The Clayface reviews are in, and critics are divided. DC Studios’ first horror film opened in cinemas on October 23, 2026 with a Certified Fresh 76% on Rotten Tomatoes from 116 reviews and a Metacritic score of 59, which Metacritic labels “mixed or average”.
Almost everyone agrees on two things: Tom Rhys Harries is very good as Matt Hagen, and this is a real body horror film, not a superhero film with a scary coat of paint. Where critics part ways is whether the story holds up once the transformation is done.
The Clayface final trailer, from the official Warner Bros. YouTube channel.
Clayface reviews by the numbers
- Rotten Tomatoes: 76% from 116 critic reviews, now Certified Fresh.
- Metacritic: 59 from 37 critics: 19 positive, 15 mixed and 3 negative.
Scores as of October 23, 2026. Both will move as more reviews come in.
What the positive Clayface reviews say
The best notices treat Clayface as the strangest, boldest film DC has made in a while:
- Time Out (80) calls it “the best DC film in years”, and says director James Watkins keeps you guessing whether Hagen can be redeemed right to the end.
- The Hollywood Reporter (80) compares its psychological depth to the body horror of David Cronenberg and Sam Raimi.
- Variety (80) calls it a nasty, gnarly film that works as a one-off genre romp.
- The Telegraph (80) enjoys how much it feels made on its creators’ own terms.
- Consequence (75) calls it “the scariest, freakiest movie ever made based on a DC Comics property”.
The mixed reviews
The middle of the pack likes the horror and the lead, and struggles with the rest:
- Bloody Disgusting (3/5) says DC goes all in on squirm-inducing body horror, “at least for the first half”.
- The Australian (3/5) misses a distinct directorial stamp and finds the effects and world building middling.
- AwardsWatch (75) sees more ambition than execution.
- Slant Magazine (75) thinks Watkins turns the film’s visibly artificial CGI backdrops of Gotham into a strength.
The negative Clayface reviews
Three critics on Metacritic came out firmly against it:
- Rolling Stone (20) is the harshest, comparing it to eating “a handful of Play-Doh”.
- Polygon (36) finds the story underwhelming and the characters uninteresting, likening it to a weak superhero film with the hero taken out.
- RogerEbert.com (38) says it does not give viewers enough to chew on.
What Clayface is about
Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) is a rising actor whose face is brutally disfigured. He agrees to an experimental treatment to restore it, and his body starts turning into living clay. James Watkins (Eden Lake, The Woman in Black) directs from a story by Mike Flanagan, with a screenplay rewrite by Hossein Amini. Naomi Ackie, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan and David Dencik co-star.
For every version of the character since 1940, see who is Clayface. For how the film got here, including its move from September, see our Clayface release date and cast guide.
Rating, runtime and the box office
- Rating: R in the US for strong bloody violence, gore, language, some nudity and brief drug use. 18 in the UK.
- Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes.
- Box office: Clayface took an estimated $3.5 million in US Thursday previews, according to Deadline. That is ahead of the $2 million Kraven the Hunter made from its previews. Deadline now expects a US opening weekend of $20 million to $25 million, inside earlier forecasts that ran from $15 million (Box Office Theory) to $30 million (TheWrap). Deadline puts the budget at $44 million before marketing. Its main rival is You Can See Everything, A24’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary, which is expanding to about 2,600 cinemas.
That is the shape of the Clayface reviews so far: a lead performance nearly everyone likes, horror most critics enjoy, and a story that splits them. The opening weekend numbers will show whether audiences side with the 80s or the 30s.
Image credits: featured image (c) DC Studios / Warner Bros. Pictures, from the official Clayface trailer on the DC YouTube channel; final trailer from the official Warner Bros. YouTube channel. Used for editorial commentary. Clayface is a DC Studios film distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures; all rights belong to their owners.
Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Dread Central (US rating), Dread Central (UK rating), Box Office Theory, TheWrap, Deadline (previews), ComingSoon.
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