Carrying the DC Comics imprint was the worst thing that could have happened to this picture. Had it come out under the Blumhouse moniker, it might have been better received. As it is, my guess is the target audience was just confused, accounting for it falling short of expected weekend box office targets. You say DC Comics and everyone is expecting a superhero, these days in various shades of grey. So, in that regard, at least, this comes well up to scratch.
But it appears not to be part of any DC universe, a rare stand-alone which can’t call on a guest appearance from Superman or Batman to trick it out. I’ve never heard of this comic book character, but then, don’t come to me for a quiz on multiverses.
The surprising thing is how well it works. Sure, maybe it’s a combo of Frankenstein, House of Wax, the Hulk, and any other movie where an experiment went wrong, but at least it’s touching and the main character is exceptionally reflective for a superhero. The superpower element is a shade confusing, however, given he’s got double the dose of the usual superpower. For a start, you can’t kill him, which is enough to set him off, John Wick-style, on bloody revenge. But he can also shape-shift, if that’s what you call it, and assume the body of people he’s killed or about to. Though, naturally, in the kind of underworld into which he descends, a gangster faced with two versions of the same person is likely to put a bullet through both of them.
So we have an actor Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), on the verge of the big big-time having just been nominated for his first Oscar, who makes the mistake of celebrating with the wrong gal, Mia (Joana Ribeiro), who turns out to be a gangster’s moll of gangster Markos Szabo (David Dencik) who doesn’t take kindly to his girlfriend’s one night stand. So he decides to take revenge. What could be the worst affliction a pretty boy actor could face? Why to lose his looks. He is so badly sliced and diced he is unemployable (though you would have thought ideal to play a villain).
When the police prove impotent, Matt launches a civil suit. He loses. Then discovers he’s been duped out of his fortune by his sleazy lawyer (Eddie Marsan). By chance, he happens upon a scientist Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) who’s also been duped out of a prospective fortune. She’s discovered a treatment for rejuvenating cells. He volunteers to become a human trial. To his astonishment, the treatment works. With a completely new face he’s able to walk all over the people in the movie business who dumped him, stealing the thunder at a red carpet premiere.
Only thing is, as you might imagine, there’s a downside of Hulk proportions. The treatment only works if he can stay on an even keel emotionally. If he gets angry, his face betrays him, it starts to slip out of joint, melting like wax. So he helps himself to a massive booster which does the rejuvenating but leaves him open to melting away.
On the other hand, Caitlyn, in a kind of rip-off of Ghost (1990), can get through to him, her touch instantly calming him down and restoring his looks. She’s not available, though, already having a fiancé, incorruptible cop John Borelli (Max Minghella). So not only are we into unwieldy triangle country, Matt has become scared about who he has become, and what he can do. Unlike John Wick or The Equalizer or any other do-gooding superhero, he suffers from remorse.
So, for probably the first time in the superhero world, discounting the romantic travails of your local Spiderman, we have a very reflective, human character, caught up in a world not of his making, unable to control his hatred, unable to express his longing for Caitlyn, and trying desperately to keep in check his instinct to off the boyfriend getting in the way of true love.
Yes, the facial SFX effects are pretty good, and you’ll be averting your eyes at various points, but what is more effective is the emotion,
Except that it’s helping out the wider acting community, I’m not sure why DC Comics has filled this with foreign actors. Tom Rhys Harries (in his first leading movie role) is Welsh, Naomi Ackie (Mickey 17, 2025), British, as are Eddie Marsan (Back to Black, 2024) and Max Minghella (The Handmaid’s Tale, 2017-2025). David Dencik (No Time to Die, 2021) is Swedish and Joana Ribeiro (Dreaming of Lions, 2024) Portuguese.
You can see the hand of horror maestro Mike Flanagan (Carrie, 2026) – who co-wrote the screenplay with Hossein Amini (McMafia, 2018) – in the writing. There’s a depth of character and situation you don’t usually find in horror.
Directed by James Watkins (Speak No Evil, 2024) who doesn’t allow the facial horror to take over from the internal horror.
Enjoyed this a lot more than I expected.
