James Gunn's DC Universe horror spin-off has settled at 73% from 75 reviews, ahead of Supergirl's rocky 52% but short of Superman's certified-fresh 83%.
Clayface has opened to a 73% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 75 reviews, according to /Film's tally of critic reaction, placing James Gunn's DC Universe squarely in territory it hasn't quite visited before: a horror movie that critics mostly like.
That number puts the R-rated body horror from directors Mike Flanagan and James Watkins just two percentage points shy of the site's certified-fresh cutoff. It's not the kind of score that gets a franchise compared to prestige drama. But it's enough to dodge the green splat that landed on Supergirl, which closed at a rough 52% and made just $126.5 million against a budget reported between $170 and $186 million, per /Film.
Superman, still the high-water mark for Gunn and co-head Peter Safran's rebooted universe, sits at 83% certified fresh and $618.7 million worldwide on a $225 million budget. Nothing released since, Clayface included, has come close to that combination of critical and commercial numbers.
Where the reviews split
The praise for Clayface tends to center on two things: tone and performance. The San Francisco Chronicle's Zaki Hasan framed it as proof the DC Universe can stretch past standard superhero spectacle and said it "largely works." The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey singled out lead Tom Rhys Harries for doing the heavy lifting under layers of prosthetics, calling his performance one of "wounded intensity." The Telegraph's Robbie Collin went further, writing about how much fun it is to watch a film made on what feels like its creators' own unhindered terms.
The pans are just as specific. USA Today's Brian Truitt flagged a severe lack of character development. Rolling Stone's David Fear compared the experience to eating a handful of Play-Doh, and twice as flavorless. /Film's own Chris Evangelista called it a shapeless villain spin-off, which, given the character, is either a dig or an accident of description.
Collin, is also the critic who had the harshest line on Supergirl, describing it as an endless orangey-grey rehash of Mad Max and Star Wars. Detroit News critic Adam Graham was blunter, calling it simply a super disappointment. That the same critics who savaged Supergirl are warming, even partially, to Clayface suggests Gunn's willingness to let individual DC films chase their own tone and genre, rather than sticking to one house style, is starting to pay off on the page even when it doesn't convert into box office certainty.
Whether that critical goodwill turns into ticket sales is the open question now. Supergirl's reviews weren't catastrophic by Rotten Tomatoes standards, yet the film still underperformed badly at the box office. Clayface arrives with less pre-release hype than either Superman or Supergirl had, a genre mismatch with typical superhero audiences, and an R rating that caps its reach. DC Studios will find out over the coming weeks whether a 73% and strong word of mouth is enough to make this the hit the studio needs after Supergirl, or whether niche body horror stays niche no matter who's directing it.
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