#SHOWBIZ: DC's 'Clayface' is a pure body horror nightmare

When was the last time a comic book movie made you squirm in your cinema seat, clutching your popcorn with a mix of fascination and horror?

Enter 'Clayface', director James Watkins' delightfully nasty, rated-18 detour into the dark underbelly of comic lore.

Stripping away the shiny gloss of typical superhero blockbusters, this film does not care about setting up the next phase of a cinematic universe.

Instead, it only cares about taking a deeply human tragedy and smothering it in bucketloads of bubbling, mutated body horror.

At the centre of this melting pot of madness is Tom Rhys Harries, who gives a fearlessly raw performance as Matt Hagen.

Once a rising Hollywood star whose handsome face was his entire livelihood, Hagen's life is shattered after a brutal run-in with a mob boss played with icy malice by Eddie Marsan.

Enter Dr Caitlin Corr (a brilliant Naomi Ackie), who offers an experimental, living clay-like compound to restore his features.

What starts as a miraculous fix rapidly turns into a stomach-churning identity crisis as Hagen realises he can shape-shift — at the cost of losing his own human form.

Watkins crafts Gotham City not as a gothic fantasy, but as a grimy, suffocating pressure cooker where Hagen's vanity becomes his ultimate undoing.

While the script stumbles slightly in its opening act with some rushed editing and a few tonal shifts during the chaotic third-act climax, the sheer commitment to practical special effects keeps you hooked.

Harries' performance elevates the material from a simple monster mash into a tragic character study reminiscent of David Cronenberg's 'The Fly'.

Complemented by a haunting, industrial score by Volker Bertelmann, 'Clayface' stands as one of the most unapologetically risky entries in DC's catalogue.

It is a film that dares to turn a comic book origin story into a visceral nightmare — and for fans of dark creature features, that is a monstrous win.

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CLAYFACE

Directed by: James Watkins

Starring: Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan