It’s been a while since Batman spun a yarn on the big screen, but an origin story for one of his adversaries proves a worthy next of kiln. James Watkins’s Clayface (B) follows a matinee idol (Tom Rhys Harries) whose disfigurement by a mob boss (David Dencik) sends him into the care of a scientist (Naomi Ackie), whose genetic intervention transforms him into a grotesque shapeshifter. Pursued by a detective (Max Minghella), the actor trades leading-man looks for monstrous new possibilities as this slow-burn thriller shifts into full-throttle revenge. The inventive makeup effects deliver body-horror bliss, with jaw-dropping transformations and fiendishly creative kills compensating for occasionally uneven storytelling and ho-hum atmosphere. Harries and Ackie give the mayhem an emotional center, grounding the escalating grotesquerie in palpable chemistry. From the laboratory to the lavatory, where a terrific airplane-mirror sequence turns self-reflection into a mid-flight fright, Watkins finds fresh ways to make flesh crawl. With ample craft beneath its shifting skin, this genre-bending installment in James Gunn’s DC Universe delivers guts, glory and a villain worth getting fired up about.