We never thought we would be covering a DC… It still feels a little weird to type. Yet here we are, talking about Clayface, which just landed in theaters and is, as far as we can tell, the first real horror movie DC has ever made. (We would know if there had been others. Trust us.)
Clayface is part of James Gunn’s new DC universe, and so far that slate has been a bit of a tonal grab bag. Superman and Supergirl sit on one end; this sits on the other. Arthur put it best:
Maybe finally they woke up and realized that it is time to lean into what DC really is.
DC has a lot of messed-up, dark villains, and we think they should stop keeping them at surface level.
The story and screenplay come from Mike Flanagan (he shares the script credit with Hossein Amini, and James Watkins directed). Flanagan was tied up with his Carrie series and The Exorcist, so directing wasn’t really an option.
The funny part is that Gunn apparently did not want to make Clayface at first. It isn’t his style; it probably isn’t quirky enough for him. Then Flanagan pitched it, turned in a draft, and Gunn was basically, “Alright, I guess we’re doing it.” Nobody is surprised by that.
The inspirations are easy to spot: The Fly and The Substance. Picture The Substance, but dropped into a comic book universe.
What Clayface Is About (and Who’s in It)
The setup is simple. Matt Hagen is a rising Hollywood star who becomes a monster fueled by revenge after a scientific experiment strips away his identity and his humanity. The synopsis doesn’t give much away, which is exactly how it should be.
Our first reactions were not on the same page. Arthur liked it a lot. The so-called love story (which, in his view, isn’t really a love story) didn’t matter to him at all, because DC is finally going dark and it works. It is real body horror, and that was enough.
Meaghan was more torn. The first half had a great buildup, and then somewhere along the way she remembered she was watching a comic book villain origin story:
I think I wanted to like it more than I actually liked it,
She admitted. Arthur’s reaction: “Wow, okay. We might have one of those split scores.”
Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, and we think the casting is smart. He’s a Welsh actor with a strange, uncanny face; it’s chiseled and defined but also very soft, which plays well for a character whose whole identity is his face.
Before he landed the part, the studio apparently considered George MacKay (Captain Fantastic, How I Live Now), Tom Blyth (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), Jack O’Connell, and Leo Woodall.
Fun fact: the movie was shot in the UK at the same time as a Spider-Man film, so Rhys Harries kept bumping into Tom Holland at the gym and around the studio lots.
Naomi Ackie plays Dr. Caitlyn Corr. Meaghan loves her, especially as the lead in Blink Twice (a super underrated thriller), and she was also in Mickey 17 and this year’s I Love Boosters.
There are a lot of British actors playing Americans in this one, including Eddie Marsan, the man who has been in basically everything (Ray Donovan included). Max Minghella plays Caitlyn’s fiancé, a Gotham cop. “There’s always one okay cop,” Meaghan noted. David Dencik plays Szabo, the mob boss, because of course there is a mob boss. Joshua James plays Corey Bowery, Matt’s childhood friend and fellow actor.
Then there’s Corey Johnson, the guy we kept staring at in the theater trying to place. He’s the last American sucked dry by Imhotep in The Mummy. He has also popped up in Captain Phillips, Black Mirror, The Running Man, and Morbius (“which, whatever, we don’t talk about”).
Clayface Scare Factor: Creep Me Out, Solid Scares
If you are new here, our scare factor comes from the horror movie picker quiz, where four questions get you three movies we have personally curated (and yes, we have watched them all). We rate on scares and entertainment, not just jump scares.
There are four categories: Terrify Me, Creep Me Out, Fun and Wild, and Wreck Me. Each one gets a level: Nightmare Fuel, Solid Scares, or Light.
We both landed on Creep Me Out. It isn’t terrifying, it isn’t fun and wild, and it didn’t wreck us. It is creepy, though, and for Arthur, a big part of that was all the eye stuff. Meaghan watched him squirm through it in the theater. “Oh my God, can’t deal,” was basically his whole experience.
For the level, we agreed on Solid Scares. There is gore, there is body horror, and there are a few well-crafted jump scares. Meaghan had a warning for anyone expecting something extreme, though:
It’s not a Cronenberg film.
This is still a DC Studios movie, and there is only so far it is going to go. Arthur pushed back a bit; for a studio film, he thinks it goes pretty far. We checked, and it does carry an R rating. “Not nightmare fuel. Calm down,” Meaghan said. But definitely not light either.
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Clayface Breakdown (Spoilers Ahead)
You’ve been warned. Spoilers from here on out.
In the comics, Clayface has been several different characters, and Matt Hagen isn’t the original. Here, he’s a Gotham native on the rise who was just nominated for an Oscar. Then he makes one very bad decision at a club. He hooks up with Mia, who happens to be Szabo’s girlfriend, even though his best friend Corey flat-out warned him not to. Mob bosses don’t take kindly to that. The next morning, Szabo’s henchmen attack Matt and slash up his face, and the movie shows you a lot of it.
Arthur immediately came up with a better tagline: don’t mess around with people who have partners. Meaghan agreed.
Don’t fall in love with other guys’ girlfriends. What is wrong with you? Stop it.
We do feel bad for Corey. He tried to be a good friend.
For an actor, your face is the moneymaker. It carries every emotion you put on screen, and in Hollywood, being attractive is a big part of the sell. Matt’s whole life goes off the rails. His manager steals from him, the plastic surgeries cost a fortune, and the civil lawsuit against Szabo eats millions more before Gotham’s corruption makes everything go away.
Desperate, he finds an article about Dr. Caitlyn Corr. She works on regenerative nanotech meant to repair muscles and organs broken down by debilitating diseases; her brother died of Huntington’s, and this is her life’s mission. Her funding is gone, though, and her trials are about to stop. Matt walks in and basically tells her he doesn’t care if it kills him, since it couldn’t be much worse than what he’s living with now.
The treatment isn’t ready for humans, and Matt does what villains always do: he overdoes it. He injects all of it at once. At first it works, and then come the little quirks. Like being able to turn himself into another person. Meaghan had questions:
Why do his clothes change? What the hell?
Arthur’s explanation is that Matt’s cells aren’t really his body anymore, so they can become anything, T-shirts included. Still, it felt a bit too easy to both of us. Arthur’s bigger complaint was the scene where Matt turns his hand into a giant mace, which the movie only shows in shadow. Come on.
Like every villain origin story, the power drives him mad. Matt goes after everyone who wronged him while developing an uncomfortable obsession with Caitlyn, who is engaged. She’s the only one who can calm him down, and when she does, his face stops drooping.
Meaghan was not a fan:
It was giving Beauty and the Beast, like, nobody can calm me down except for you.
Arthur’s defense: “It is based on a comic book.” Eventually, Caitlyn has no choice but to try to stop him, because he is dangerous. We will let you see how that plays out.
Our Clayface Scores: What Worked and What Didn’t
Arthur gives Clayface a 7 out of 10 (“not too high of a seven”). DC is going in the direction it should have been going this whole time, and the practical effects are great. He got so excited that he started listing his favorites before we even got there.
Meaghan gives it a 4.5. Too many story beats got rushed or just didn’t work for her, and she wishes she had liked the second half as much as the first.
Even so, we agree on a lot of what worked. The makeup on Matt is excellent, especially early on, when he’s covered in patches after the attack and before any of the transformation starts. Most of it looks practical, hands included. Meaghan’s one gripe is the CG overlay that seems to sit on top of a lot of that good makeup work.
Meaghan’s top pick is Tom Rhys Harries. Matt starts as a genuinely decent guy (a little vain, but nothing that makes you hate him), and Rhys Harries carries him all the way to a rage-fueled, obsessive mess. She wishes we had gotten more of that slow descent. Some of it feels abrupt, like scenes were cut along the way.
Arthur loves that the film goes hard on the gore. The kills don’t cut away, and even when we don’t see the mace, we see the aftermath. As Arthur says, “it’s not like this little claymation dude who’s running around.” If his skin actually melts, that is graphic, and the movie leans into it.
Meaghan also loved the timeless feel. Take out the phones, and this could be set 20 or 30 years ago. The soundtrack is full of older songs, and the club Vesuvius shows up in several scenes with a retro vibe.
Arthur pointed out that the movie opens with a 1980s Warner Bros. logo, which feels like a deliberate choice, and there’s no mention of Batman anywhere. This Gotham is grungy in a different way. “It feels like people actually live here and it sucks,” Meaghan said, and she meant that as a compliment.
The transitions got love from both of us. One shot has Matt behind frosted glass as one person, and when he steps through the door, he’s someone else. A nightclub scene flips him through character after character, boom, boom, boom. That’s the fun comic book stuff, and it fits.
Then there’s the dialogue. Arthur doesn’t expect much from Marvel and DC dialogue, since some of it comes straight out of comics written decades ago, and he didn’t hear the bad lines often enough to get annoyed. Meaghan had a harder time. When Matt confesses his feelings for Caitlyn, her verdict was blunt: “Oh God, awful, that was garbage.”
If you go in with DC expectations, you will probably have a pretty good time. Don’t expect anything insanely profound. Clayface is sitting around a 7 on IMDb right now, and most people seem to be enjoying it. As for Meaghan:
It wasn’t something that I was in love with, but I didn’t hate it.
Clayface (2026)
Directed by James Watkins · 109 min · R
Matt Hagen is a Gotham kid turned Oscar-nominated Hollywood star, right up until a mob boss’s crew carves up his face. Desperate, he becomes the first human test subject for Dr. Caitlyn Corr’s experimental regenerative treatment. It works. Then his cells stop being his (see shapeshifting, melting, and a very personal revenge spree), and whatever is left of Matt starts losing his grip on reality.