SPOOKTOBER chapter 6:
Paranormal Horror
To me Clive Barker is like "the other" Stephen King, that's not to say they're similar, but they both try to scare you, creep you out or immense you in some dark insanity. Everyone knows that screen adaptations of these Men's work range from disastrous to impressive - "Book of Blood" lands in the very middle, among the painfully average.
I read nearly all of the volumes of Barker's "Books of Blood" a couple years ago, so memory's a little fuzzy, but what I remember about this same story is better than what I just saw. This film capitalizes only on portions of Clive's work, and is marginally different from Hulu's anthology approach with 2020's "Books of Blood", and also inferior to it.
Film's story is somewhat compelling until the end, despite becoming predictable fast, for the core concept is very intriguing for those into paranormal horror. An expert of such paranormal phenomena comes across a house that's also an otherworldly intersection of "highways" that are transporting souls in the afterlife. I do recommend Barker's short story on this. The film, however, seems to relish in sexually charged melodrama more than in the eerie horrors I came for. Now, these bodily themes are reasonably common in Barker's portfolio, but "Book of Blood" doesn't manage to elevate them and eventually come off as tiring.
Director and writer John Harrison, known for participating in both incantations of "Creepshow", "Tales from the Darkside" movie and more, managed to keep me engaged all the way through, but failed to excite, and eventually, after setting out to tell a promisingly deep and wide tale with ups and downs, it ends up just steadily walking its foreseeable course and then disappears into the darkness.
Unfortunately, besides the idea behind the plot, other horror elements don't ascend very high in this adventure. If the story intrigues you or you've enjoyed it elsewhere already, give it a try, but other than that I'd go for Hulu's version or, hell, "Hellraiser". My rating: 5/10.
To me Clive Barker is like "the other" Stephen King, that's not to say they're similar, but they both try to scare you, creep you out or immense you in some dark insanity. Everyone knows that screen adaptations of these Men's work range from disastrous to impressive - "Book of Blood" lands in the very middle, among the painfully average.
I read nearly all of the volumes of Barker's "Books of Blood" a couple years ago, so memory's a little fuzzy, but what I remember about this same story is better than what I just saw. This film capitalizes only on portions of Clive's work, and is marginally different from Hulu's anthology approach with 2020's "Books of Blood", and also inferior to it.
Film's story is somewhat compelling until the end, despite becoming predictable fast, for the core concept is very intriguing for those into paranormal horror. An expert of such paranormal phenomena comes across a house that's also an otherworldly intersection of "highways" that are transporting souls in the afterlife. I do recommend Barker's short story on this. The film, however, seems to relish in sexually charged melodrama more than in the eerie horrors I came for. Now, these bodily themes are reasonably common in Barker's portfolio, but "Book of Blood" doesn't manage to elevate them and eventually come off as tiring.
Director and writer John Harrison, known for participating in both incantations of "Creepshow", "Tales from the Darkside" movie and more, managed to keep me engaged all the way through, but failed to excite, and eventually, after setting out to tell a promisingly deep and wide tale with ups and downs, it ends up just steadily walking its foreseeable course and then disappears into the darkness.
Unfortunately, besides the idea behind the plot, other horror elements don't ascend very high in this adventure. If the story intrigues you or you've enjoyed it elsewhere already, give it a try, but other than that I'd go for Hulu's version or, hell, "Hellraiser". My rating: 5/10.