Clayface (2026) reviews

The Fuzzy Mushroom take on Clayface

By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 10 November 2026 · The Pros 66 · The Punters 81 · Spore Score 71 · How we write our takes

Why The Punters rate it higher than The Pros

Clayface is a superhero film that audiences have enjoyed more than critics. The Punters give it 81, The Pros 66, and the Spore Score is 71, with a fuzzy tag. Critics praised the lead performance and the gooey practical effects, but many found the script formulaic and the film slow to get going. Audiences, especially horror fans who rarely get a comic-book film made for them, were happy to forgive that for a proper, grisly creature feature.

What it is

This is the third film in James Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Universe, and the first to be a straight horror film. Mike Flanagan, of The Haunting of Hill House, pitched it and co-wrote the script with Hossein Amini. James Watkins, the British director of Eden Lake and The Woman in Black, directs. Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, a rising actor fresh from an Oscar nomination, whose face is slashed by the crime lord Markos Szabo (David Dencik) after Hagen spends the night with Szabo's girlfriend. Desperate to save his career, Hagen turns to Dr Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), whose experimental nanite treatment can heal skin. It works, until his face starts to melt.

What it does well

Rhys Harries is excellent, playing vanity, terror and rage in a body that will not hold its shape. The practical make-up and creature effects are disgusting in the best way, and Watkins borrows openly from David Cronenberg's The Fly and the gooey horror of the 1980s. Ackie gives the doctor real warmth, and the relationship between her and Hagen gives the film a sad, almost romantic core. There is also a sharp streak of satire about Hollywood's obsession with beauty and the cosmetic surgery industry.

Where The Pros have a point

The first act takes too long to set things up, and the revenge plot that drives the second half is predictable. Where the film switches from practical effects to computer-generated ones, the magic fades. This version of Gotham, shot in Liverpool, never quite feels like a real place.

Who it is for

Horror fans first, superhero fans second. If you liked The Substance or Cronenberg's body horror, this is your kind of DC film. Not for younger viewers: the effects are graphic.

Context

The film was shot in Liverpool and at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in autumn 2025. It was moved from September to 23 October 2026 to open in the run-up to Halloween. Matt Reeves, director of The Batman, is among the producers.

The Fuzzy Mushroom verdict

Worth a watch, with a Spore Score of 71. Slow to start, but once Clayface takes shape it is a gruesome, sad and very entertaining monster movie. The Punters are right: this is the most interesting thing the new DC Universe has done yet.