‘Clayface’ Review Removal Fuels Debate as Full Reviews Arrive

The first ‘Clayface’ review on Rotten Tomatoes disappeared before the film’s full reviews were due, leaving a narrow but noisy question hanging over the release: why did the site remove it? The reviewer, ComicBookMovie’s Josh Wilding, said he had no explanation. His account of the screening and the embargo drew conflicting reactions, while claims of outside pressure remained unconfirmed.

‘Clayface’, DC Studios’ first horror movie, stars Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, a disfigured actor. The R-rated body horror film arrives in theaters on October 23. Warner Bros. lifted the social media embargo on October 13, around 10 days ahead of release, but kept the full review embargo in place until October 21, one day before Thursday preview screenings.

Wilding’s review appeared on Rotten Tomatoes on Monday night, with a score of 2.5 out of 5. He called the film “DC’s Morbius moment.” By Tuesday, the review had been removed and the title had no score on the site. Wilding said the review would remain on ComicBookMovie in the meantime and that he planned to post it to Rotten Tomatoes again once the embargo lifted.

The review’s verdict was mixed rather than wholly dismissive. Wilding singled out Harries’ performance as the film’s strongest feature, while arguing that the horror felt too slight and the character lacked the personality he expected from the comic-book figure. He also predicted audiences would soon forget the movie. Those judgments are his own, and the disappearance of the review has turned the timing and handling of its posting into a separate story.

Wilding described the removal in a post dated October 20, saying he had not been told why it happened. He said he had seen the movie at a public screening in the UK and paid for his ticket. Matt Jarbo, commenting on X, used those details to question whether the review should have been removed, arguing that Wilding was not bound by the media review embargo.

Quick update before I head out for the evening: Rotten Tomatoes appears to have removed my #Clayface review from the site. I haven’t received an explanation why, but I will post it there again when the embargo lifts. It will remain live on CBM until then. https://t.co/ZoXC2oXHyN

— Josh Wilding – ComicBookMovie.com (@Josh_Wilding) October 20, 2026

Jarbo also pointed to the ownership connection between Fandango, which owns Rotten Tomatoes, and Warner Bros., which holds a minority stake in Fandango. He said he was not claiming that Warner Bros. had ordered the review’s removal, but voiced suspicion and argued that the episode damaged his trust in the ratings site. His post also suggested that angry reactions from some DCU fans to the 2.5 out of 5 score might have played a part.

Those are theories, not established explanations. The source of the removal has not been confirmed, and Rotten Tomatoes had not publicly explained it in the material available at the time. Wilding later played down the dispute. Cosmic Book News reported that he had spoken with Rotten Tomatoes and described the matter as “all good” and free of drama, a comment that softened the speculation about studio involvement without clarifying why the review vanished.

Other fans focused on the embargo question. The DCU fan account Home of DCU argued that posting a review to a ratings aggregator before the embargo ended still counted as breaking the restriction, even if the reviewer had attended a public screening. Wilding has maintained that no embargo applied to him. He said he would repost the review when the embargo lifted. The disagreement points to how a platform’s review timing can become contentious when critics, studios and audiences may be working from different assumptions about what can be published and when.

The missing score also sits against an early mix of reactions to the film. Initial social responses praised Harries as the focus of a gory showcase, while ‘Clayface’ debuted on Letterboxd with an average of 3.7 out of 5. Those early impressions offer a different snapshot from Wilding’s written review, but neither one establishes how the wider critical response will settle once more reviews are available.

The final trailer for DC’s ‘CLAYFACE’ has been released. In theaters on October 23. https://t.co/ecTMB97Sto

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 24, 2026

Audience criticism has surfaced, too. One fan post claimed that Clayface’s true form appears for only about 60 seconds and criticized the computer-generated imagery. Wilding’s review likewise argued that the film makes viewers wait too long for moments involving the classic character. These comments point to a question likely to recur in reviews: whether the film’s body horror and Harries’ performance give the character enough room to make an impression.

New posters for DC’s ‘CLAYFACE’. In theaters on October 23. https://t.co/2DA3HTeKUQ

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 7, 2026

The reported $40 million production cost gives the film a more contained commercial target than a major tentpole, though the source offers no box-office forecast. With the full review embargo lifting, the useful next measure is the body of criticism that follows: whether Wilding’s reservations prove unusual, or whether other reviewers also find the horror and comic-book characterization less substantial than the film’s premise promises. For now, the removed entry raises a question about Rotten Tomatoes’ handling of one review, while the film itself still awaits a broader critical reading.