Movies
‘Clayface’ – Tom Rhys Harries Playing the Title Character in DC Horror Movie
DC character Clayface is getting a live action movie written by Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep, Life of Chuck) and directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake, The Woman in Black, Speak No Evil), and Deadline reports this morning that Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries (Slaughterhouse Rulez) has landed the lead role.
The 34-year-old actor has also appeared in the television shows “Jekyll and Hyde” (2014), “Midsomer Murders,” “White Lines,” “Suspicion” and “Doctor Who,” as well as films including Hot Property, The Gentlemen, Kandahar, How Kids Roll, and The Return.
The Flanagan-penned Clayface movie is currently undergoing revisions, with writer Hossein Amini (Drive) coming on board to revise the script. Flanagan had recently revealed that his script was heavily inspired by the character’s appearance in “Batman: The Animated Series,” but there’s no telling how much that original script is going to change along the way.
For what it’s worth, Mike Flanagan’s script was described as “a Hollywood horror tale centering on a B-movie actor who injects himself with a substance to keep himself relevant, only to find out that he can reshape his face and form, becoming a walking piece of clay,” with Flanagan describing the project back in 2021 as “horror/thriller/tragedy.”
The Clayface character was introduced by DC Comics in Detective Comics #40 way back in June 1940, an adversary of Batman with a clay-like form and shapeshifting abilities. The character has been played on screen in both animation and live action, with actors including Alan Tudyk, Ron Perlman, Brian McManamon, and Lorraine Burroughs having played the role.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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