Clayface Review: DC's Gory Villain Spin-Off Movie Is Shapeless

Remember "Darkman," Sam Raimi's delightfully unhinged 1990 superhero flick that had Liam Neeson play a revenge-seeking disfigured man using cutting-edge science to disguise himself as seemingly anyone? Sure you do. It's the film that kept coming to mind again and again as I watched "Clayface," the new DC Universe flick focused on a second-tier Batman villain. Yes, just like "Morbius," we're getting yet another spin-off focused on a comic book bad guy where the superhero he usually tussles with fails to make an appearance. Thankfully, "Clayface" isn't as dire as that Jared Leto affair. In fact, it's perfectly fine. But every time the film reminded me of "Darkman," I couldn't help think: "I wish I was watching 'Darkman' instead."

Directed by James Watkins, with a script from horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, "Clayface" is a surprisingly gory little freak show that ultimately feels shapeless. You get the sense of something bigger and better formed lurking around the margins. There was probably a more detailed version of this movie somewhere along the way, and then they chopped it up to streamline things.

But hey, there are things to admire here. I particularly liked that the film doesn't try to make its main character a hero, or even an anti-hero. Sure, he's sort-of justified in some of the horrific actions he performs, but by the time the film ends, you get the sense that Clayface is what he was always meant to be: a villain. That's refreshing.

Tom Rhys Harries is quite charismatic in the lead, playing Matt Hagen, a street kid from Gotham City who grew up to become a movie star. As "Clayface" begins, Matt's life is on the upswing. He's just landed himself a Best Actor Oscar nomination and everyone is singing his praises. Matt's time at the top will be short-lived, however. After a night clubbing in Gotham, Matt makes the mistake of sleeping with an alluring woman (Ruby Sear) who happens to be the main-squeeze of Gotham crime boss Markos Szabo (David Dencik). The gangster doesn't take kindly to this one-night stand, and he and his goons proceed to horrifically disfigure Matt's face. As if that wasn't bad enough, the gangster then uses his considerable power to leak negative (and false) stories about Matt to the public.

No longer able to act due to his scarred face and suddenly a social outcast, Matt's loses everything and everyone pretty quickly. His agent (Nancy Carroll) dumps him, his shady business manager (Eddie Marsan) robs him blind, and he ends up moving into a squalid Gotham apartment. The only person he seems to still have in his corner is his lifelong buddy and fellow actor Corey (Joshua James), but even that relationship won't hold up for long.

A chance at salvation comes in the form of Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), a no-nonsense scientist working with controversial medical nanotechnology that uses AI (of course it does). Matt talks Caitlyn into making him her first human test subject, hoping the tech can heal his face. And it does ... with horrible consequences!

This is the type of old fashioned, noir-tinged story — man is wronged, man does something risky to get revenge, man loses his soul in the process — that's been done many times over, including in the aforementioned "Darkman." And that's not a bad thing! I actually appreciated the way the film leaned into old school tropes.

Unfortunately, this all results in "Clayface" not having much of a personality of its own, which I suppose is apt for a movie in which the main character can change himself to look like seemingly anyone. In addition to "Darkman," there are notes of David Cronenberg's far superior "The Fly" cooked into the proceedings. I was also reminded of the 1940 Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi flick "Black Friday," in which a doctor implants part of a dead gangster's brain into the head of a mild-mannered man, thus turning the man into a monster.

Soon, Matt is transforming himself and getting bloody revenge against everyone who wrecked his life, while also dealing with the gruesome side-effects of his medical procedure. On top of all of that, he's falling in love with Caitlyn. She seems to have feelings for him, too, but the attraction is complicated by the fact that she's engaged to Gotham cop John (Max Minghella). But none of these characters make much of an impression.

While Harries is memorable as Matt, especially as he begins to go off the deep end, everyone around him is thinly sketched. We get almost no insight into Caitlyn minus a few conversations about her dead brother, and John is even more of a blank slate. As for the gangster villains Matt is targeting, they all feel like community theatre rejects who wandered onto set after a performance of "Guys and Dolls." Main villain Markos is so woefully boring that you'll end up forgetting about him until he pops up again.

The world the film inhabits is also bland. While set almost entirely in Gotham, the famous comic book location has almost nothing to distinguish it from any other place. I'm not saying the film should've adopted the gothic hellscape of Tim Burton's Batman movies, but the Gotham here might as well be called Generic City, USA.

Perhaps in an attempt to make up for its lack of personality, "Clayface" unleashes an impressive amount of gore, including a ripped-out esophagus, a smashed head, and plenty of gross-out body horror moments that had several people in my audience groaning. Director Watkins, who helmed the nasty "Eden Lake" and the surprisingly good remake of "Speak No Evil," stages a memorable set piece inside a crowded nightclub, where Matt keeps transforming into different people in order to remain undetected. The closest the film comes to staging something unique and interesting is a moment where a sleeping Matt, having a horny dream, morphs into Caitlyn and begins caressing his own body. The film really could've used more of that kind of kinky weirdness.

"Clayface" deserves credit for wanting to be little more than a violent monster movie with some familiar IP branding — thank god there's no attempts at pretentious seriousness here. But the simplicity ultimately hurts the film's goals, rendering what could've been a memorable weird revenge horror movie into a shapeless, underwhelming experience. 

As far as these comic book villain spin-off movies go, it's fine. But maybe you should just watch "Darkman" again instead.

/Film Rating: 5.5 out of 10

"Clayface" opens in theaters on October 23, 2026.