Clayface Review: Tom Rhys Harries Melts Into the DCU’s First True Horror Movie

After the bright optimism of “Superman” and the space western detour of “Supergirl,” the DCU finally heads to Gotham City, and it does so through the eyes of a monster. “Clayface” is DC Studios’ first true horror movie, directed by James Watkins (“Eden Lake,” “Speak No Evil”) from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, based on a story by Flanagan. Tom Rhys Harries stars as Matt Hagen, a rising Hollywood actor whose life collapses after a Gotham mob boss destroys his face, sending him into an experimental treatment that slowly turns his body into living clay.

Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, “Clayface” opened in theaters on October 23, 2026, in North America after rolling out internationally from October 21, and it runs just under two hours. It’s also already the No. 1 movie in America, as we covered in our Clayface box office report. Here’s the full breakdown across our five categories (2 points maximum each). Light spoilers for the setup follow, but we keep the ending out of it.

Clayface Story – 1.5/2

Good Points: A Tragedy That Earns Its Monster

From Oscar Nominee to Ruined Man
The setup moves fast and hits hard. Matt Hagen has just landed his first Best Actor Oscar nomination and heads home to Gotham to celebrate with his best friend Corey Bowery (Joshua James) at the Vesuvius nightclub. One reckless night with Mia Torrez (Joana Ribeiro), the girlfriend of mob boss Markos Szabo (David Dencik), ends with Szabo’s crew carving up Matt’s face. What follows is the most compelling stretch of the film: Gotham’s justice system folds, witnesses are bought off, his own business manager Frank Fitzgerald (Eddie Marsan) turns on him, and Matt loses his career, his money and his identity piece by piece.

A Cure That Becomes a Curse
Desperate, Matt agrees to become the test subject for Dr. Caitlin Corr’s (Naomi Ackie) experimental nanotech treatment. At first it works miracles, until his features start slipping, melting and reshaping themselves whenever his emotions spike. The script frames all of this as a tragedy in three acts, and the first two are genuinely gripping, using body horror to explore celebrity, vanity and what’s left of a person once the face everyone loved is gone.

Where It Falls Short
Once Matt’s revenge kicks in, the film trades a lot of that nuance for a far more familiar villain origin story. The third act swerves into near-camp mob violence leading up to a showdown at the Vesuvius, and the rules of Matt’s new body never get pinned down (how fast he can change, what can actually hurt him). Caitlin’s arc is the biggest casualty, starting out as a driven scientist with her own agenda before shrinking into a fairly standard love interest by the end.

Clayface Cast – 2/2

Good Points: Tom Rhys Harries Is a Genuine Breakout

Harries Carries the Whole Movie
“Clayface” lives or dies on its lead, and Tom Rhys Harries is a revelation. He’s completely convincing as a cocky, charming movie star in the opening minutes, and even more convincing once that confidence is stripped away. Buried under prosthetics for much of the runtime, he still finds the wounded vanity, the rage and the grief in Matt, making him sympathetic long after he has started doing monstrous things. After the long casting search DC Studios ran for this role, it’s easy to see why Harries got it.

Ackie, Dencik and a Strong Supporting Bench
Naomi Ackie brings warmth and a useful ambiguity to Caitlin, keeping you unsure whether she’s Matt’s savior or the person exploiting him. David Dencik makes Szabo a genuinely sleazy, hair-trigger villain you want to see get what’s coming to him, Eddie Marsan is effortlessly slimy as Frank, and Joana Ribeiro makes Mia thoroughly unlikable in the best way.

Where It Falls Short
Max Minghella is likable as John Borrelli, the Gotham detective dating Caitlin and seemingly one of the few honest cops in the city, but the script gives him very little to do. Szabo’s gang also drifts toward cartoonish gangster cliché in the finale. None of that is the actors’ fault though, and Harries alone is worth the full two points.

Clayface World – 1/2

Good Points: A Grimy, Lived-In First Look at Gotham

Clayface gives the DCU its very first on-screen look at Gotham City.

Liverpool Becomes Gotham
This is the first time the DCU has shown us Gotham, and Watkins and production designer James Price went for something deliberately gritty, shooting largely on location in Liverpool and drawing on German Expressionism and pre-cleanup New York street photography, as Watkins explained in our interview coverage with the director. Real streets, docks and grand old buildings give the city a tactile, rotten texture, and following Matt from a penthouse down through the Narrows and eventually underground maps his downfall onto the city itself. Keep an eye on the signage and set dressing too, which hide a handful of subtle DC easter eggs.

Where It Falls Short
For one of the most iconic locations in all of comics, this Gotham often feels oddly small. The modest budget shows in streets that look underpopulated and a city that rarely develops its own identity beyond “corrupt and dirty,” and Batman is never mentioned at all. The nightclub, the courthouse and the labs all do their jobs, but this Gotham works more as a moody backdrop than as the living, breathing city the DCU will eventually need it to be.

Music Score and Effects – 2/2

This is where “Clayface” truly shines. Watkins insisted on doing as much as possible in camera, and the practical prosthetics and makeup effects are outstanding, ranging from Matt’s mutilated face and grisly surgery aftermath to half-formed, putty-like features that look horribly real. One standout sequence on a turbulent plane, where Matt has to cut his fused eyelids open with a pair of nail scissors, is the kind of gross-out set piece people will be talking about all Halloween. Visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton blends in CGI sparingly, mostly to sell Matt’s shapeshifting, and the mix of practical and digital work rarely shows its seams.

Practical makeup effects drive Matt Hagen’s horrifying transformation into Clayface.

Composer Volker Bertelmann (“Conclave,” “All Quiet on the Western Front”) delivers a moody, gothic-tinged score that leans on mournful strings, especially cellos, to play both the suspense and the regret at the heart of Matt’s story, and his haunting end credits cue is worth staying in your seat for. A melancholy cover of “If You Leave Me Now” adds another memorable musical moment. Add Rob Hardy’s cinematography, shot in a wide aspect ratio on vintage 1970s anamorphic lenses with splashes of saturated color cutting through the grime, and “Clayface” is easily the best-crafted DCU movie on a technical level so far.

Originality – 1.5/2

How It Stands Apart / Uniqueness

An R-rated, full-blown body horror movie built around a second-tier Batman villain, with no Batman anywhere in sight, is exactly the kind of risk superhero franchises rarely take, and DC Studios deserves real credit for it. Reworking Matt Hagen from a treasure hunter in the comics into a Hollywood actor (borrowing a page from the original Clayface, Basil Karlo, and the beloved “Feat of Clay” episode of “Batman: The Animated Series”) is a smart move that turns the character into a story about fame, image and losing your own face. It’s also refreshingly self-contained, with no franchise homework required and no post-credits scene.

Where it loses half a point is in the bones of the plot. Under the slime, this is a familiar rise, fall and revenge arc with obvious DNA from “The Fly,” “Darkman,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “The Substance,” and the final act plays it much safer than its bold opening promises. It’s a fresh coat of horror on a well-worn template, but a very effective one.

What’s Next for Clayface and the DCU?

“Clayface” has no mid-credits or post-credits scene, and James Gunn has confirmed that the film takes place before “Superman” on the DCU timeline, which helps explain why it stands so firmly on its own. That doesn’t mean Matt Hagen is done, though. A version of Clayface already appeared in the first season of “Creature Commandos,” and on the film’s premiere red carpet Gunn confirmed the shapeshifter will return, saying, “I can’t wait for you guys to see what we do with him.” Which project brings him back hasn’t been revealed yet, and with the DCU still waiting on its own Batman, a future clash with the Dark Knight remains pure speculation for now.

On the release calendar, “Clayface” is the DCU’s final theatrical outing of 2026. The next big stop is Gunn’s “Man of Tomorrow,” the direct sequel to “Superman” (read our Superman review), on July 9, 2027, with David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult returning and Milly Alcock reprising the Kara Zor-El we covered in our Supergirl review. Gunn has said “Creature Commandos” Season 2 won’t arrive long after that, which makes it the most likely early candidate for a Clayface reunion, and fans of the DCU’s TV side can catch up on the outlook for “Lanterns” in our Lanterns Season 2 update. If “Superman” proved the DCU could soar, “Clayface” proves it can get its hands dirty, and that’s a very good sign for Gunn and Peter Safran’s “Gods and Monsters” era.

Gamersuniverse Score:

8 out of 10 stars⭐

Clayface is the DCU’s boldest swing yet and, for long stretches, its most gripping film. Tom Rhys Harries delivers a true breakout performance, the practical makeup and prosthetic effects are among the best the genre has seen in years, and Volker Bertelmann’s mournful score gives Matt Hagen’s downfall real tragic weight. The first two acts are a genuinely nasty, emotionally effective body horror story that earns every wince.

It loses ground with a third act that slides into a more predictable, slightly campy villain origin, an underdeveloped Caitlin, and a first look at Gotham that feels too small for such an iconic city. Even so, it’s gory, confident and refreshingly standalone, and a must-see for horror fans this Halloween season, DC fan or not.

Score Summary

• Story: 1.5/2
• Cast: 2/2
• World: 1/2
• Music Score and Effects: 2/2
• Originality: 1.5/2
  Total: 8/10

Have you seen Clayface yet? Did the plane scene make you look away? Let us know in the comments.

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Picture Source: DC (Official Teaser), DC (Official Trailer), Warner Bros. (Final Trailer)