While I’m familiar with Clive Barker and some of the films that have been adapted from his work, he has mostly been a hole in my horror knowledge. Yes, I know of Hellraiser and Candyman, as well as a few others but I’ve never really gone out of my way to explore his work. Considering he is considered to be one of contemporary horror’s greatest creators, this has always bugged me but still, I just never made time.
Then, this week, I saw a trailer for Books of Blood, a new feature length horror anthology based on Barker’s series of short stories with the same name. In the midst of 31 Days of Dread, it seems like a perfect time to start filling out that Barker knowledge.
Unfortunately, while it may in fact be the perfect time to dig into Barker’s works, Hulu’s Books of Blood is not the perfect vessel for it. This isn’t to say it’s bad (it’s fine) but more because this anthology doesn’t really adapt Barker’s existing stories from his Books of Blood. Instead, this is three new stories, co-written by Barker that link together.
Jenna is a story of a young woman suffering from extreme anxiety runs away from home, only to be taken in by a seemingly nice old couple that are actually sinister serial killers. Miles is a tale of a professor whose son dies and is approached by a man claiming to be a medium that can talk with the dead. And finally Bennet is the tale that links all three together with a criminal enforcer looking for the big score to get him out of his foul profession.
Like most anthology films, the tales are of varying quality but in general I liked all of them and the way the film links together and the dark reveal and ultimate ending was quite impactful for me. As I said, these aren’t based on Barker’s actual collection of short stories called the Books of Blood but these have me interested enough to actually check them out and see if I enjoy his writings. And I wouldn’t be upset if Hulu decided to make a second Books of Blood collection.
4*
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