Clayface (James Watkins, 2026)

We're now almost twenty years into the "comic book universe" coming to big screens. Marvel's Iron Man was delivered to theaters in 2008, kicking off the attempt of both Marvel and DC to create cinematic universes where each company would be able to create movies that used one of the strengths of their comic book empires, putting their characters together and having them interact in those shared universes.

That same year, a much less hyped and recognized film was released, Eden Lake. It was James Watkins feature directorial debut. Eden Lake is a mean, brutal film, playing in a sandbox similar to the French New Extremity film Ils (Them in the English translation), The Strangers, with some survival horror thrown in. It's gathered a following since its release, but its also one of those that often makes horror fans list of "I watched it once, and don't need to/can't bring myself to see it again."

2026 sees James Watkins making his way into the genre that so completely overshadowed his debut. DC Studios, whose slate and progress is now being overseen by James Gunn and Peter Safran, have changed tack, and aren't requiring every movie or tv series be directly connected to everything that's come before or will come after. Gunn has said the focus of DC will be telling the best stories using the characters from the DC comic books.

Clayface, in DCs comics, has been a regular part of Batman's gallery of villains. The original version of the character was very much a tribute to the Universal Monsters of the forties, and in the different iterations since, he has usually been an actor who suffers a tragedy that turns him into a monster that is essentially a shapeshifter. He can become anyone. Different iterations present different backstories to who he was and how he became this monster, but most of them are closer to tragedy than they are to Clayface having become the monster he is through a direct desire or need for power. Some of those iterations also include a vengeance story.

This new big screen version of the character, and his backstory, retains a number of those elements, and it's not so hamstrung by the mythology and lore of the comics to not do its own thing and tell its own story. It's been promoted, by Gunn and Safran, everyone involved with the movie and in the marketing itself, as if this was going to be a horror film.

Ironically, there does seem to be a bit of an identity crisis for the movie. Tom Rhys Harries is quite good as Matt Hagen, a movie actor ascending toward that coveted status of A List, and as the film begins, being nominated for an Academy Award. He sells everything Hagen/Clayface is feeling as the movie progresses. The problem is, there doesn't seem to be a singular vision for what this movie is really supposed to be.

There are aspects of it Watkins handles very well. The scenes involving the more disturbing aspects of the body horror, the sense of threat that someone who can imitate the appearance and voice of anyone else at will, all work quite well. Clayface never fully commits to being that movie though, and it doesn't commit any more so to any of the elements of its mixture of crime narrative, vengeance narrative and love story. It achieves what the lesser of those old Universal Monster movies did, creating a monster that's memorable, without anything else in the movie being very memorable, and some combination of the writing and execution missing the mark in terms of making the rest of the movie around him compelling.

It feels flat, overall. There are images, particular visual moments, which are memorable and carry a certain degree of that feeling the best body horror can, in the range of revulsion, fascination and titillation, but in the overall movie, even this feels muted or neutered. It doesn't ever reach the odd kind of disgust that comes from most of the best body horror films, and I'm not sure it was even attempting to.

That, more or less, characterizes the entire movie. It is playing with and mashing together a number of different elements from different genres, noir certainly being one of the them too, but as a result of not committing to the kind of impact any of them can make separately, it feels slight, leaning on the "wow" factor of its effects driven scenes. That's all well and good, but without a more substantial connection to Matt Hagen and a lack of grasp on the fact that we love the various genres its playing with because of the impact they have, not just because they exist there's just not much to it. Even if it had leaned a bit more into the over the top nature that makes some of those Universal Monster movies entertaining, it would have provided a bit more to grab onto as an audience member. Instead of deciding on an ending that would work well as a riff on things like supernatural slashers, it opts for something that feels much more akin to the bang and boom of superhero films, with a little blood thrown in.

The bones for a better movie exist here, in the character of Matt Hagen and the monster he becomes, but it seems like there must have been some hesitation to commit to that movie, in order to attract a few more ticket buyers who wouldn't be inclined to throw down the money for a revenge driven suspense/horror movie. There's even a more impactful film in the process of Matt Hagen losing his identity and that what could become "powers" are more of a "curse." In the movie we got, the thrills aren't visceral enough to be memorable, as is true of the other aspects of the story attempting to evoke emotion.

For me, it's unfortunate. I've enjoyed the rest of the new DC Studios slate. Superman, Supergirl and most especially Lanterns (which I am still trying to write something about), and the prospect of getting a full on horror film centered on the Clayface character was exciting. Unfortunately, like character of Matt Hagen in it, Clayface the movie, doesn't know who or what it is.