Chi o sû nendo

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.

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.

I really like this movie.. I wasn't very keen to watch at 1st by seeing the title and the picture looks like some cheap lousy movie but luckily i did watch it... Never judge book by it's cover.. I like how the story pick up and ended.. I surely recommend my friends to watch it too..

This 2017 Japanese horror movie was definitely unique, I will say that much.

When I sat down in 2022 to watch the 2017 Japanese horror movie "Chi O Sû Nendo" (aka "Vampire Clay") it was without ever having heard about the movie. But my preference for horror movies and Asian cinema made me give writer and director Sôichi Umezawa's 2017 movie a chance.

The storyline is pretty far out there. Sure the movie gets points for being original, but at the same time the storyline was just so far fetched and somewhat stupid that it also took away from the atmosphere and overall enjoyment of the movie. I mean, sculpting clay that comes alive to consume blood and flesh and take on physical form? Sure, why not, I suppose. I am sure that there is an audience out there for a movie such as "Chi O Sû Nendo", I just wasn't particularly enjoying it.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but I have to say that the actors and actresses definitely put on good enough performances, despite of me not enjoying the script and plot.

For a horror movie then "Chi O Sû Nendo" just didn't satisfy my horror needs, so it was a dull and somewhat pointless horror experience for me.

My rating of "Chi O Sû Nendo" lands on a three out of ten stars, simply because it was hard to take vampiric sculpting clay serious as a dangerous killing entity.

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.