The review embargo for Clayface lifts later this week. However, the movie was Odeon's "Scream Unseen" tonight, meaning I'm £6 lighter but free to tell you exactly what I think about DC Studios' R-rated horror. Neither as woefully awful an adaptation as Supergirl (which was based on the stellar Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic book) nor as insulting to some comic book readers as Lanterns, Clayface is inoffensive, largely forgettable, and likely to appeal to only the biggest B-movie horror fans.
There's fun to be had here, courtesy of at least two big jump scares and some very silly moments that, if embraced for what they are, might give you a laugh or two. However, Clayface doesn't really boast a single original idea, and when it comes to filmmaker James Watkins' work, this is definitely more The Woman in Black than Eden Lake. In terms of pure horror, it's limited; the "body horror," for example, is so reliant on mediocre visual effects that it rarely hits the mark. There are no Evil Dead levels of gore here, just plasticky-looking skin being cut with scissors, wounds healing themselves, and someone's head being crushed off-camera. In fact, the camera cuts away from the horror so often, it becomes a little hard to believe that this is an R-rated movie at all. Depending on your threshold for grossness, some scenes might be harder to watch than others. Still, if DC Studios was going for B-movie camp, it should have fully embraced the deranged goofiness of a Troma movie rather than someone's head exploding largely off-camera as CG blood oozes from their pores.
Whatever Mike Flanagan once had planned for Clayface was seemingly lost when writer Hossein Amini took over (he may have penned Drive, but don't forget that his credits also include Snow White and the Huntsman and 47 Ronin). The dialogue is so atrocious and wooden that it feels almost deliberately bad at times, while the story hits one familiar note after another. Without spoiling anything, it goes like this: a successful, cocky actor sleeps with a gangster's girl, gets his face horribly scarred as punishment, loses everything—would you believe it, even his lawyer was stealing his money—and somehow encounters a scientist who can make him right again. Of course, she's toying with AI and nanotech, and it's not long until the good looks he regains are replaced with a dangerous new power that sees him go on a murderous mission of revenge.
Clayface ultimately brings nothing new to the table, and with a limited budget, even the pivotal shapeshifting scenes are lacking. Quick camera cuts and quick-as-a-flash face swaps are used in place of what could have been a far more grotesque journey for Matt; just imagine him mastering these abilities with transformations that see his body break and reform like the fusing of Together's leads...and replace them with the powers of Kraven the Hunter's Chameleon, because that's what this is. Hardcore horror fans won't find what they're looking for, and neither will even the most casual comic book readers.
Gotham City could be any American city, and it boasts no personality or character beyond there being a lot of trash on the streets, and even the GCPD building is just a regular skyscraper with the letters "GCPD" emblazoned on the side. There's no mention of Batman, no Easter Eggs, and nothing beyond the logo at the start that makes this feel like a DC movie. No one expected the Dark Knight to show up, but Clayface does nothing to expand this corner of the DCU.
There is one standout sequence, and it comes when a vengeful Matt makes his way through a nightclub near the end of the movie. Having quickly mastered his powers, his revenge is glorious and only held back by more middling VFX. There are flashes of inspiration throughout, but just as it's getting good, Clayface suddenly rushes to its final scenes, finally realising that it needed to do something, anything, to take Matt from misunderstood anti-hero to villain. It doesn't really land, and the 10 or 15 seconds of "classic Clayface" aren't really worth the wait. He looks okay, but by trying to make sure Matt's face is in there somewhere, it's certainly not the payoff many will have hoped for.
Where Clayface does shine is with Tom Rhys Harries. He's a brilliant find by DC Studios, and an actor who oozes talent. This movie should absolutely lead to bigger and better things for him, as even when he's lumbered with stilted dialogue, Harries delivers it in a way that convinces. Fittingly, he looks like a movie star, and it's a shame this story didn't allow him to show even more of what he's capable of. Naomi Ackie is fine, as is Eddie Marsan, but Max Minghella appears thoroughly bored while reeling off lines about how corrupt the GCPD is. David Dencik is the movie's villain, a newly created gangster who cuts Matt's face up and delivers lines like he's reading them off the back of his hand. When he and Minghella share the screen to trade barbs, it's Razzie-worthy stuff. An unexpected highlight is Gavin and Stacey star Rob Brydon, who has a memorable couple of scenes.
Clayface is not a disaster. It won't enrage or offend fans, and it's not so bad that you can't laugh along with it, or at least enjoy wincing on the few occasions the body horror hits the mark (the widely touted airplane bathroom scene is undeniably tense). It's Morbius, but slightly better. That doesn't seem like much of a compliment, but when all is said and done, Clayface's biggest crime is that it's too tame to be a classic horror movie and too bland to be a great DC Comics adaptation. It's average, which, so far, is beginning to feel like the best description for the DCU as a whole. It started exceptionally strong with Creature Commandos and Superman, but after Peacemaker Season 2, Supergirl, and Lanterns' low points, something isn't working. This was DC Studios' chance to blow Marvel Studios out of the water with an all-out R-rated horror movie that Disney wouldn't have the guts to make; instead, it's a film that wouldn't feel out of place on Shudder or Tubi. That will be enough for some, and if you lower your expectations enough, then you might just enjoy it.
Tom Rhys Harries shines in Clayface, an uninspired and unoriginal movie that's too light on horror and lacking in comic book personality to be anything but forgettable. It should have been a game-changer for the genre; instead, it's DC's Morbius moment. ⭐⭐.5