Cara-de-Barro: DC brings body horror to Gotham
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DC Studios' body horror opens this Thursday (22) with Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen and turns Gotham into a visceral nightmare. Check the details.
Cara-de-Barro (released internationally as Clayface) opens in Brazilian theaters this Thursday, October 22, 2026, as the first horror feature of the DC Universe. Directed by James Watkins and starring Tom Rhys Harries, the film follows Matt Hagen, a rising Hollywood actor whose face is destroyed by a Gotham City crime boss's gang and who accepts an experimental treatment from Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) to rebuild his appearance. The procedure works at first, but it turns his body into malleable clay and his mind into something far worse. DC Studios is trading the redeemed anti-hero for body horror: instead of compassion, audiences watch a man become a monster, step by step.
A real villain, not a misunderstood anti-hero
Hollywood has grown used to turning antagonists into sympathetic leads. The Joker got a psychological drama about social exclusion; the Penguin, a series about political ascent in a decaying Gotham. Clayface takes the opposite road: there is no redemption arc, no attempt to frame violence as a legitimate response to an unjust society. The film treats Matt Hagen as what he is — a villain in the making.
The choice makes sense both commercially and narratively. DC Studios, led by James Gunn and Peter Safran, promised from the start to explore the comics' range of genres, and horror is precisely the territory Marvel has not claimed on the big screen. In 2026 the genre is enjoying a new commercial peak: Obsession became the highest-grossing original horror film of the century, and Backrooms became A24's biggest earner.
"I find it fascinating that people are drawn to horror as a form of subverted escapism. It is a vehicle for telling really exciting stories."
From leading man to monster: Matt Hagen's story
Matt Hagen is a Gotham kid who becomes a Hollywood star. His meteoric rise is cut short when he gets involved with the wife of gangster Markos Szabo (David Dencik). The retaliation is brutal: the gang destroys his face. Abandoned by his team and out of money, Hagen seeks out Dr. Caitlyn Corr, a researcher testing cellular reconstruction technology. The treatment gives him his old face back — but it also affects his grip on reality.
The screenplay is by Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep) and Hossein Amini, from a story by Flanagan. The pair drew on two episodes of Batman: The Animated Series that tell the character's origin, but also looked to body-horror classics such as The Fly, The Substance and Darkman. The result is a rise-and-fall story that requires no prior knowledge of the DC universe.
Gotham exists: Liverpool, tungsten light and little green screen
To give the city weight, the production avoided CGI whenever possible and built Gotham in Liverpool, England. The choice was no accident: Watkins saw in the city's architecture a parallel to 1970s, 1980s and 1990s New York, an aesthetic reference the team openly embraced. Cinematographer Rob Hardy complemented the lighting design with tungsten lamps, creating a grimy, eccentric and decadent atmosphere.
The cast felt the effect of the practical sets too. Tom Rhys Harries said he would walk the streets and find leaflets left as part of the set dressing; at other times, he would see Gotham police cars driving past. For the actor, that level of detail was decisive in sustaining immersion in a film that, according to the director, is not a giant superhero adventure but the story of a single person.
"The world of Gotham is fantastical, but we also wanted to keep it grounded, real and tell the story of just one person. It is not a giant, crazy superhero movie. It is something much closer to the character, and I find that really interesting."
Practical effects and the body as a horror set
The film's main technical asset is its makeup. The sequences in which Hagen's face and body deform were achieved with prosthetics and practical effects, giving the actor a concrete sense of the character's physical limits. Harries described the process as an exercise in overcoming obstacles and finding contradictions — the most interesting space for a performer. By the end of shooting, he says, he was completely exhausted.
The choice of practical work connects to a recent Hollywood trend that Watkins publicly defended while citing Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. For the director, you do not need to show everything: suggestion frightens more than the full exposure of the creature. It is a decision that also helps the film stand apart from the digital machinery of most comic-book blockbusters.
The official trailer, released by Warner Bros., sums up the tone: watch the Clayface trailer.
Critical reception and key facts
The first reactions, released after the Los Angeles premiere, were largely positive. Critics highlighted the film's brutality, its high age rating and Harries's performance. In the first round of reviews, Rotten Tomatoes showed a 75% critics' score. Some US outlets pointed to limitations in the script, but there was consensus on the lead performance and the effectiveness of the body horror.
In Brazil, the release lands one day before the US opening, with an 18+ rating — the same bracket as the American R rating. The production cost around US$40 million, a modest budget by DC standards, which lowers box-office pressure and explains the bet on a more contained, auteur-driven format.
| Director | James Watkins |
|---|---|
| Screenplay | Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini |
| Cast | Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan |
| Producers | Matt Reeves, Lynn Harris, James Gunn and Peter Safran |
| Runtime | 108 minutes |
| Rating | R in the US; 18+ in Brazil |
| Brazilian release | October 22, 2026 |
Where the film fits in the DCU
Clayface is the third DCU feature, after Superman (2025) and Supergirl (2026), and the first to dive into horror. The character debuted in Detective Comics #40 in 1940, created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, and has had several identities over eight decades. The film does not adapt that first appearance: it blends Hagen's arc with traits of Basil Karlo, the vengeful actor of the comics origin.
The production also avoids tying the film to a web of references. Batman does not appear, and the script does not require viewers to know the previous movies. That independence is both a strength and a limitation: the film works as a standalone horror piece, but leaves open how the villain will return in the shared universe.
For superhero watchers, the release arrives during an industry reshuffle — Paramount's acquisition of Warner redrew the studio map, and Clayface's performance will be read closely. Horror fans, meanwhile, have concrete reasons to buy a ticket: the film bets on discomfort, violence and a Gotham that feels genuinely sick.
The movie also reinforces the creative partnership with Mike Flanagan, one of the most consistent names in contemporary horror, and speaks to audiences' appetite for villain stories — a trend the DCU itself has been testing in projects such as The Batman Part II. The difference is that here there is no room to romanticize the monster.
Clayface opens on October 22, 2026, in Brazilian theaters. The film is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, and more details are available on the studio's official page. For more premieres and reviews, visit Revista Pixel's movies section.
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