First Clayface reactions compare the DCU horror movie to The Fly and Darkman

The first social media reactions for Clayface have arrived, and so far they are comparing DC Studios' R-rated horror movie to The Fly and Darkman. The praise centers on its body horror and its lead star. Those reactions come from an influencer and fan screening, though. I'm going to the media screening, and I want to hear from people I trust before I read too much into any of it.

Early Clayface reactions praise the body horror and the lead performance

ComicBookMovie.com framed the first reactions with a headline calling Clayface DC's version of The Fly and a glorious showcase for its lead star. According to the outlet, it's still early days for the R-rated DCU horror movie. It said it sounds like body horror fans will find plenty to love here.

Now that the social media embargo has lifted, the outlet reports that the movie sounds like it delivers body horror, strong performances and gore-heavy scenes. The review embargo is currently set to lift next Wednesday, the day before Thursday preview screenings begin. The outlet noted there's a chance DC Studios will move that date up. It added that whether the early reactions match the full reviews remains to be seen.

The outlet also said critics from the Hollywood trades haven't weighed in yet. As with Supergirl, the first wave of reactions comes largely from fan-oriented websites. It still described the response so far as great, with comparisons to The Fly and Darkman and plenty of praise for the lead. The only complaint it found is that not all of it works. It said that complaint is drowned out by comments like "a welcome change of tone that proves that the DCU can do it all."

Fans pretending to have seen Clayface made the real reactions harder to find

ComicBookMovie.com said it was harder than usual to gather these reactions. According to the outlet, many DC fans on social media are pretending they've seen the movie and sharing overwhelmingly positive reactions. It singled out an 18-year-old fan with 83 followers who hailed it as one of the best DCU projects.

My question is, how do they know that? How do they know he didn't see it? The outlet says it was able to gather the genuine reactions.

Clayface first reactions come from what I see as a marketing screening

This is the same thing we talked about the other day. We don't know any of these people yet. That doesn't necessarily discredit them. The question is why they were invited. Did the studio just want to test out the movie, or were they invited because they run a DC podcast or are that type of person?

When I was asked why I hadn't seen it already, the answer was simple. I'm going to the media screening, and this was an influencer and fan screening. This is rinse and repeat, and it has nothing to do with this being a DC movie. It's the same with a Marvel movie or any other movie. When a film first screens for fans, the fans love it. How often do you ever see a report on first reactions from a fan screening where they all hated it? Phantom Menace came up as a possible exception. Even then, I think people had blinders on.

In modern times, the way it works is that studios invite people to what is basically a marketing screening, and that's the way to look at it. The media screening doesn't happen until the 20th, and then the embargo lifts the next day. That very well could change if they have confidence in it.

I'm waiting for balanced voices before judging Clayface

I'm going to wait until I see what other people think, people in this space who I've seen give movies a fair shake. Some people are going to hate it anyway: "DC sucks. Fire James Gunn." Others are going to love it just because it's DC.

I'm waiting for the balanced people I know. Maybe they didn't like a movie I loved, but they gave me good reasons why, or the other way around. Those are the people I want to hear from.

Critics don't lose screening access for disliking a movie

The question came up of what would happen if one of those influencers went off script and trashed the movie. The answer was that they would never get another screening again. There are times I feel that's accurate. If influencers are constantly going after movies, they might not get invited to those events and marketing opportunities. That very well might be true for the special events, meeting directors and getting flown all over the place.

Critic screenings don't work that way. When I saw Supergirl, I thought it was not good. The critics I saw it with hated it, and a little group of them was trashing it. I saw the same critics at another screening from that studio two weeks later. They don't get cut from media screenings because they didn't like the movie. I've also seen people who are kind of hateful, rage-bait types get invited to media screenings all the time.

I've heard people say they don't want to say anything bad about a movie because they don't want to lose access to early screenings. In my experience, it doesn't work that way.

Do you put much weight on first reactions from fan screenings, or do you wait for the full reviews?