Clayface Review: DC’s Body Horror Experiment Pays Off
I went into Clayface expecting to be terrified. I came out wanting more of Matt Hagen. That probably sums up both my biggest reservation and why I enjoyed this film so much. The marketing had me preparing for something genuinely frightening, and that wasn’t quite the experience I had. What I got instead was an incredibly engaging body horror and psychological thriller, with phenomenal performances, impressive prosthetics and a visual texture that made its increasingly strange world feel tangible. For me, it’s one of the best DC films we’ve had in a while.
Directed by James Watkins, from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, Clayface follows actor Matt Hagen, played by Tom Rhys Harries. After a brutal attack leaves him disfigured, Matt turns to Dr. Caitlyn Corr, played by Naomi Ackie, for an experimental treatment that could restore his face. But what initially looks like a way to reclaim his life comes with side effects that change far more than his appearance.
It’s a strong setup, but what really makes it work is how invested I became in Matt. Before anything else, I saw someone whose life had been completely derailed. He came across as a genuinely decent person caught in a terrible situation, and I understood the desperation behind his decisions. I wasn’t just waiting for him to become the character I recognized from the comics. I cared about what was happening to him along the way.
Harries is phenomenal in the role. I hadn’t seen much of his work going in, which made his performance an especially pleasant surprise. He makes Matt’s vulnerability convincing, and that connection gives the physical transformations something to build on. Watching someone’s body change is one thing. Watching it happen to someone you’ve become emotionally invested in is another.
Ackie is fantastic as well. Both performances help keep the film engaging beyond its visual spectacle, and that was a huge part of why I enjoyed it. There’s an intriguing character story here, not just an opportunity to show off what a live-action Clayface can look like.
And visually, there is a lot to love. The word I keep coming back to is tactile. The prosthetics are phenomenal, but it’s the overall sense of texture that really impressed me. Matt’s skin and the changes happening to his body feel tangible, almost as though you could reach out and touch them. For a character whose entire identity revolves around changing shape, that physical quality makes such a difference. The transformations might be impossible, but they don’t feel distant.
The cinematography complements that beautifully. This is a gorgeous-looking film, but what stayed with me wasn’t simply that the images were attractive. It was how much texture they seemed to hold. The visual approach and the effects work feel like they belong together, giving the film a physical presence that I found incredibly absorbing.
“Clayface makes its impossible transformations feel tangible, but it’s the person underneath them that kept me invested.”
The nightclub sequence is easily my standout. Without spoiling what happens, it’s where Matt really begins to embrace what he’s becoming, and the film delivers some of its most visually exciting and entertaining moments. It’s the sequence I kept thinking about afterward, and one of the clearest examples of how well this character can work on screen.
The pacing is another major strength. I wasn’t bored once. The film keeps moving at a speed that allows you to stay caught up in Matt’s situation without feeling like you’re waiting around for the next big transformation. I enjoyed the progression just as much as the spectacle, which isn’t always the case with a premise like this.
My biggest reservation comes back to the horror, although it’s more about my expectations than a specific problem with the filmmaking. I thought this was going to push me much further. I wanted to feel genuinely grossed out, deeply uncomfortable and frightened by what I was watching. There are certainly shocking moments, and the body horror can be unsettling, but I wouldn’t describe my experience as terrifying.
That distinction is worth making before going in. This isn’t the kind of horror experience I’d recommend on the promise of constant scares. For me, its appeal was much more about the disturbing changes happening to Matt and the mystery of where they might lead. That worked, but the marketing had prepared me for a level of fear the film didn’t quite deliver.
Perhaps a second viewing, without those expectations, would change how I feel about that. On this first watch, though, it was the main thing holding me back from loving it even more. The Substance was also a comparison I kept coming back to. There’s a familiarity in the premise and in the ideas surrounding changing the body, and I could see parallels in the direction the story takes. But Clayface approaches those ideas through a more overtly science-fiction and comic-book lens. It felt slightly familiar rather than like it was simply repeating something I’d already seen.
As a DC fan, I also loved spending time in this version of Gotham. The setting carries that awareness of a much bigger world, but the appeal for me wasn’t hunting for Easter eggs or waiting for another character to appear. It was seeing a story like this unfold within it. Gotham is the setting for Matt’s story, and that connection to Batman’s world is part of the film’s premise. What excited me was how naturally it accommodated this particular kind of horror.
The ending worked for me, too. Without getting into specifics, there’s an ambiguity that might leave some viewers confused, but I found it intriguing. I finished with questions, and more importantly, with a genuine desire to see where Matt’s story could go. I wanted more because I was invested in the character, not because I’d spent the film waiting for something interesting to happen.
Clayface is an incredibly engaging body horror film with strong performances, excellent pacing and visuals that give its transformations real physical weight. It didn’t scare me as much as I’d hoped, but almost everything else delivered. Fans of DC, body horror and character-driven spectacle should find plenty to enjoy, and even viewers who don’t normally seek out horror may connect with Matt’s story, provided they’re comfortable with the bodily imagery. This is a brilliant step into this genre for DC. It gives a fascinating character room to hold his own film, and by the time it ends, I was nowhere near ready to say goodbye to him.
