Clayface Reaches Cinemas on October 23 as DC's Body Horror Batman Villain Story

Clayface, DC Studios' horror film about a Batman villain, opens in cinemas on Friday, October 23. Warner Bros. Pictures is distributing it in theatres only, and The Hollywood Reporter lists the film as rated R, with a running time of 1 hour 48 minutes.

The film was directed by James Watkins. Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini co-wrote the script. Variety reports that Flanagan's story loosely draws on the origin of an actor who gains shapeshifting powers, but otherwise starts largely from scratch.

Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, a rising actor who becomes Clayface. Variety describes Harries as a Welsh actor best known for UK independent films, with a supporting role in Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen. Naomi Ackie plays Dr. Caitlyn Corr, a scientist working on cell-replacement technology. David Dencik plays Szabo, a Gotham mobster. Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan also star.

In the film, Matt's career collapses after a nightclub encounter with the girlfriend of a mobster. The mobster attacks his face with a switchblade. Corr agrees to repair it, but his face begins shifting into unpredictable human and monstrous forms. Under emotional stress, he injects himself with a megadose of her formula and gains the ability to change his face at will, according to The Hollywood Reporter's review.

The story partly unfolds in Coast City, the film's name for Los Angeles, Variety reports. Deadline describes it as body horror inside the DC Universe, and contrasts it with James Gunn's Superman (2025), which it says is aimed at classic superhero fans. Variety calls the film the third in the DC Universe, after Superman and Supergirl, which opened this summer.

Watkins has described the character's split nature as the point. Speaking to Deadline at Comic-Con in July, he said Clayface is an antihero but not wholly a villain. The reviews published this week use the same label. Variety calls the film nasty and gnarly, and says its practical makeup effects owe a debt to 1990s horror such as Darkman and Thinner.

The release date has moved before. Deadline reported in June 2025 that the film was scheduled for September 11, 2026. Variety reported in February 2026 that DC Studios had moved it to October, with Warner Bros. shifting Practical Magic 2 in connection with the change.

Gunn also spoke about the film this month. Variety reports that he responded to criticism of Clayface, which it describes as a considerably niche choice for a feature film compared with DC's Supergirl and Superman. The Hollywood Reporter says he strongly defended the film after a fan mocked it.

Cinemas open Friday. For a film that began life as a Batman villain, Clayface now arrives as a horror picture first, with the DC name second.