Why separate macaroni from its beloved cheese? Why prevent copy from finding its purpose in paste? Who would dare divorce Tom and Jerry?
The concept of the “standalone supervillain film” is an idea that screams “we gotta find a way to make money off this” more than “we have a story to tell.” The latter is a much better reason for a movie to exist. The former is reflective of the creatively bankrupt executives who hold the throat of the two remaining movie studios.
Clayface is a Batman villain. Clayface does not have Batman in it. If you can get past that and the fact that there is no narrative need for more angsty monster apologia, you will find that Clayface is actually pretty good. Shout it from the hilltops: A film about a minor DC character is proudly, gloriously a bit better than just okay!
What it lacks in originality it makes up for in leanness and oomph. Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) is an actor at the top of his craft. He just got nominated for an Oscar. He celebrates by copulating with the girlfriend of a Gotham mobster. There is a long list of things not to do in that city, but right up there at the top is “cuckolding the mafia.” A boss and his goons cut Matt’s face to shreds.
Downtrodden and desperate, he stumbles upon Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) a researcher who is close to a major advance in mumbo jumbo that would do super cool science stuff to fix his carved-up kisser. None of the specifics matter because you know where this is going: Matt gets injected with some Cronenberg sauce that turns him into a shape-shifting monster. He goes on a revenge/madness spree that includes the best gross kill this side of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. That is the singular aspect that allows these two movies to appear in a sentence together.
Gotham evokes the hell-ified version of Detroit from The Crow. Yes, that is a compliment. Harries seems to be channeling the energy of that inarguably perfect classic emo antihero flick. The “antihero” part does illustrate the problem with this whole cursed class of films: They all have to find a way to make us root for a character who was created to root against while also preserving enough of their villainous nature to make them useful in future franchise work, should they get the call.
The script from Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini smartly never apologizes or justifies Hagen’s descent into a malevolent mudpile who mangles mafia men and mauls miscellaneous metropolitan members. Director James Watkins seems more enchanted by the disquieting trapses through body horror than a defense of the main character’s actions. Those sections are all wonderful bee-tee-dubs. And yet, you can palpably feel studio suits demanding all grotesque urges be throttled a bit.
No spoilers, but the end is expectedly inert. This is the origin of a Batman baddie, so he can’t be explodified into nothingness nor fully redeemed. He can only end up in a state that allows him to be useful later (maybe). Fin.
All that said, it is inarguably the best entry in a wholly useless genre. Yes, it is better than Joker. It is better than every other flick of its ilk. I will forever be faithful to the guidance laid out for me by the patron saint of movie reviewing, Sir Roger Ebert. He urged judging a movie on its own terms. Here goes.
Clayface is a supervillain origin movie with hints of body horror and not the other way around (despite how much that would have been a better choice). As such, it stands alone atop a mountain I wouldn’t want to climb. Can we be done with that genre now?
Grade = B+
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Walter Chaw at Film Freak Central says “it’s of a specific tradition of grand guignol horror melodrama (Maurice Level’s play Le Baiser dans la Nuit, perhaps) alive with insanity, panic, hallucination. Clayface is the perfect fable for our time of radical surgical deformation. I loved it.”
Sarah G. Vincent says “If Clayface is horror, it is a critique of the limits of the American dream and hollowness of existence other than things, which makes it a perfect complement to Possible Love (2026). It is also interesting because the cast is predominantly British actors and shot in Britain and Croatia. The call is coming from across the pond.”
André Hereford at MetroWeekly says “Most persuasively, the movie… knows what sort of superhero-adjacent psychological thriller it wants to be. First, make no mention of any superhero, despite a story set primarily in Gotham City. Then, go all in on R-rated gore for a darkly funny, vividly gruesome tale of revenge and horrific bodily transformation.”