Review: The body horror is great in DC's 'Clayface' but the script is a sloppy mess

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Set us as preferred “Clayface” is a talky DC comic-book thriller about a hotshot actor named Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) who loses his good looks, then regains them along with the ability to mutate into anyone he pleases.The movie is also a shape-shifter.

Directed by James Watkins from a script by Mike Flanagan (creator of the new “Carrie” reboot) and Hossein Amini, this wanly plotted body-horror adventure apes everything from “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” to David Cronenberg’s “The Fly” while having no personality of its own.The film opens on Matt as the movie industry’s latest golden boy, sunlight caressing his tousled blond locks to literalize that he’s basking in the glow of success.On the morning of his first awards nomination, he ducks behind the set to hide a grateful tear.

Born into poverty and raised in violence, he claims to have stuffed his negative emotions deep inside — perhaps too far, as we never see any convincing anger in him, just a nice young man going out of his way to charm flight attendants (a welcome change from recent celebrity headlines involving Selma Blair).Acting, Matt says, is transforming one’s ugly emotions into something beautiful.That’s a lovely way to describe it, and “Clayface” does have decent ideas for those game to sift through the muck.

But the film’s version of Hollywood (called Coast City) is as vicious as any back alley in Gotham, ruled over by agents who sneer, “This business is all surface.” Movies From a new “Resident Evil” reboot from the director of “Weapons” to Oscar contenders starring Mikey Madison and Tom Cruise, here are the movies we’ll be at this fall.The decent first act sketches how fundamental Matt’s wide eyes and carved cheekbones are to his career.We see him splurge on face massages and ice baths more than we see hi...