Book of Blood Reviews

It's always a shame when a fantastic, well written short story is turned into a not so good full length movie. I love Clive Barker's Books of Blood, and some of the short stories in those volumes have been turned into pretty decent (and better) movies. This one, however, was a huge disappointment. As soon as I found out the movie existed, I looked forward to watching it....but as soon as I had it and saw it, I wished I hadn't.

The short story is MUCH better, especially since Clive Barker is a genius at creating vivid mental pictures with his writing. I never have a problem conjuring up what he describes in my imagination, so it's a shame that the writers of this screenplay seem to have had a problem doing the same.

Overall, terrible.

Based on Clive Barker's Books of Blood book series, this tale tells of the suffering and thoughts of ghosts; along with the medium they use to project they're angers and share they're stories with the living. When captured and awaiting death from a madman hell bent on taking his life; Simon decides to share what he has gone through and puts himself at acceptance with death, but not before he shares his story. Recently called upon for his medium powers to spend a few nights in a house with a psychic researcher and see if anything strange goes on through the study. After weird things were declared fake and staged by Simon himself, he did what he could the next nights to prove himself to this woman ashamed to have asked for his help. Taking it too far and inviting the evil into his body, Simon’s skin soon becomes the passage and canvas for the stories of the dead. This movie does have quite a bit of Clive Barker Influence in it, both the scenes of skin being peeled in his oh so famous manner as well as the perverse scenes which are his character’s inner thoughts. This wasn’t my favorite adaptation of a Clive Barker book, but that is one big shoe to fill. No doubt this was a good release for the new decade, and hoping for more with this style to come along. With or without the body, the skin always becomes marked with another tale…

Wyburd: Where are you headed, friend?
Simon McNeal: Away.
Wyburd: Away?
Simon McNeal: As far away as I can go.
Wyburd: [leaning close] I think I can help with that.