Horror · Review ·
Clayface
James Watkins's Clayface is a gross, effects-led DC creature feature built around a strong central performance, and the transformation scenes are what critics praise most.
Critics split: some call it good, gruesome fun, others a miscalculation, and the complaints land on the script and its thin themes. Go for the transformation, not the story.
Dir. James Watkins · 2026 · 108 min · in cinemas
The setup
Matt Hagen is an up-and-coming actor whose face is disfigured by a gangster. With nowhere else to turn, he goes to a scientist, Dr. Caitlyn Corr, and she transforms his body into clay. That is the first act and all you need. The film is the first horror film from DC Studios, with a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, and it sets its Batman villain in Gotham without Batman anywhere near it, as the reviews describe it.
Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt, Naomi Ackie plays Caitlyn, and David Dencik, Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan are in the cast. It opens in UK cinemas on 23 October from Warner Bros. and is rated 18 there for "strong bloody violence, injury detail".
What works
The body horror. Even critics who dislike the film say the effects are strong: Rodrigo Perez at The Playlist, who grades it C−, still calls it visually exceptional and praises Rob Hardy's cinematography for giving Gotham a moody, lived-in look. Jen Lennon at Gizmodo likes how Harries carries the part and finds the film knows what it is and does not overreach.
Matt's transformation is believable and gross, and that's all it needs.
Jen Lennon, Gizmodo
The headlines of the trade reviews make the split plain. The Hollywood Reporter calls it a bona fide body-horror delight, and Variety calls it good, gross fun.
What doesn't
The writing around the monster. Perez finds the themes of identity and impostor syndrome applied superficially, the revenge plot a conventional run of killings, and an ending meant to be crushing that lands as absurd. Lennon calls the dialogue clunky and says the effects are sometimes shaky, and that hardcore body-horror fans may want more gore. IndieWire is the harshest of those I read, with a headline calling it a gross miscalculation.
Perez also says some of the mutations arrive as melodramatic jump scares that undercut the drama, so expect a monster film with a human story attached, and not a smooth one.
Who it's for
Viewers who want a creature feature with a sympathetic man inside the creature, and who are happy to sit through a clunky script for the sake of the transformation. If superhero films usually leave you cold, this is closer to horror than to the Batman films. The score here is a three: the effects and the central performance earn it, and the writing holds it back.
Where to watch
It opens in cinemas on 23 October in the UK and the US, from Warner Bros. Pictures. Release dates in other European countries may differ, so availability varies by country. Check your local listings.