Well, I didn’t have this on my bingo card, but it looks like they weren’t lying when they said this would be horror.

DC has dropped the first teaser for Clayface, and it’s melting my heart, as well as other, various, body parts. The film hits cinemas October 23rd, and if this early look is anything to go by, the studio’s decided to stop flirting with the macabre and go full-on body horror.

Front and centre is Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, a rising star whose career takes a hard left into nightmare territory. We’re talking identity collapse, physical breakdown, and the kind of transformation that makes mirrors throw up. This isn’t a slow unravel, it’s a front-row seat to someone becoming something else entirely, and not in a new you kind of way.

Behind the camera, James Watkins directs, working from a script by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini. That combo alone should tell you this isn’t aiming for lightweight thrills. The project’s already drawing comparisons to The Fly, which is less a reference point and more a warning label.

The story tracks Hagen’s slide from Hollywood hopeful to monster of the oozing kind, digging into identity, obsession, and the kind of scientific ambition that never ends eith a Nobel Peace Prize. It’s also being positioned as DC’s first full step into the darkness, so expect less capes and more reasons to reach for the nearest empty popcorn bucket.

Joining the cast are Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan, Nancy Carroll, and Joshua James, all stepping into a story that looks like it’s going to leak as much fluid as it can.

Production sits with Matt Reeves, Lynn Harris, James Gunn, and Peter Safran, with Safran previously describing the film as a twisted take on a classic Batman villain’s origin. Translation: don’t expect a smiley, happy, everyone’s a winner story.

Expect gore.