Clayface (2026) Review

Clayface (2026) Review

Clayface was one of my most anticipated movies of 2026. I love comic book movies and the Batman mythology, and this just seemed like something so different for the comic book movie genre, a body horror movie in the DC universe. I was able to see the movie last night. How was it? Was it any good? Let’s talk about it!

The Good

The thing I was most excited about going into this movie was getting something different and unique in the comic book movie genre. Leaving the movie, that is exactly what I got from this movie. I love it when comic book movies can feel so different and unique in the genre. If I am not mistaken, this is the first horror movie within the comic book movie genre. If that is true, I love that we finally got one. This movie does lean into the body horror side of things very heavily; it is nasty and gnarly at points. It does not mess around with it at all; within the first 10-15 minutes of the movie there is some bloody stuff that happens that sets everything in motion. When he is in the recovery process and trying to get surges done to fix his face there’s just gnarly and disturbing images that stick with you. In the first trailer, one of the shots shown is of Clayface in a hospital bed with his one eye popping out and all bandaged out. That shot is one of the more tamed body horror shots in the film, now he got to that moment was gnarly. I love that they were able to have the blood and gore that we want even before the Clayface stuff starts. This is going to be the grossest movie of 2026. A lot of people are really going to be put off by the amount of blood and gore that is in this movie. 

I have been rewatching through the Batman villain led movies and between this film and Joker, the big compliment I can give this movie is that it does feel different. It doesn’t feel like a comic book movie and I love it when the genre is able to find ways to have the comic book characters that we love but tell a story with a certain vibe and tone that doesn’t feel like the norms that we see in the genre. You could remove everything DC related to this film and move the story to somewhere else besides Gotham City and you would still have this very compelling and interesting story. When you have these darker Batman villains it is easy for them to tell something different because Batman’s villains are so robust and different. Despite Spider-Man and Superman also having these big rogues' galleries, and of course they tried villain led movies with Spider-Man. Why it failed is because his villains are not super interesting, or they are not interesting enough to lead a movie. Likewise with Superman, Lex Luthor is a great villain, but I do not know if a Lex Luthor led movie would work. You get to Batman’s rogues gallery, and he has so many interesting villains, Clayface included. You go “how would somebody get turned into clay” and wonder what would affect him in society and just as a person if he is turned into this monster. Because Batman’s villains are more interesting there is more interesting stories to tell, but they would still be great stories without the Batman references. 

From there, one thing that I appreciated about this movie is that they let Clayface be the villain. It is a scenario where he is the villain of his own story. There are people that wronged him and made him turn into a monster. But in trying to rebuild his life, he keeps on losing himself and turns more into a monster. He does very villainous things, he kills people in some brutal ways. There is no point in the movie where they try to make him this anti-hero that is not actually bad. That is why the Spider-Man villain led movies failed, because they tried to turn Venom and Kraven the Hunter into these anti-heroes instead of just letting them be the villains and villainous. When you get something like Clayface and it lets our protagonist be a villain, it is refreshing because they are doing what the SPUMC movies should have done and I love that. There is a tragic nature to this movie because you are watching this guy who starts off as this good person but slowly transitions into the chaos and becomes more of Clayface. There are some similarities that people could draw between this film and Joker. Both are dealing with a society that treated them wrongly and they want revenge. But there are enough differences in the movie where it does not feel like Clayface is just ripping off Joker except with a different Batman villain in the lead. 

Also, I thought the lead performance here by Tom Rhys Harris is good. I have not seen him in anything before, so this was my first exposure to him, and I thought he did a great job. It is not a super layered performance; he is not going to go down as one of the best comic book movie performances of all time. But for what the movie requires from him and the type of performances he needs to give, he does a great job. When he needs to be the charismatic movie star that the public loves, you buy it. When he needs to play the victim early on and make you feel bad for him, you buy it. As the movie goes along and you see the villain side of Matt Hagan come out more and he goes full revenge mode (which we will talk about in a sec) you buy it. He is having to play three different personas in this movie, and he is great at all of it. I like his performance and this version of the character so much that I want to see more of him. James Gunn has said we will be getting more of Clayface in the future, and I would want to see him go up against Batman and he is the main villain in Brave and the Bold. With his motivations in this movie, you could see how he might not like somebody like Bruce Wayne. 

Finally, the movie does escalate going into the third act. The first two acts are slow paced and build the characters, the story, and this world all leading up to this third act that is a full-on revenge story. They set up these villains you want to see taken out by the end and the third act delivers that. Each henchman and everybody that is set up as being evil and hurt Matt gets what is coming for them. What is also fun about the third act is that you get the full blown Clayface action. Matt has fully figured out his powers and so he is going full on Clayface and he is using his powers in some fun and creative ways. There is one moment in the third act where he kills somebody with blood that is one of the most creative, disturbing, and unique kills that I have seen ever. If you have seen the movie, you know what I am talking about. There is also a needle drop in the third act that should not work and the moment feels very goofy given the context of the sequence and the tone of the movie, but it worked for me. 

The Bad

A disappointment that I had leaving the theater was the usage and characterization of Gotham City. One of the things that Matt Reeves was able to do so well with his Gotham was make it feel like a character. In The Batman, Gotham feels like a character, it feels lived in with this history. This is our introduction to Gotham in the DCU and I just wanted more. I feel like the story allowed for the film to go deeper and explore Gotham more and it never really went there and that is disappointing. I do not think I would have had these issues had we been introduced to Gotham in an earlier DCU entry. The movie explores ideas about the corporation in Gotham and how the system turned against Clayface, there is room and opportunities within the movie to flesh out Gotham and make it feel like a character and we did not get that in this movie. It is not a big issue that drastically holds the movie back for me, but it was a disappointment that I had to leave the theater. 

Also, the set up for the movie is very rushed. It feels like within 15 minutes of the movie the plot has already kicked in and we are talking about the Clayface stuff. They wanted to make this a more fun movie that’s fast paced so they purposefully wanted to get to the body horror and the Clayface stuff fast, which I 100% respect. But the movie is only 1 hour and 48 minutes long so by adding another 5ish minute to the set up and seeing more of the celebrity side of Matt I think would have fixed this issue. Like I said, it only needs 5 more minutes, it is not a lot, but I think adding a little bit more character work in the beginning would have benefited the journey of the film more. 

Finally, all the side characters felt a bit underwhelming to me. They are not bad characters; the actors are not doing a bad job. But none of them stuck out to me, all of them felt underwhelming and like they were just there. I will say that the romantic love interest in the movie was a good character. She is the one good side character, the rest of them are forgettable. I think these issues could have been fixed had they used Batman characters. Our main villain is a generic mob boss whose name I do not remember. It felt weird that they did not call the characters Maroni and Falcone, because it suddenly makes them more interesting and memorable. Likewise, the GCPD plays a major role in this movie and Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock are not mentioned. I get that you want to focus on Clayface so populating it with characters from the Batman world is not the best idea. But it still felt weird to me, and I think it would have made the side characters better and more interesting. 

Final Thoughts: Overall, I got exactly what I wanted from Clayface. Is this a new comic book movie classic? No. But the movie was also never trying to be that it was never trying to be the biggest or the best comic book movie out there. For what the movie was trying to be and the experience it was trying to deliver, it does a good job. I like this world and I am excited to see more of Clayface, whatever that may look like. 

The Score: 8.7/10 (B+)