from Batman or any universe connectivity. Of course, Clayface isn’t anywhere near a household name like The Joker is, so this film is a much more niche venture. Clayface definitely won’t be a hit for everyone. 

Matt Hagan (Tom Rhys Harries) is a rising star actor in Hollywood. He came from The Narrows, a slum of Gotham City, but has successfully lived out a rags to riches story, culminating in an Oscar nomination. However, when he goes out clubbing with his friend Corey Bowery (Joshua James), he meets a woman that Corey warns him not to get with, telling him that she is the girlfriend of someone dangerous. Matt ignores his warning and goes off with Mia Torrez (Joana Riberio) and ends up sleeping with her. He receives a rude awakening when he finds himself accosted by Mia’s lover Markos Szabo (David Dencik), a powerful mob boss in Gotham, and a few of his guys. Szabo decides to make Matt pay by taking a knife to his face and cutting him up gruesomely. 

After a trip to the hospital, Matt is left terribly scarred and angry, but his suffering isn’t over; his life quickly falls apart from here. While he’s going through several surgeries in attempt to put his face back together, Mia falsifies the account of what happened and Szabo uses his connections to make sure no witnesses speak the truth when Matt tries to file a civil suit against him. Szabo begins a successful smear campaign against Matt, resulting in him being treated differently for his facial scars. Ultimately, he loses his agent, manager (Eddie Marsan), and friends, not to mention all his money trying to pay for the surgeries and his fruitless suit against Szabo.

Career ruined, finances gone and face scarred from several failed surgeries, Matt returns to the Narrows of Gotham he grew up in. There, everyone treats him as a freak, so he lives in hiding off of the little funds he has left. One stroke of luck finds him when Matt sees an interview on TV with Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), as she talks about her cellular regenerative research to repair deformities from genetic diseases and disabilities. Unfortunately for Caitlyn, her funding didn’t come through, so she is unlikely to see results or application before she loses her lab. Matt takes this as his only chance and meets with her, after some discussion and review of the damage to his face, he tries to volunteer himself for human trials. Caitlyn needs more convincing, but eventually after seeing how he is treated and wanting her own research to be used for good, she decides to treat him. 

At first, her nanoscopic cellular machines do appear to repair the damage over several treatments, inspiring Matt to take back his life right away. He begins making public appearances again, acquires a new agent, and reconnects with people he lost. He quickly learns there are some side effects and that he rushed to get his life back against Caitlyn’s advice. Matt’s face falls apart, fuses together and deforms in response to emotional stress, and the effects eventually spread to his whole body. 

His face isn’t the only thing that experiences changes. Matt spends a good deal of the movie finding out more about how he was set up and by whom, leading him to become more emotional and violent as he takes his revenge against those who wronged him – naturally taking advantage of the side effects of his strange abilities. 

This movie is very gross and graphic, with an impressive showing of make-up, special effects, and editing that makes many scenes truly gruesome to watch. The direction also blends a mix of snappy and smooth tricks to hide quick changes as Matt transforms parts of himself, offering some blink-and-you-miss-it shifts that I appreciated. 

That is pretty much where any notable praise of mine ends, outside of one fun fight scene with some good choreography and creative use of Matt’s altered body. It’s a fine enough movie for a solo comic book villain story; I certainly prefer it to most of Sony’s catalog of Spider-Man villain movies, which is not saying much, I know.

At the end of the day though, the story about one Batman rogue can only do so much and I felt the film’s momentum dwindled after the climax, when the director made some narrative choices that I wasn’t a fan of. Yes, Clayface is a villain, so I didn’t need a happy ending, but I’d have preferred one with a bit more creativity. It felt kind of predictable how it went down. Still though, it’s a decent revenge and body horror romp that was fun enough to watch.

James Watkins directed Clayface from a script by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, and you can see it in theaters now.