Clayface review

If someone asked me to make a list of 500 DC characters to make a movie on I don’t think Clayface would be in there. It’s too an ambitious project, it would need an amazing story, some cutting edge special effects and some of the most creative film making we’ve seen to date. Thankfully that’s exactly what they got. This to me is a near perfect comic book movie.

The movie is largely filmed in the UK with a British director James Watkins who is best known for his directing work on Black Mirror, Eden Lake and Speak no Evil. He’s got a good experience in these graphic films which explore the darker side of humanity and it shines in this movie. From start to finish the movie is mega fast paced but also has a really clear story with a few twists along the way. I’m not sure if we will see a Clayface sequel but I know DC need to keep him around for another movie based in Gotham.

Getting the script right is probably the hardest bit, it’s a very tough task to make the origin of Clayface work in a modern comic book movie where realism is so important for the audience, these films aren’t just made for fun anymore and people want characters with depth. The script was penned by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, Flanagan has a strong history in the horror genre with movies and TV. Amini has also worked on some pretty big projects like the Obi-wan Kenobi TV series. I’m not sure how long they were working on the script for or where the ideas came from but it’s almost too good. I can’t imagine knowing where to start and it must be intimidating to anyone wanting to come up with an original script for another DC character. The recent darker toned Batman universe has delivered some amazing projects like Joke and the Penguin series.

The movie started off with an actor, Matt Hagen who’s grown up on the streets and got a lucky break as an actor, he’s finally been recognised for acting and been nominated for a big award, something he’d never imagined. It’s brought with it a lot of attention and none of it’s good. Without saying too much he gets in trouble with another of the Gotham mob families and gets his face horribly disfigured, it’s a gruesome movie and not one for the kids, in fact most adults might need to turn away at parts. He goes on to lose everything and tries to get it back with some experimental reconstruction work with the help of AI based cells. We all know AI leads to evil and it all escalates for Matt in a major way.

This isn’t going to be the biggest money making movie of 2026, it’s out in the same year as Doomsday and Spider-man but I have to say I think this will be the best comic book movie of the year. I love all the Batman movies (Not the Cloonie ones) and I think this might be the best one. The Dark Knight was amazing, the Joker was original and really gritty but every now and again we get a movie that pushes the bar a little higher and I think this is one of those. It’s the best Batman movie to me and it doesn’t even mention the Bat in it.

I went into the movie not expecting too much but it got off at a running start and just had a near perfect script for one of the most difficult characters to bring to the big screen. It’s gruesome, fast paced, original and he’s the best anti-hero/villain since the Joker.

The movie personifies Gotham in all the best ways. It’s gritty fully of the mob and monsters I’m just not sure how DC will top this movie.

The bad points, I don’t know if it will get a sequel, the movie is fairly self contained and just really well made. I’m not sure if it needs one but I just want more Clayface content.

Posted by Adi Mursec on October 24, 2026