Clive Barker‘s name is another of those horror tennis balls that gets swiped across the court without any regard for the sublime pedigree from which it initially sprung (see King, Romero, Argento, Craven, Lovecraft, Poe…). But this time out, Barker's name appears on a clever little film that harks back to a style that may be all but wasted on today’s disposable cinema mentality. It is obviously redundant to say, but Book of Blood is a slower film that feels like a novel. In fact, it is a screen adaptation of a short story.
Book of Blood Stays True to its Roots (Spoilers Ahead)
The narrative unfolds with an opening act that finds a frail and lost young man falling into the clutches of a sociopath mercenary. A killer for hire that specializes in delivering just the perverted platter his customers desire. Each of the films following segments recount the doomed mans back-story in a fashion that turns like the pages of a happened upon book. You never know what to expect and although slow and at times somewhat repetitive you know you have found something just that little bit different. Shot entirely in Edinburgh, Scotland the entire production seeps Gothic gray. As it turns out a shade well suited to this story of torture and pain without end.
Clive Barker’s Uncompromising Tale of Doom Personified
Clive Barker’s original source material was set out in volumes, Books of Blood one through six. The first of these, a short story that served as an encompassing mesh for the five volumes to come was called The Book of Blood. In it psychic researcher and lecturer, Mary Florescu discovers that one of her students has ‘special’ abilities and so persuades him to aid her in the research of a particular case of haunting and violent death. At first it appears that he truly does have the gift of bridging the divide between this world and its negative twin. But as the story stretches he is found to be an impostor. A fake but one who is soon to become a human canvas for an army of death that craves an outlet for its stories untold. Their mutterings manifest carved in intertwined fragments of language upon the young mans skin, thus becoming their eternal tome. The Book of Blood is a living one and its pages, the very skin that towards this story’s end seem to only just cling their hosts wasted frame, have become a precious commodity. An unknowing and eager public devours the translation and publishing of these stories of the dead. Money and fame the glittering prize to all those who claim its authorship.
Hellraiser's Doug Bradley Cameos
There is a definite lingering taste here of Barkers most successful book to screen outing to date, the fantastic Hellraiser (The Hellbound Heart). Book of Blood seems to live within the same aesthetic. Sparse attic rooms with low ceilings that seep a slow release of their own special resident evil will remind many of Barkers previous intricately constructed hells. Doug Bradley, Mr. Pinhead himself actually makes the briefest of cameos as Tollington the occultist who once occupied the house that now signposts a nexus to the dead.
Clive Barker’s: Book of Blood – Direction and Acting
Director John Harrison draws well from his horror ridden resume having previously written and directed many episodes of George A. Romero's popular television series, Tales From The Darkside. In Book of Blood he opts for a style and pace that echoes early Argento and as such allows the pieces inherent creepiness to build gradually. Wrapping around some solid performances by Sophie Ward (Dinotopia) as wannabe soothsayer Mary Florescu and Jonas Armstrong (The Ghost Squad), as the doomed Simon McNeal it is tension on slow boil.
The story does pull you in, gliding through the narrative until retracting back to the scene from where it first began. This is a credible reworking of horror storytelling that only really stumbles just shy of its conclusion. It is here that the arrival of visual representations of the dead somewhat deflate the films impact. The unseen scribes that gouged out poor Simon McNeals flesh to give themselves voice pale into caricature when superimposed as lumbering apparitions alongside the living. But even so this is an intelligent and entertaining ride and one that will unquestionably leave you wanting more of the same. 3.5/5
Clive Barker’s: Book of Blood
Mary Florescu:’ The dead have highways, running through the wasteland behind our lives, bearing an endless traffic of departed souls’
- Director: John Harrison (Tales from the Darkside: The Movie)
- Starring: Jonas Armstrong, Sophie Ward, Paul Blair, Clive Russell
- DVD Release Date: September 22, 2009
- 100 minutes
- United Kingdom
Hari Navarro - Hari Navarro is Topic Editor for Suite 101's Horror Film section and Editor/ Writer at online horror review site, The Hell Street ...
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