Usually,
water and vampires do not mix, but this case is different. Frankly, the term “vampire”
might be a bit of a misnomer, but whatever you call it, this is some deadly
dangerous clay. Once it gets a little bit of moisture, it will absorb and
control its victims body-snatcher-style in Sôichi Umezawa’s gleefully gruesome Vampire Clay (trailer here), which screens as
part of Fantaspoa 2018 in Brazil.
Due
to earthquake damage, Yuri Aina is forced to relocate her prep school for
prospective art students to a temporary shack. While digging in the back, she
unearths a bag of dehydrated clay. Of course, she brings it inside, only to
cast it aside. Alas, her star student, Kaori Hidaka findsit after returning
from a Tokyo workshop. She adds water and then all Hell breaks loose.
As
the mystery man skulking about outside eventually reveals, the killer mutant
clay was produced by Minoru Mitazuka, the previous occupant of the ramshackle
studio. The critically maligned sculptor infused a special batch of clay with
his toxic waste-contaminated blood and all the bad vibes he could muster. Now his
evil spirit pursues victims, pouring into cuts and other openings in the skin.
It is not pretty to watch, but Umezawa’s practical effects are certainly
inventive and fantastically gory.
Clay’s unapologetically simple
and straight-forward narrative only serves as a clothesline on which Umezawa
hangs each incident of slimy, pus-dripping body horror. Yet, the pure joy he
obviously takes in his macabre craftmanship is contagious. Frankly, you have to
laugh and shake your head in appreciation each time he tops his previous
grotesquery.
As
an added bonus, Umezawa throws in a thimble’s worth of character development, offering
some pluckiness in Hidaka and a little bit of human vulnerability in Aina’s
backstory, but not so much that it would detract from the ghoulish business at
hand. His makeup and effects are wildly gross, but the design of Miktazuka’s
sculptures is also wonderfully creepy.
Nobody
is going to call Vampire Clay “post-horror”
anytime soon. This is your basic blood-splattered red meat, but you have to
give Umezawa credit having such a distinctive vision. This film has an unmistakable
look and aesthetic, which is definitely something. Recommended for fans of body
horror and mutation movies, Vampire Clay screens
Friday evening (6/1) at this year’s Fantaspoa (and it is already available on
VOD here in America).
