The Guardian's Review Says Clayface Can Make You Squirm but Is Still a Missed Opportunity
The Guardian's review singles out the scene of Matt trying to cut through flesh growing over his eyes on a bumpy flight as 'brilliantly awful to watch,' and says director James Watkins shows his genre mettle in those intimate, uneasy moments.
The overall verdict is colder: the review calls Clayface 'overwhelmingly not a moment.' It describes the film as a clumsily missed opportunity even as a relatively standalone horror movie, and notes that Mike Flanagan's original script was allegedly more texturally complex and was entirely rewritten.
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A single queasy set piece can be a real achievement. The trailer scene sounds like the kind of intimate, uneasy moment where a genre director earns his keep.
But 'overwhelmingly not a moment' is the review's larger judgment, and one good squirm doesn't answer it.