Chi o sû nendo (2017) Reviews

• Shape shifting schlock.

  BA_Harrison2018-06-07

  I went to art college, where I spent most of my time honing my table football skills (I'm still a demon on the pitch); otherwise, it was a complete waste of two years. Still, at least I didn't have to contend with murderous art materials while I was there, which is what happens to students at the rural art prep class in Sôichi Umezawa's feature length directorial debut Vampire Clay. The rather silly story sees teacher Aina (Asuka Kurosawa) discovering a bag of powdered clay buried near her studio. Aina takes the bag into the class, where its contents are made workable once more by student Kaori, who uses it to create a bust of herself. What Kaori doesn't realise it that the clay is vampiric, possessed by the spirit of a bitter artist, and it wants to feed. One by one, the students are attacked, only to return as clay-driven zombies with malleable features. Having worked as a special makeup effects artist on numerous movies, Umezawa predictably packs his film full of effects, the living clay shifting shape like Carpenter's The Thing by way of David Cronenberg, with quivering phallic tentacles and pulsating 'skin', all achieved through the use of prosthetics and stop motion animation. With a rudimentary plot, perfunctory performances, and uninspired direction, it is up to Umezawa's effects to carry the show: fortunately, there's just enough weird and wacky stuff to make this a reasonably entertaining piece of schlock cinema despite the film's technical drawbacks.

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• Awesome Indie Film

  zona_yanks2018-07-13

  Vampire Clay was, much to my surprise, an incredible independent film with a relatively unknown cast. The epitome of a, "Midnight Movie," it stands on top of the strangeness scale, and shows you images you never thought you'd see in your lifetime. More of a laugh-'er than a horror flick, the slapstick antics will inspire giggling fits. The only drawback was a lack of stop-motion animation sequences, which I felt would have benefited the movie in a big way.

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• All aboard to the sequel

  phanthinga2019-05-06

  Vampire Clay is another low budget J-horror flick that I discover after Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell (2012) in 2019 and just like the title the whole movie is as cheesy as it can get when it comes to acting, practical effects and one hell of an ending that makes you look forward to the director next movie.

• Weird, funny but kind of messy at the same time

  sanjidparvez2018-07-31

  It's been a while since I last saw a film this kind of weird & badly funny. Specially when it comes to weird, bizarre or super-unusual stuffs, then then the Japanese filmmakers have always been the front runner in this field who often offers something so over-the-top ridiculous that may eventually going to surprise you with shock & laughter! In his first feature-length horror flick VAMPIRE CLAY, Soichi Umezawa depicts a story about an evil pile of modeling clay that terrorizes a rural art school! Yeah...you read that right, it's about a demonic pile of clay that's got thirsts for blood & revenge. But to tell a story like this, its 'seriousness' becomes a problem for the film as it gradually turns into a convoluted & kind of mundanely treated funny weird piece.

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