Both DC Studios and Marvel have spent hundreds of millions on their biggest superhero movies. Clayface is going a different route, and Naomi Ackie thinks that’s to its advantage.

The R-rated horror thriller was made for a reported $40 million, a fraction of a typical tentpole. Directed by James Watkins, it stars Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, a rising actor who turns to an experimental treatment after a crime boss leaves him disfigured. Ackie plays Dr. Caitlyn Corr, the scientist behind that treatment.

“There is so much you can do with not that much money,” Ackie told AfroTech Culture.

The business case for going smaller

Ackie pointed to Obsession, Curry Barker’s horror film that was made for about $750,000 and went on to gross more than $500 million worldwide.

“It’s insane,” she said.

With a smaller budget, she explained, studios can afford to swing bigger.

“You can maybe take more risk, because the investment on a business side… is less, the payback could be more, but if it doesn’t work out… you haven’t lost as much,” she said.

Watkins has worked this way before. His 2024 thriller Speak No Evil grossed $77 million worldwide on a $15 million budget. Producer Matt Reeves also previously said that after The Batman, he got excited about “looking for ways to do really cool, smaller horror films” built around Batman’s villains.

Ackie says the lower price tag also gives filmmakers creative room. Clayface blends body horror, romance, revenge and superhero elements.

“Smaller budgets can allow for a bit more play when it comes to tone and genre-bending stuff,” she said.

She also sees the film reaching more than one audience. “There’s already a beautiful community who love DC so much, who are really excited for it,” she said. “And then it’s bringing in the people who love horror into this space as well.”

Asked whether the film’s performance could shift how Hollywood approaches projects like it, Ackie said, “That’s the hope.”

A scientist without backing

Ackie’s character is a nanotechnology researcher whose investors have walked away. In the production notes, Ackie says Caitlyn “doesn’t have the support of her backers anymore and she’s really trying to create medical breakthroughs by herself.” By the time Matt arrives, she’s “near ruin,” and she takes on his case even knowing it isn’t ethical.

Ackie told AfroTech that the moral gray area was part of the draw.

“I think there’s a moral dubiousness that I think Black women often don’t get to play,” she said.

She also noted how rarely audiences see women like her in science roles on screen.

“How often do we see Black female scientists in any space on film? Not often,” she said. “So it was fun playing a smart, capable woman. It was fun playing someone who was really complex.”

Building a career in genre

Clayface continues a run of genre work for Ackie that includes Blink Twice and Mickey 17, with They Follow, the sequel to It Follows, coming up next. Asked whether that’s been a deliberate strategy, she said it’s “a bit of both.”

“I’ve always gravitated towards that,” she said. “I know through experience, but also I’ve got a lot of friends who are actors, how hard it is to subvert expectations of what you can do.”

Ackie says being in a comic book film has been a goal since she was 11. She credits DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran with giving directors room to make their own films within the franchise, which she says “gives real creative freedom to the filmmakers.”

For the box office to work, people have to show up, and Ackie is making the case for theaters.

“You need to watch this in a big audience because there are going to be shrieks and groans, all of that, and you feed off of each other,” she said.

Clayface hits theaters in on Oct. 23.