Clayface
Rising star Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries, "The Gentlemen") is overjoyed when he receives a Best Actor Oscar nomination, celebrating with his best friend Corey Bowery (Joshua James, "Cyrano") at Gotham's Vesuvius nightclub. When a sexy woman in a sequined dress beckons him onto the dance floor, Matt engages despite Corey's warning that she is Mia Torrez (Joana Ribeiro, TV's 'The Man Who Fell to Earth'), the girlfriend of notorious gangster Markos Szabo (David Dencik, "No Time to Die"). The next morning, she'll flee from his bed as Szabo has his goons slice Matt's face into pieces, destroying his career. Matt will learn of Dr. Caitlyn Corr's (Naomi Ackie, "Blink Twice," "Sorry, Baby") experimental work with nanotechnology and convinces her to treat him secretly. But when his face begins to sag on a red carpet, Matt makes his way to her lab and overdoses himself with her nanos, a rash act that will turn him into "Clayface."
Laura's Review: B
Working with a screenplay by Mike Flanagan ("The Life of Chuck") and Hossein Amini ("Drive") from a story by Flanagan, director James Watkins' ("Eden Lake," "Speak No Evil") introduction of DC villain Clayface is a gory, Lovecraftian blast crossed with "Mission Impossible's" masks, a true monster movie wisely being released right before Halloween. More complex than the usual 'fell into a vat of acid' type original story, "Clayface" takes on a rags to riches story, Hollywood's obsession with looks, scientists playing God, a love triangle and the cold realities of revenge.
And Matt has legitimate reasons for wishing revenge as Szabo manages to buy off trial witnesses with the help of Matt's own business manager Frank (Eddie Marsan, "Happy-Go-Lucky") and Szabo's girlfriend lies through her teeth about what happened that day, leading a jury to give Matt no recompense for his disfigurement. Duality comes into play in the person who was Matt Hagen and Clayface, the 'nanos' absorbed into his very being altering his personality, and duality is squared when Clayface begins to kill, then takes on the appearance of his victims. Caitlyn, who lost her funding when competitors stole her ideas, has no license for human experimentation and is very reluctant to try the technology she'd developed in hopes of curing her brother's degenerative disease for cosmetic purposes, let alone on another person, but Matt promises to sign anything that will absolve her legally, telling her that even death would be better than his current condition. Caitlyn, who is engaged to Gotham City Police Detective John Borrelli (Max Minghella, "The Social Network," TV's 'Industry'), begins to have feelings for her illicit patient, feelings Matt is more than ready to act on and when Clayface begins to act, Borrelli's suspicions are raised on two separate fronts as people connected to Matt begin to turn up dead.
Watkins substitutes several gross-out cringe moments in lieu of jump scares in his horror thriller as we're treated to such sights as Matt's nose being peeled back from his face during one of his initial cosmetic surgeries or him having nanos injected with a giant syringe just beneath his eye. The less said about his trying to cut his overgrown eyelid open with nail scissors in an airplane bathroom during turbulence, the better. The makeup effects range from a disfigured face to something resembling a larval human, its features not yet formed and the final image of Clayface harkens back to Stuart Gordon's Lovecraft adaptation "From Beyond."
Harries retains our sympathy even after turning monstrous, his Hollywood stardom days not without humility, his regret after a number of his slayings palpable. He also gives us a complicated romance in his relationship with Ackie, attraction combined with survival. Ackie's restrained, quiet performance is unlike anything she's done before and she is an anchoring presence, her reciprocation of Matt's yearnings also wrapped up in his need for her. Dencik is intimidating, Ribeiro sexily duplicitous, Minghella stalwart, yet wavering. The film also stars Rob Brydon ("The Trip") as TV talk show host Vic Chissler, Nancy Carroll as Matt's opportunistic agent Hildie, and Corey Johnson ("Morbius") and Jake Curran ("Over Your Dead Body") as Szabo's henchmen Cadillac Sal and Patches.
Production designer James Price contrasts the Hollywood of the west coast with Gotham City of the east, the latter broken down between its urban glitz and its sketchiest neighborhood, The Narrows, where Matt hailed from and where he's forced to return to. Caitlyn's lab is modern, yet modest, as is her apartment, befitting a research doctor low on funding. Volker Bertelmann's orchestral score uses cellos for both suspense and regret, playing to both sides of the film's protagonist while Jasmine Jethwa provides a melancholy, haunting cover of 'If You Leave Me Now.' And unlike a number of Marvel movies, this latest from DC requires no prior movies or television shows to follow the plot.
"Clayface" is the DC villain we didn't know we needed to see on the big screen, but now that he's here, more will be welcome.
Warner Brothers releases "Clayface" in theaters on 10/23/26.
