UPDATE: The movie is now "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes with 75% from 83 critic reviews.
The reviews are in for DC Studios' Clayface, and with 74 verdicts counted as we write this, the movie has debuted with a "Fresh" 73% on Rotten Tomatoes. While the positive reviews aren't glowing, what ultimately matters for that score is whether a critic ticks "Fresh" or "Rotten," and the majority have chosen the former.
With 73%, Clayface is better-reviewed than Supergirl (52%) but sits behind Superman (83%), Lanterns (91%), Creature Commandos (93%), and Peacemaker Season 2 (94%). To be "Certified Fresh," the R-rated horror movie will need to hit 75% or above.
By the end of the weekend, hundreds of reviews will have likely been counted, so expect Clayface's score to either increase or decrease accordingly.
Starting with the "Fresh" reviews for the movie, GamesRadar+ writes, "As a horror movie, its skin-deep thrills and spills mask an uneven tragedy that even the emerging star power of Tom Rhys Harries can't overcome completely." Nerdist adds, "Clayface goes from an average (at best) film to an absolute blast once Tom Rhys Harries’ Matt Hagens starts using his powers to get his crowd-pleasing vengeance."
Metro explains, "Clayface has enough acting chops and hacking-off-of-chops to satisfy fans looking for a good, grisly time – even if there’s a nagging feeling it could have been a bit more significant."
Dread Central notes, "DC Studios first genre outing under James Gunn’s leadership delivers a muddy mixed bag of melty body horror and tonal inconsistencies." Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter raves, "Clayface emerges as one of the year’s big surprises," with Awards Radar declaring, "Clayface has gore galore and a hard R take on the underrated batman villain. Ultimately, it's just fine, but the good does outweigh the bad."
On the "Rotten" side, we have USA Today, which concludes, "Director James Watkins’ unnerving, frustrating thriller can only do so much melting Tom Rhys Harries’ sharp features amid a bunch of creepy scenes and a severe lack of character development." According to Rolling Stone, "The equivalent of eating a handful of Play-Doh™, and twice as flavorless."
CBR was similarly unimpressed, explaining, "A bold swing, and perhaps it will be viewed more favorably with time. But right now, much like its lead character, the film feels a bit empty inside." RogerEbert.com adds, "A movie shouldn’t spoon feed you its themes, but it also needs to put more than misshapen mush on your plate."
IndieWire wasn't impressed, and states, "The uneven nature of the film, its plotting, its character motivations, and its aims only become bigger and bloodier as the film winds on. Malleable, sure, but this ambitious misfire can never conform to one shape, one final form, or one good idea."
Finally, we hear from Inverse. "Its glimmers of potential only give us peeks at the better movies it could’ve been, while an underbaked script and laughably clunky dialogue only seal the deal: this was a failed experiment that should’ve never left the lab."
As a reminder, we concluded our Clayface review by saying, "Tom Rhys Harries shines in Clayface, an uninspired and unoriginal movie that's too light on horror and lacking in comic book personality to be anything but forgettable. It should have been a game-changer for the genre; instead, it's DC's Morbius moment."
In Clayface, Matt Hagen’s meteoric rise from Gotham street kid to Hollywood leading man is tragically cut short when a local crime boss’s actions leave him horribly disfigured. Abandoned by his team and with nothing left, Matt seeks out a cutting-edge treatment that miraculously returns him to his former self, but also unexpectedly affects his grip on reality, spiralling him down a destructive path of all-consuming revenge.
The movie stars Tom Rhys Harries in the title role of the "cult-favourite" villain from Gotham's rogues' gallery. The cast includes Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan, as well as Nancy Carroll and Joshua James.
James Watkins directs from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, with Flanagan also getting a "Story by" credit.
Clayface will be released in theaters on October 23.