‘Clayface’ Review: DCU’s Monster Movie Has an Identity Crisis

The best thing about Clayface is its premise. Take a handsome actor, destroy the face that made him famous, then offer him a cure that turns his body into something he can’t control. That’s a horror movie worth making. Unfortunately, this latest DCU experiment seems more interested in giving a Batman villain a tragic backstory than turning that idea into a satisfying film. Batman’s villains have already supplied two Joker movies (one great and one awful), and a prestige television showcase for Gotham’s resident crime boss The Penguin. So it was probably inevitable that DC Studios would work its way down the roster. Still, Clayface, a shapeshifting mountain of misery, isn’t the most obvious candidate for a solo feature. The movie needed to justify that choice. Instead, it makes the character’s second-string status feel like a warning signal. I mean, was Killer Croc too busy? Mr. Freeze? The Riddler? Mike Flanagan’s original pitch offered a promising way in: treat the character’s origin as a body-horror nightmare. DC Studios co-chief James Gunn liked the idea, but Flanagan eventually departed, leaving writer Hossein Amini, whose credits include Drive, and director James Watkins of Ed...