Clayface Critics Call DC Body Horror 'Freakishly Awesome' — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Clayface drew 'freakishly awesome' first reactions from journalists and fans, with critics calling the DC body horror thriller 'everything you want from a villain-led movie' and praising its hard R-rated brutality.
- Collider editor-in-chief Steven Weintraub called the film 'fantastic,' writing that it is 'loaded with brutal scenes that really surprised me' and noting that audience members 'freaked out a few times' during his screening.
- James Watkins, director of 'Speak No Evil,' directed the film from a screenplay co-written by 'The Haunting of Hill House' creator Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, with a story by Flanagan.
- Tom Rhys Harries stars as Matt Hagen, an actor whose face is disfigured by a local mob boss before scientist Dr. Caitlyn Corr, played by Naomi Ackie, transforms his body into clay and causes him to lose his sanity.
- Critic Peter Gray called the film 'dark, violent, with little levity to offset the nastiness,' while YouTuber Brandon Davis said Harries 'is a star' and praised Watkins for getting 'creative with Clayface's abilities.'
- The film is produced by 'The Batman' director Matt Reeves alongside James Gunn and Peter Safran, with additional cast including David Dencik, Max Minghella, and Eddie Marsan, and hits U.S. theaters via Warner Bros. on Oct. 23.
Why it matters: A hard R rating and horror-first framing for a DC villain movie signals James Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Studios is willing to break from PG-13 superhero conventions, betting that adult audiences will turn out for a brutal, character-driven origin story on Oct. 23.
Ask SkimNews
