VAMPIRE CLAY (aka CHI O SU NUENDO, 2017)

Streaming now at Arrow Films: https://www.arrow-player.com/
Directed/Written by Sôichi Umezawa.
Check out the trailer here!!

A struggling artist in a small Japanese art school happens upon clay made from the ashes of an ancient vampire and when she applies water, the clay creature awakens!

I found VAMPIRE CLAY to be a fascinating little film. Myself, I am a survivor of art school. Art school is not for the weak. In art school, not only are you tested to the edge of your abilities, but you are competing with your peers (and sometimes, sadly, your teachers) who will not hesitate to destroy all of the hard work in a pointed and often immature critique. It’s a brutal experience that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone save for those with the strongest of wills. So I guess it makes sense that the moments that sung to me in VAMPIRE CLAY revolved around the personal relationships between the students and teachers and the discussions in the classroom.

At its heart, VAMPIRE CLAY brings up a fascinating quandary. The Japanese kids strive to stand out as the best in their class, but in doing so they must do an assignment in a specific, accepted style that may get them into a large art school at a higher level. The discussion is specific to Japanese culture, which seems to strive for a level of technical perfection rather than highlight creativity, but I think it can be broadened to discuss art as a whole. This impasse comes from making the decision to be an artist true to oneself or be the artist the school is trying to make you. This fascinating discussion takes place early in VAMPIRE CLAY, as the students compete with one another for the attention and satisfaction of their instructor. At the same time, it brings up the frustrations of the teacher who is stuck teaching what looks to be the equivalent of a bachelor’s level art course while others have excelled to the graduate level. Again, it is about the tiered system of art, where high art is separated from the lower levels and the feelings that arise as one strives to rise to that next level. Now, VAMPIRE CLAY brings up these issues and raises these questions, but the way it answers them not something I’d recommend. It’s more moralistic, where the good are justified by what they believe in even though it may bring harm to others.

All of this makes sense if you end up taking a chance with VAMPIRE CLAY. I found it to be more fascinating in that it brings up interesting questions about art and one’s place in the pecking order more so than all of the monster clay on the rampage stuff. That stuff is rather mundane and while the threat is ever present, it does so in a traditional and almost slasher like way, attacking each student one by one. I did appreciate this look into a different culture and the monsters that come from it.

The effects are going to be the real attractor to horror-philes. Some of it is miniature Claymation work. Some of it is practical effects. All of it is quite imaginative, as the clay first appears as a substance that absorbs blood that falls onto it, but soon becomes a walking and talking clay golem-like creature that absorbs the students and even takes their form, not unlike the Batman villain Clayface. There are a lot of creative takes on this monster that looks a little like a muppet and while this form is not very threatening looking, it does unleash a hell of a messy fury on these art students. The most effectively creepy moments involving the clay’s power to make a person malleable like clay, specifically the scenes where one’s hands become boneless and flopping all around. It really makes for some disconcerting body horror that I haven’t seen before.

Personally, I love using clay as an artform, though it is not my medium of choice. So that interest, as well as the philosophical questions about art were the things that impressed me about VAMPIRE CLAY. The rest of the stuff – the horror stuff, is good, but somehow took second seat to the themes delved into. I do like the way the film ends, with a bigger threat on the horizon. I guess this one was such a hit that a second film was released as well. I’d definitely be interested in where VAMPIRE CLAY 2 would take this concept, possibly taking the more philosophical themes further, as well as the fun Claymation mayhem.