Clayface can be scary, but it is far more gruesome than it is frightening. James Watkins’ R-rated DC Studios film, co-written by Mike Flanagan, is a full-blown body horror movie about Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), a rising Hollywood star who is disfigured by a Gotham crime boss and turns to an experimental treatment that gives him the ability to reshape his own flesh. The film was rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, language, some nudity and brief drug use.
Much of the horror in Clayface comes from watching Hagen’s body fall apart. The largely practical transformation effects are squirm-inducing, and one sequence on an airplane, in which Hagen has to cut through flesh fusing over his eyes with a small pair of scissors, is the kind of moment that will have plenty of viewers looking away. Critics have compared the film to The Fly and The Substance, and it shares that fixation on the body as a source of dread.
READ MORE: The 10 Best Body Horror Movies of All Time
Are There Jump Scares in Clayface?
Clayface is not built around traditional jump scares. Its shocks come from grotesque imagery and bursts of graphic violence rather than sudden noises, though a quiet scene in which Hagen’s face shifts while he sleeps has been singled out as genuinely chilling. Reviews are split on how frightening it ultimately is: some critics call it shockingly extreme, while others find the tone too campy, especially in a goofy third act, to be truly scary. If you can handle heavy gore, it is more likely to make you wince than jump.
READ MORE: Our review of James Watkins’ Speak No Evil
