SPOILER ALERT: The following feature contains spoilers from Clayface.
 

Clayface has been one of my most highly anticipated films this year, not only because of the love that I have for the character, but because the world has been in desperate need of a Clayface film.

No, really.

Ultimately, Clayface is a multifaceted character (ha), and part of the beauty of Matt Hagen as a Batman villain is that his condition can act as a metaphorical stand-in for a whole range of topics and themes. And with that in mind, I was so pleased to see this versatility on full display in James Watkins’ film. But even with my high standards as a DC fan, I wasn’t expecting the movie to go as hard, and as personal, as it did.

Like Clayface himself, this movie can’t be entirely contained in a single category or genre. While it’s absolutely a body horror film, it’s also a gothic romance with a sci-fi touch, and it’s a comic book movie drawn from the world of Batman. There are some killer comedic moments, too. Perhaps executive producer Michael Uslan summarized it best when I spoke to him at the Clayface premiere.

“Right now, horror is a hot topic,” Uslan said. “And my favorite generation, the Gen Zs, are coming back to movie theaters to experience horror—but not any typical horror. It’s got to be strange, it’s got to be different, it’s got to be bold. It has to feel like you’re participating in an experience rather than passively watching a film.”

And watching Clayface truly felt like an experience. Maybe it’s because I identify with Clayface more than some might (which I’ll explain in a bit), but the range of tones and emotions in the movie felt a lot like life. Reality is—hopefully for you, at least—rarely one genre.

Alright, so what do I mean by this? The revelation that Matt’s Clayface powers start acting up whenever he gets stressed hit me emotionally in a way that I wasn’t expecting. I have an autoimmune disorder that causes my body, but mostly my face, to break out into unsightly rashes when I get stressed. My flare ups have been so bad in the past that I’ve been reluctant to go outside without a mask on to hide the state of my skin. The most horrific part of it is the experience of not feeling or being in control of my body and my face, along with not knowing when my next flare up is going to be.

For whatever reason, I never expected to see a film that mirrors my condition, much less one about one of my favorite Batman villains. But it makes total sense! It’s part of what makes the world of Batman and Gotham City so special. Batman’s Gotham is a safe place where we can reflect on topics or experiences that we ordinarily keep locked away. It’s this quality that embodies the “strange” that Michael Uslan was talking about, because I still don’t think we as humans are used to confronting the fragility of our own bodies. So, when we do, like in a film like Clayface, it’s audacious and thrilling. I’ll be honest with you, it felt great to focus on someone else’s medical problems besides my own for the two hours I was in the theater.

By the end of the film, I was happy to see Matt embrace an almost playful spirit as he terrorized the men who disfigured him. Because after all he’s gone through, the guy deserves a bit of lightness and joy, even if it’s in a very dark sense. I was cheering in my theater when Matt started line dancing at the club in the film’s climax, and I cheered once again when he cathartically used the way he was disfigured by gangster Markos Szabo to get his revenge.

For years now, my answer whenever anyone has asked me who my favorite Batman villain is has been Clayface, and his live action debut didn’t let me down. The film understands that, at his core, Batman’s greatest villains are defined by their humanity, or lack thereof. (I firmly believe that the Joker is a primordial entity without a birth certificate, but that’s just me.) Seeing the entire cast and crew of Clayface render my favorite goopy Gotham rogue with so much love, care and creativity onscreen was validating, because it showed to me that other people connect to his character for similar reasons as me.

Clayface has always deserved a tragic deep dive into his psyche like the Creature in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and thankfully for all of us, director James Watkins delivered on this promise.
 

Clayface, directed by James Watkins and starring Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie, is now in theaters.

Jules Chin Greene writes about comics, movies and superheroes for DC.com. Follow him on Instagram at @infinitevibes and Bluesky at @JulesChinGreene.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Jules Chin Greene and do not necessarily reflect those of DC, Warner Bros. or Skydance, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.