Film Review: CLAYFACE (2026): A Strange DC Villain Origin Story with Plenty of Oozing Cliches

Clayface Review

Clayface (2026) Film Review, a movie directed by James Watkins, written by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini and starring Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, Eddie Marsan, Max Minghella, Ruby Sear, Daniel Betts, Nancy Carroll, Sam Hazeldine, Sonita Henry, David Dencik, Wil Coban, Francesca Corney, Tanya Moodie, Joana Ribeiro, Adam Silver, Joshua James, Gina Bramhill and Olivia-Mai Barrett.

A couple of old movie gimmicks lifted from House of Wax and Darkman sprinkled with some ugly face themes from Vanilla Sky compromise most of the plot details of the moderately successful at times, but mostly lame, super villain origin movie, Clayface. This film features Tom Rhys Harries in a storyline that will initially appeal to movie buffs but is ultimately undermined by its own over-the-top silliness.

Harries portrays an actor known as Matt Hagen, the type of successful man that makes one reminiscent of Tom Cruise’s character in the aforementioned Vanilla Sky. Both films feature men whose pretty boy faces become ugly and grotesque, and Clayface tries to rejuvenate old themes for a modern-day audience and, sometimes, splatters on the ground with its flat execution.

This film opens with Matt getting nominated for a prestigious award and he’s certainly living the dream. Set in Gotham, Matt gets down and dances with a wicked mobster, Markos Szabo (David Dencik)’s pretty girlfriend, Mia (Joana Ribeiro). After some steamy sex, Matt wakes up in a bed next to Mia and they’re surrounded by Markos and his evil goon entourage. Bad things happen to Matt, and his face is all of a sudden making Tom Cruise’s deformed mug in Vanilla Sky look a bit more attractive.

This movie is set in a Gotham where newspaper salesmen actually make money and it’s a clever way to re-create a city that has been fascinating ever since its first comic book appearance. As the plot progresses, a scientist named Caitlyn Corr (the versatile and talented Naomi Ackie) comes into the plot when Matt’s friend (Joshua James) gets work that should have gone to Matt and the former handsome actor, Matt’s life starts to spiral down a very slippery slope. Eddie Marsan’s manager character does some illegal trickery, which further brings Matt downward, and it’s clear that this scientist, Caitlyn, has to help Matt regain traction in his life by reconstructing his looks so that he can function again in some capacity.

On a plane, people see Matt’s face start to change, which makes for some humorous moments, but this movie is mostly very campy in the way it challenges the viewer with the absurdity of its plot. Max Minghella is featured as a cop, John Borrelli, and he’s the best part of a movie that falters more than it shines. Matt’s facial changes are the next best thing in the film, and the visual effects team is definitely on their A-game, making these facial distortions look genuine throughout the course of the film.

Darkman vibes come into play as Matt can take the form of different people while those House of Wax vibes are evident as faces start to resemble melted cake batter or cookie dough in some of the film’s more “grandiose” moments. While the Joker movies are debatably more intriguing, Clayface is a run-of-the-mill fusion of old-school vigilante cliches that works when it really wants to and falters when it gets lazy.

There is a very good conclusion to all this where a homeless man that looks like our villainous hero comes into the equation, but let’s not give away the ending at this point in the film’s release stage. Harries and Ackie get some nice scenes together where their chemistry ignites the screen. In fact, they’re better together in their on-screen work than their performances are when taken individually.

Clayface‘s biggest problem is that it meanders through plodding scenes that go through the basic comic book movie elements. Directed by James Watkins with a flair for gooey details, the picture often feels like something that may have been a monster hit 20 years ago. Coming out now proves to be a tricky proposition. Those who like villains will revel in this movie’s plot developments while others may not relate to Matt, which could be a major problem with the way this film could be received.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with Harries’ performance per se, but the film needed to shape his character into something other than a movie star that everyone once loved. That charisma which would make him a true movie star is sometimes lacking in Harries’ portrayal of Matt. There are certainly fun moments as the film explores Gotham in a different, more vibrant, way than it has been analyzed in other DC films.

This film follows the dreadful Supergirl as a movie that doesn’t have a mid-end credits scene, which could further frustrate fans of such sequences. On the other hand, this film just scored an “A-” CinemaScore as this review was being written, which means some people seemed to like it better than the original Joker. Go figure.

That being said, Clayface actually goes down like a vanilla ice cream dish with wads of cookie dough mixed in. It’s tasty at times, but getting through it is a chore because of the excess chunks that don’t really need to be there to enjoy the ice cream. Oh wait, was that about the movie or the ice cream? Quite simply, Clayface needs more structure to be a wholly successful effort.

Rating: 6/10

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