Gotham breaks an actor’s face and Tom Rhys Harries makes us mourn it in the new DC body-horror Clayface.
Clayface may be the film that lays Gotham’s justice system bare for what it truly is: ugly, unfair, and broken. In the opening scenes, half the city glows with gold and glory. The other half rots in the shadows. Gangs run wild, and Batman is nowhere to be seen.
Directed by James Watkins and written by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, Clayface is the third film in the DC Universe (DCU). The film arrived in theaters on October 23, as reported by TheWrap. Tom Rhys Harries stars as Matt Hagen, the actor who becomes the shape-shifting villain Clayface. He is joined by Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, and Eddie Marsan.
This article contains major spoilers.
From Basil Karlo to Matt Hagen: Which Clayface version is in the film?
To understand what Clayface draws from, start with the comics. Bob Kane and Bill Finger introduced Basil Karlo in 1940’s Detective Comics #40. TV Insider described him as an actor who lashed out violently against the cast and crew of a remake of his signature film. He has no supernatural powers at all. Matt Hagen followed in 1961, debuting as a treasure hunter who gained shapeshifting abilities from a radioactive pool in a cave.
The film merges them, and it had a clear inspiration. Writer Mike Flanagan traced the core idea back to “Feat of Clay,” the two-part Batman: The Animated Series arc starring Ron Perlman as Hagen.
There, Hagen is a once-famous actor whose career collapses after a disfiguring car crash. An addictive substance called Renuyu lets him reshape his face, so he works for crime boss Roland Daggett to keep his supply flowing. The movie swaps Renuyu for experimental nanocells and Daggett for a mob boss, but keeps the heartbreak.
Longtime fans may find the mix unfamiliar, but as a Silver Age reader, I welcomed it.
Why Gotham failed Matt Hagen
The cause and effect is straightforward, and that is what makes it sting. ComicBookMovie.com frames Matt as a Gotham street kid who climbs all the way to leading man status. He is vain, newly famous, and has everything to lose.
Then he sleeps with Mia Torrez, an actress who happens to be the girlfriend of powerful Gotham figure and crime boss Markos Szabo. Szabo responds by destroying Hagen’s face in a brutal attack.
Gotham’s justice system never steps in. Szabo lives in the city’s privileged half, and that protection extends to everything he does. Hagen’s team abandons him, and with nothing left, he turns to an experimental treatment.
Gotham is fictional, but the pattern feels real. Around the world, people continue to face systems that fail to protect them, especially when power and privilege determine whose voices are heard and whose suffering is ignored. Hagen’s story reflects the desperation that can grow when someone loses everything and finds no one willing to help. When the very institutions meant to offer protection turn their backs on people, it becomes easier to understand why some seek answers in places they might never have considered before.
For Hagen, that answer lies in a lab.
That lab belongs to Dr. Caitlyn Corr, played by Naomi Ackie. She injects him with AI-driven nanocells that restore his face and slowly erode his sanity. The story unfolds gradually for that very reason. The nanocells take over his mind as they reshape his body, and his actions grow increasingly violent. One scene drives this home: Dr. Caitlyn records him while he sleeps to study the changes. It works as a jump scare and as a lesson on how his new form operates.
The tragedy comes as Hagen built his life on his face, and Gotham destroys it the moment he reaches the peak of success. An actor loses his face in front of the world itself.
Personally, I wish Clayface had explored Hagen’s childhood more. It mentions that he grew up on the streets, but never shows how that experience shaped his hunger for fame or his attachment to his appearance. Even a brief flashback to his life before becoming an actor could have added more emotional weight to his downfall, showing just how far he had come and how much he stood to lose. It would also have made his desperation to restore his face feel less like vanity and more like a fear of returning to the life he fought so hard to escape.
Tom Rhys Harries is a force of nature
Everything in Clayface works because of Tom Rhys Harries. He is magnetic, and even his quietest moments carry weight. I walked in the theater hoping for visceral body horror, and his performance more than delivered.
His strongest work comes in the morphing scenes. In one striking moment, Hagen morphs another body into Dr. Caitlyn’s likeness and kisses it, technically kissing himself. It is brilliant, heartbreaking, and deeply unsettling, and shows just how far the nanocells have warped his mind.
Specifically, Batman’s villains often feel like people we want to sit down with; their pain and fear feel familiar. The effects aren’t perfect. A few transformations wobble, and I may still be comparing them to the animated series. And although the final form resembles that version but not closely, the clay-like texture itself looks fantastic.
Some dialogue felt flat
Not every line lands, and some of the supporting dialogue feels uneven, making Harries’s wordless acting all the more powerful. The pacing moves well, though. Side characters get little introduction, and that works for longtime fans, while new viewers simply follow Hagen’s journey.
The climax in Clayface absolutely delivers. Hagen walks toward Szabo’s private room wearing one borrowed face after another. Oddly, I found myself cheering him on. There’s something disturbingly satisfying about watching a villain strut through a room full of people who have it coming, especially when the film makes you feel every ounce of rage behind their rampage. It reminded me of how Harley Quinn gleefully decimated an entire army in a flurry of bullets and flowers in The Suicide Squad (2021). You know you probably shouldn’t be rooting for them, but when the people on the receiving end are just as despicable, it’s hard not to enjoy the carnage.
The final moments linger, especially after Hagen’s rampage. He shows up at Dr. Caitlyn’s apartment wearing the face of her fiancé. Desperate to end the nightmare she helped create, Caitlyn terminates the nanocells. And when she comes face-to-face with the clay monster, she watches as the goo slips away and disappears down a street drain.
The image leaves just enough room for doubt as the conclusion moved too quickly. The scene left Hagen’s fate unclear, but that ambiguity works in the film’s favor. Caitlyn has seen what he has become, yet she has no way of knowing where he might turn up next or whose face he might wear. He could be anyone passing by on the street, and that uncertainty is precisely what makes him terrifying.
Is Clayface connected to Creature Commandos?
That ambiguity also ties into Creature Commandos, where Clayface has already appeared. In the fifth episode, “The Iron Pot,” Eric Frankenstein electrocuted him, though Gunn later said reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. Gunn and co-head Peter Safran confirmed the film and series share the same character, with the film taking place first chronologically.
The series portrays him as a mercenary who isn’t very good at the job. But a Hagen who can never return to his old life might use his acting talent to become anyone, for a price. Seen that way, Dr. Caitlyn’s fear is a warning. The man she helped create could be anywhere, selling new identities.
For the DCU, Clayface is a quiet foundation. Batman never appears, which leaves Gotham feeling like a stage with no one guarding the exits. He is expected to debut in The Brave and the Bold, and this film shows just how dark and broken the city he will inherit truly is.
Verdict: 8.5/10
What do you think of Clayface?
Source: The Wrap, TV Insider, DC Comics, Warner Bros. Pictures, ComicBookMovie.com
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