Vampire Clay

It hardly needs to be said that the premise sounds ridiculous. Based on one's past cinematic experiences we might assume either that it will be a weird, wonderful, gnarly romp in the manner of extremes that Japanese filmmakers are so good at when it comes to horror especially - or it will be low-grade schlock more closely resembling the abundant "direct release to the Internet" foulness that has proliferated in the past decade or so. As it turns out, happily, I think the answer tends much more toward the former, albeit unquestionably with a bit of the latter swirled in. The most significant violence and imagery are genuinely twisted and disturbing as the story meaningfully picks up, bringing to mind varieties of body horror from David Cronenberg and Shinya Tsukamoto to Philip Kaufman's 'Invasion of the body snatchers' or Katsuhiro Otomo's 'Akira.' This contrasts with some violence that's a little more ordinary (that of a slasher nature), and the initial clay attacks that more closely resemble something out of a Lucio Fulci flick (and I don't particularly mean that in a good way; think snails or tarantulas and you get the idea). It's a mix of the bewildering with the horrifying, plus the extended backstory sequence, and major early emphasis on the fraught dynamics amidst individuals at an art school prep course. 'Vampire clay' is certainly an oddity. When all is said and done, though, I can't lie: I kind of love it!

The effects that bring the ghastliness to life are a superb conglomeration of the practical and tangible, and the digital and "special." The blood and gore are definitely chief among the physical fabrications, but hardly alone; the computer-generated visions are split between some inclusions that are so seamless they're all but indistinguishable from the real thing, and those that are unmistakably artificial. In the latter instances, however, I feel that this is a feature where the falsehood works in the favor of the whole, for the result is all the more unnatural, and thusly all the more unnerving. In all regards, though, from design to realization on-screen, the sights put before us are both tremendous and truly gruesome, and I quite think the creations split the divide between cheekily entertaining and just plain unsettling. Then factor in the fabulous use of stop-motion animation (always a pleasure), and sharp editing from writer, director, and co-producer Soichi Umezawa, and this is a picture that works very hard to get the visuals right and make them impactful, with admirable profit. This is hardly to count out anyone or anything else, however, for the cast give strong, appreciable performances, and the tale that Umezawa penned is more than solid enough to lay the foundation for all the morbid fun to follow. The man's direction is just as excellent as he shapes every shot and scene to maximize the intended effect.

Echoing the overall slant of the film, Kou Nakagawa's music rides the line between wrily light and winking, and earnestly dark and contributing to the more intense moments. In much the same vein, it's not lost on me that following the resolution of the climax, we're basically given a sequence of small scenes as a denouement where any one could have been picked as the definitive ending. I rather think that's the chief specific issue I would point to as a criticism; fine as all these ideas are in and of themselves, they feel kind of unnecessary and self-indulgent, and even in a runtime of only eighty minutes the last ten or so could have been cut without truly losing anything. If anything, snapshots of each subsequent notion could have been scattered throughout the end credits without extraneously inflating the length. Of course, if this is the worst I have to say about a movie called 'Vampire clay,' then I think it's done pretty well for itself. On the other hand, the title has one extra point in its favor that few others do, even in all of cinema at large: whatever else one might say of it, we are given no guarantee of which of these characters are going to survive, which is a welcome change of pace from the norm where the audience can identify one or two figures at the outset (usually those portrayed by the biggest stars) and say "Them."

It's a tad quirky, and imperfect. I'm inclined to think it very capably scratches the itch of what we want out of horror, but I can understand that personal preferences vary and not everyone will agree. All I can say is that I sat to watch with expectations that were mixed to low, and well before the end credits began to roll my opinion had been elevated considerably. It may not be so outstanding as to completely demand viewership, but I had a fantastic time here, and I rather think that most anyone who likes the genre would. I'm glad to say that while 'Vampire clay' sounds like a chintzy novelty - and, okay, it sort of is - the skill, intelligence, and care that went into it is no lesser, and ultimately I believe it stands quite tall on its own two legs. I would gladly recommend this to just about anyone, and it's well worth checking out if you have the chance!