DC's 'Clayface' Wins Over Most Critics, Then Faces an Elizabeth Holmes Doc

The $40 million body-horror film could open to $25 million to $30 million, TheWrap reports, as A24's 'You Can See Everything' goes wide.

In DC's "Clayface," a rising actor fresh off his first Oscar nomination gets his face slashed by a mobster, and his career dies with it. As Variety's review describes the plot, an experimental cell treatment repairs the face and then keeps going, until he can turn into almost anyone, or anything, he likes.

The $40 million body-horror movie opens Friday, and most critics like it, though not all of them. The Hollywood Reporter's roundup on Wednesday ran from Slant calling it "a stroke of brilliance" to USA Today's "a messy DC miss." The overall count still leans kind: about 74 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes, against 52 percent for this summer's "Supergirl."

Its toughest competition isn't another superhero. TheWrap reported Wednesday that A24's "You Can See Everything," Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's three-hour Elizabeth Holmes documentary, could take the No. 1 spot if "Clayface" stumbles.

Its fans among the critics are enthusiastic. Variety called "Clayface" "good, gross fun, with no franchise homework required." Deadline's review argued that if James Gunn's "Superman" was made for classic superhero fans, this one is "for the horror junkies." The scene Variety expects to give people nightmares combines fused eyelids, nail scissors and a plane hitting violent turbulence.

The detractors don't hold back. Rolling Stone compared watching it to eating a handful of Play-Doh, minus the flavor. USA Today said the screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini barely makes Matt Hagen a character, and that it oddly ignores Gotham City for a movie about a Batman villain.

Even the detractors praise the handmade work. The Hollywood Reporter noted that skeptics still applauded Tom Rhys Harries, in his first major lead, and the film's practical effects. IGN credited old-school makeup for Hagen's transformations, and The Independent said Harries's intensity would come through a dozen more layers of prosthetics.

Part of the movie is about this town. Hagen's career plays out in Coast City, DC's stand-in for Los Angeles, and Deadline thinks the story's fixation on beauty is sure to land in Hollywood. Variety's version is blunter: Hagen is a casualty of an industry that values its stars by their faces, literally. This weekend, the real industry values the movie by its opening.

TheWrap projects that opening at $25 million to $30 million, a solid start against the budget. It's also the studio's first release since Skydance took over Warner Bros., and its budget sits below recent misfires like "Supergirl" and "Digger." By TheWrap's math, a decent horror-movie result, the kind New Line turns out regularly, would hand the studio a win it needs.

The documentary's run hasn't been a fluke. It opened to $15.8 million, the biggest documentary opening in 22 years, and had reached $20.8 million by Tuesday, TheWrap reported. It's expanding from 855 locations to about 2,600 this weekend, where it's expected to earn at least $18 million.

TheWrap sees room for both movies. The doc is a deliberately uncomfortable three hours, and plenty of moviegoers would rather spend the weekend before Halloween with a monster. "Clayface" is 108 minutes long, and one of those scenes involves nail scissors.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, retrieved October 22, 2026. Other sources: Variety, TheWrap, Deadline.