The DC Comics character Clayface appeared in print form for the first time in the 1940s as a bitter actor who wore a mask to kill until he was foiled by Batman and Robin. In the new picture “Clayface,” directed by James Watkins from a screenplay written by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, the character is a vengeful shape-shifter whose face looks like a mass of unformed clay.
Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, an up-and-coming actor in the film scene in both Gotham City and Coast City. He’s amiable, but one night, he lets his success go to his head during an encounter with Markos Szabo (David Dencik), a vicious mobster. Markos and his goons then rearrange Matt’s pretty-boy face. The result of their handiwork is so grotesque that even under a mask Matt elicits jeers and fright when he walks down the street.
Enter Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), whose experimental work with skin grafts might be able to bring his looks back. Her new therapy, involving nanocells, does the trick. Except there are side effects. The first ones, like invulnerability to physical wounds, are pretty cool. There’s always a “but” in these kinds of accidental bargains with fate, though. And the side effects get pretty gnarly here, as the nanocells develop minds of their own. Or rather, they respond to Matt’s desires to get even with the people who wronged him.
You probably don’t have “surgery on shut-together eyelids with nail scissors in an airplane lavatory” on your 2026 movie bingo card, but if you do, you are in luck here. Horror mavens ought to appreciate the picture’s nods to Georges Franju, John Carpenter, Larry Cohen and David Cronenberg. Here, DC has gone Grand Guignol.
Clayface Rated R for gnarly graphic surgery, violence, language and nudity. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. In theaters.
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