Vampire Clay
It had been the dream of Miss Yuri Aina to make the dreams of others come true, a teacher of art and sculpting in Tokyo who was betrayed by her lover but refused to be beaten, instead retreating to the country to set up her own school in the abandoned studio formerly occupied by Minoru Mitazuka, an acclaimed but unsuccessful sculptor.
Knowing that the Aina Academy cannot recreate the advantages of the city but determined to do her best despite the limitations, Miss Aina takes in a small number of local students to coach them in preparation for applying to art school proper, Reiko undeniably most technically proficient although the work of Kaori shows promise in its individuality, though Kaori herself feels that it was something within the clay which shaped her creation.
A twisted tale of talent and aspiration, of beauty and perfection contrasted with the abnormalities, even deformities, which define an individual, Vampire Clay (Chi o sû nendo, 血を吸う粘土) is written and directed by Sôichi Umezawa, starring Asuka Kurosawa as Miss Yuri Aina with Kyôka Takeda as Kaori Hidaka, Ena Fujita as Reiko Tani and Yuyu Makihara as Yuka Aoki.
The youngest student, a chatterbox who has been to the city and seen all it has to offer, it was Yuka who took Kaori’s clay forcing her to seek an alternative, not realising the supply she used had been found buried in the grounds while Miss Aina she was making the studio presentable, last cursed remnants of that used by the late Minoru Mitazuka (Shigeru Oxe) into which he poured his talent and his unquenchable anger, also a victim of betrayal.
The clay sucking up water, any moisture, it is hungry for blood which it consumes greedily, first a drop from a cut caused by the broken blade of a crafting knife but soon growing and attacking the students, malleable and creeping as it shapes itself for infiltration and attack, an inventive art class Invasion of the Body Snatchers crafted with a Claymation menace which mixes absurdity and surprising body horror.
With tender flesh rended as easily as soft clay is manipulated, a student innocently disposing of an unwanted piece and unknowingly stripping the face off their classmate as they do so, with its rustic lo-fi grotesquerie Vampire Clay is more immediate than Stopmotion, peeling through layers of ambition and disappointment to find the ugly truths buried within, although even with its relative brevity it could benefit from a more succinct finale.
Vampire Clay is streaming on the Arrow platform now
