The film was not a hit, and Cohen feels that it was hurt by the fact it was sold as a horror film, when it was basically a satirical comedy. It received positive reviews from critics; on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 67% rating, based on 12 reviews. Cohen stated, "the day "The Stuff" opened in New York a hurricane hit and the newspapers were not delivered. Of course, we had received all these great reviews, but it didn’t matter because nobody ever got to read a single word of them."