Returning to her art school prep classes after studying in Tokyo, Kaori finds a mysterious bag of clay. Their teacher favours her scuptures, leading to her classmates getting jealous. However, things take a turn for the worse when other students projects mysteriously get destroyed.

Body horror

Scare Factor: 4/5

Genuinely really scary. The editing does a fantastic job setting the scene, the actors are on point, and the build up is paced perfectly.

Grossness: 4/5

The clay based body horror of vampire clay is, in my opinion, delightful. I'm a sucker for stop motion, and it's used well here. I love that they used a medium like clay as the monster in a movie about art.

Good Time: 4/5

The plot can feel a bit slow at points, but I think it is in service of the atmosphere. As a movie with a lot to say about the culture of the creative sphere in Japan it's a really interesting watch, and the claymation monster and acting make it really fun to just watch

Vampire Clay is really good at creating atmosphere. It kind of goes off the walls with the ending, but in an enjoyable way. The explination for the evil clay felt really wild when I first watched it, but after thinking about it for a while it tied in really well with the themes of the movie. Don't let the vampire part of the title guide your expectations about how this movie will go too much, I think it's a weird translation choice.