Clayface reviews: what critics are saying about DC's Body Horror
Clayface is in UK cinemas now, and critics are split on DC's 18-rated body horror. Here is what the reviews say, who stars and what to know before you book.
Clayface, the DC Universe's body-horror take on a Batman villain, opens in UK cinemas today, and the critics who saw it early are far from agreed.
Some have enjoyed its grotesque effects and its commitment to gore, while others feel the film never finds a shape worth all the mess. If you are deciding whether to book a ticket this weekend, here is where the reviews stand and what you should know before you go.
Directed by James Watkins, the British film-maker behind Eden Lake, the film tells the origin story of one of Batman's oldest villains. Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, an actor whose experimental treatment leaves him transformed into a creature made of clay, and the official synopsis describes his "horrifying descent from rising Hollywood star to revenge-filled monster".
Naomi Ackie co-stars as a scientist, Max Minghella plays a Gotham City police detective, and David Dencik and Eddie Marsan also appear. The screenplay is by Mike Flanagan, best known for The Haunting of Hill House, and Hossein Amini.
Among the warmer notices, Variety's review sums the film up as "good, gross fun", while Empire's points to its "buckets of body horror". William Bibbiani at TheWrap sits somewhere in the middle, calling it "an effective, though hardly brilliant, gross-out horror film" and conceding in the same breath that it is not a great one.
Other critics have been harder on it. Brian Tallerico at RogerEbert.com argues that a horror film needs more than its special effects, warning that without something behind "the ooey-gooey stuff" the result is "just slop".
The Playlist praises its "striking visuals and grotesque body horror" but feels the film struggles to make its tragedy land, IndieWire's review is headlined "a gross miscalculation", and the Boston Globe calls it an "underwhelming horror story". Several of these reviews, including some of the kinder ones, suggest that the creature effects impress more than the story built around them.
That split makes it a film people will want to judge for themselves, and anyone planning to go should know that it is not one for younger DC fans. The BBFC has given Clayface an 18 certificate for strong bloody violence and injury detail, so nobody under 18 will be admitted to UK screenings, and the film runs for just under an hour and 50 minutes. It was originally due out on 11 September before Warner Bros moved it to land in time for Halloween.
There is also a home-grown reason for British audiences to take an interest. Much of Gotham City was filmed in Liverpool, with scenes also shot at New Brighton on the Wirral, and Merseyside viewers should recognise more than a few landmarks on screen. We have already rounded up Liverpool's real-life Gotham City filming locations for anyone who wants to see them in person after watching.
Watch the official trailer:
With reviews this divided, the next few weeks will show whether cinema audiences warm to DC's darker turn more readily than some of the critics have, and its first weekend in cinemas should give an early sense of that. Clayface is in cinemas across the UK now.
Images: Warner Bros. Pictures.
