‘Clayface’ Just Matched ‘Obsession’ for the Highest Horror Audience Score This Year

DC has spent plenty of time on capes and cosmic stakes, but ‘Clayface‘ goes somewhere much messier and more grotesque. The R-rated body-horror film opened in theaters on October 23, and early word of mouth suggests moviegoers are embracing the gamble.

James Watkins directs the movie from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, with Flanagan also getting a story credit. Flanagan was originally attached to direct, but Watkins took over the project. Tom Rhys Harries stars as Matt Hagen, an actor whose rise to stardom ends when a crime boss disfigures him, and Naomi Ackie plays the scientist behind the experimental treatment that changes his life.

‘Clayface’ has tied ‘Obsession‘ for the highest Rotten Tomatoes audience score among major horror releases this year. Both films sit at 94%, just ahead of ‘Colony’ at 93% and ‘Resident Evil’ at 90%. For a comic book movie about a Batman villain, that is a striking place to land.

The gap with critics is just as notable. ‘Clayface’ holds a 75% Tomatometer score, which places it outside the top 10 horror movies of the year by that measure, while ‘Obsession’ sits at 93% with critics. It is a reminder that fans and reviewers are not always watching the same movie.

The rest of the horror leaderboard shows how crowded the field is. ’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ and ‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ each have 88%, and ‘Send Help’ sits at 86%. ‘Obsession’ is the year’s breakout, a microbudget film that critics and audiences loved and that made over half a billion dollars.

‘Clayface’ also looks strong inside the DC family. Its audience score ties ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Batman Begins’ for the highest in DC history, and it sits ahead of ‘Superman’ and ‘Blue Beetle,’ which both earned 90%. Forbes also noted that it is already the best-reviewed solo villain comic book movie ever on both the critic and audience sides, with ‘Joker’ second among villain films by score.

The critical response has been more measured. Some reviewers praised the gruesome body-horror sequences and Harries’ performance, while others found the film uneven and light on original ideas. One review argued that the movie struggles to deliver on its horror ambitions even though Harries shines in the lead.

Audiences, by contrast, seem to have latched onto the performance. Harries is emerging as the film’s biggest talking point, and viewers appear more taken with DC’s gruesome new experiment than reviewers were. That enthusiasm may explain why the audience score has climbed past the critic score by such a wide margin.

Watch the first trailer for #Clayface. The new DC horror film is in theaters October 23. https://t.co/gqrrtJSou5

— Rotten Tomatoes 🍅 (@RottenTomatoes) April 22, 2026

‘Clayface’ opened at No. 1 in the US with about $24 million, plus roughly $19 million internationally, for a worldwide debut of $43 million. That comes against a reported production budget of $44 million before marketing costs. It also earned an A- CinemaScore.

The opening landed on the low end of expectations, though, since Variety had projected $45 million to $55 million worldwide. One analysis estimates that the film needs roughly $110 million worldwide to break even once marketing is counted. Even so, the film is budgeted like a mid-range horror release rather than a typical superhero tentpole, so it doesn’t need blockbuster numbers to succeed.

TheWrap called the debut Warner Bros.’ first significant box office success in more than a year. It also gave the newly merged Paramount and Warner Bros. its second straight global No. 1 weekend.

Strong audience scores can drive word of mouth, and a horror film that holds well over the next few weeks could end up with a better final tally than its opening suggests. Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, which means releases are limited this coming weekend and ‘Clayface’ faces little fresh competition.

For DC Studios, the lesson may be that darker, villain-led stories can work with a restrained budget. Whether this tie with ‘Obsession’ turns into lasting momentum will depend on how the box office holds up.

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