DC’s latest big-screen venture, Clayface, has arrived to a lukewarm reception, earning a two-star review from Flickering Myth critic Robert Kojder, who dismisses the 2026 body horror film as “disappointingly boring” despite a premise brimming with potential.
Directed by James Watkins and written by acclaimed horror author Mike Flanagan, the film stars Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, a rising Hollywood actor whose face is sliced apart by the henchmen of a ruthless mob boss after a nightclub encounter with the wrong woman. His career is effectively ruined, and matters worsen when the mob boss’s girlfriend publicly and falsely claims she was drugged — a narrative choice Kojder calls “totally bizarre” in this day and age, arguing the screenwriting and characterization never rise to justify such a provocative device.
Desperate to reclaim his life, Hagen turns to unconventional scientist Caitlyn Corr, played by Naomi Ackie, whose experimental nanotechnology repairs his disfigurement. The catch is a body horror twist: overwhelming stress or anger causes his skin to slip away like sludge. As Hagen plots revenge against Hollywood’s backstabbers — some of whom go missing or turn up dead — he also falls for Caitlyn, who is engaged to Gotham police officer John Borelli, portrayed by Max Minghella.
According to the review, the film’s central failing is its reluctance to fully embrace its genre. The surgical and horror elements are described as “shockingly mild,” retreating the moment anything gruesome is teased. Even when Hagen discovers he can assume the identities of those he touches or angers — a mechanic the movie never fully explains — the opportunity for meaningful commentary on Hollywood and the nature of acting remains shallow, amounting to little more than a friend failing to fake his way through a lie about betrayal.
Kojder reserves his strongest praise for Ackie, whom he describes as “the only one expressing remotely compelling inner and ethical conflict,” while finding Harries’ lead performance dull enough to question how his character is celebrated in any fictional universe. The critic also notes that Hagen’s descent into whiny, rejected-lover territory invites valid comparisons to incel behavior.
The film’s internal logic draws further skepticism, with Kojder asking whether Hagen’s face would begin sliding off in Gotham City traffic and what exactly triggers the monstrous transformations. The closing “mind-bender,” he writes, is unearned after 90 largely dull minutes.
Still, Kojder concedes that Clayface carries “a more distinct identity than other DC entries across both universes thus far,” though he warns that the prospect of DC shaping itself into a promising franchise is “fading fast” with each new release. Flickering Myth awarded the film two stars, with the reviewer quipping that the fictional Oscar-nominated movies referenced within Clayface’s Hollywood backdrop “have to be” better than the film itself.
Original Source: https://www.flickeringmyth.com/movie-review-clayface-2026/
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Publish Date: 2026-10-22 00:10:00
