Clayface reminded me a lot of Darkman, which is a terrific B-movie that showed off director Sam Raimi’s genre gifts and verve. Clayface is certainly no Darkman, but I appreciated that head honcho James Gunn (Superman) was willing to throw out a body horror entry that literally stretches the bounds of a DC movie. I’ve always been a fan of the character since I was introduced to him in the 1990s Batman animated series, and a shape-shifting comic book villain who loses control over his physical form sounds like a strong perspective for a tragic back-story origin. Under co-writer Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep, Haunting of Hill House), it can also lead to some gnarly and entertainingly gross body horror. We follow Oscar-nominated actor Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) as he loses his career after angry mobsters mutilate his pretty face and frame him for assault. A mad scientist experiment injects nanites into his face and it appears to heal, but the results are short-lived and prone to emotional disparities. Matt uses his newfound ability to seek vengeance on those he holds responsible for robbing him of his livelihood. Will the man become a monster? Under an anti-hero revenge formula, we should be rooting for this man, except he’s not truly that compelling as a character despite the best efforts from Harries. The problem is that Clayface needed to go further in every regard as a movie. It needed to be grosser and more imaginative in its body horror. It needed to be more insightful and psychologically challenging for a gripping descent into madness downfall. It also needed more fun set pieces to really enjoy its vengeance angle. Often the kills are smothering-based, with the worst implied off-screen, and it becomes disappointing in execution (pun intended). The villains are interchangeably dull without any distinctive quirk or purchase for poetic justice, something to make the movie feel less like a Darkman imitation and more like its own beast. There’s one memorable scene of Matt trying to cut his eyes open during a bumpy flight that made me squirm extra hard, but that’s about it. Most of the story just seems too familiar and lackluster, slapped together from the leavings of other famous genre movies. With such a strong hook, an underdog who can change form looking for revenge before he might lose his ability to control himself, I kept feeling this should simply be better. Let the murder monster be a murder monster and maximize the potential of its shape-shifting premise. If Matt’s downfall is going to matter we need to really engage with his anguish and loss, and I don’t feel like the movie achieves this. There’s so many forms Clayface could have taken, and to take one so derivative is a creative disappointment.

Nate’s Grade: C+