Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Clayface:
The Substance
At least one early review of Clayface named The Substance as part of its DNA, and it’s easy to see why. Coralie Fargeat’s satire stars Demi Moore as a fading Hollywood star who uses a black-market drug to spawn a younger, “better” version of herself (Margaret Qualley). The result is one of the best body horror movies of the century, a gooey, grotesque nightmare about fame and self-loathing.
The Batman
Matt Reeves’ The Batman is the most horror-adjacent take on Gotham before Clayface. Robert Pattinson’s brooding, early-career Batman hunts the Riddler (Paul Dano), a masked serial killer leaving cryptic messages at his crime scenes, and Reeves stages the murders with the menace of a David Fincher thriller. It’s grimy, rain-soaked, and frighteningly good.
Speak No Evil
Before Clayface, director James Watkins made this English-language remake of the 2022 Danish shocker. Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy play an American couple who accept a weekend invitation to the English countryside home of a charismatic stranger (James McAvoy) and his family. Our review felt it missed the original’s point, but McAvoy’s unhinged performance is a blast.
A Different Man
Like Matt Hagen in Clayface, Sebastian Stan’s Edward is an actor whose face becomes the center of his identity. Aaron Schimberg’s surreal comedy follows a man with neurofibromatosis who undergoes an experimental treatment that transforms his appearance, only to become obsessed with the actor (Adam Pearson) cast to play his former self. It’s strange, funny, and quietly devastating.
Infinity Pool
Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool takes body horror on vacation. Alexander Skarsgård plays a struggling writer at a resort in a fictional country where wealthy tourists can pay to have clones of themselves executed in their place. Mia Goth is magnetic as the fellow guest who drags him deeper into depravity, and the film’s questions about identity and duplicate bodies are right in line with this list.
MaXXXine
For more horror about the dark side of Hollywood ambition, try Ti West’s MaXXXine. Mia Goth stars as an adult film actress trying to break into mainstream movies in 1985 Los Angeles while a serial killer stalks the city. Like Clayface, it’s a story about the violence that comes with chasing stardom, wrapped in glossy, bloody genre packaging.
Doctor Sleep
Clayface was co-written by Mike Flanagan, and Doctor Sleep is one of his biggest studio swings. His sequel to The Shining stars Ewan McGregor as a grown-up Danny Torrance, now a recovering alcoholic, who must protect a young girl from a cult of psychic vampires led by Rebecca Ferguson’s Rose the Hat. Our review found it deeply flawed, but Flanagan’s gift for character-driven horror is all over it.
Venom: The Last Dance
Few comic book characters are as shapeshifting and gooey as Clayface, but Venom comes close. Tom Hardy’s final outing as Eddie Brock sends him and his alien symbiote on the run from both the military and an otherworldly threat. Our review felt it didn’t do justice to its predecessors, but it’s a reminder of how much fun a villain-centric comic book movie with a messy, malleable hero can be.
Joker: Folie à Deux
Clayface isn’t the first film to center a Gotham villain. Todd Phillips’ musical sequel finds Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck locked in Arkham awaiting trial, where he falls for a fellow patient played by Lady Gaga. Our review called it ill-conceived from the start, but it’s still a fascinating, divisive experiment in turning Batman’s rogues’ gallery into adult drama.
The Shrouds
Reviews of Clayface keep returning to David Cronenberg’s The Fly, and the Canadian master is still exploring the body’s horrors decades later. In The Shrouds, Vincent Cassel plays a grieving widower who invents burial shrouds that let mourners watch their loved ones decompose. It’s a divisive, self-reflexive drama, but an essential entry in one of the great body horror filmographies.
READ MORE: Body Horror Movies Like The Substance, Movies Like A Different Man
