# ‘Clayface’ Review: DC Comics Horror Movie Is Good, Gross Fun, With No Franchise Homework Required

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/clayface-review-dc-comics-horror-movie-is-good-gross-fun-with-no-franchise-homework-required/
- Published: 2026-10-21T20:02:03+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-21T20:40:27+00:00
- Original publisher: Variety
- Original article: https://variety.com/2026/film/news/clayface-review-1236918659/
- Topics: Elections, Entertainment, Film, Horror, Politics

## Key points

- The review calls *Clayface* entertaining, gruesome and self-contained.
- Tom Rhys Harries plays an actor whose face and cells transform.
- Viewers need no prior knowledge of DC comics.

## Summary

The newly added review describes *Clayface* as an enjoyable, self-contained body-horror film that needs no knowledge of DC’s wider universe. James Watkins’s film stands out for its grotesque humour and practical make-up effects, while treating the comic-book character as material for a fresh, genre-melding story.

Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, an Oscar-nominated actor whose career collapses after a Gotham gangster slashes his face. He agrees to an experimental cellular treatment developed by scientist Caitlyn Corr; although it restores his appearance, his cells later take on unpredictable human and monstrous forms, with violent consequences. Clayface has appeared in DC comics for 86 years, but the review says that history is unnecessary background, and compares the film’s throwback horror feel to *Darkman* and *Thinner*.

## Coverage

- [Variety: ‘Clayface’ Review: DC Comics Horror Movie Is Good, Gross Fun, With No Franchise Homework Required](https://variety.com/2026/film/news/clayface-review-1236918659/)
- [GamesRadar+: Clayface review: "Skin-deep thrills and spills mask an uneven DC horror"](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/dc-movies/clayface-review/)

---
Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.