Good old Clive Barker. I think he is highly underrated and gets looked over when people talk about Horror’s greatest creators and storytellers. He is definitely a master of the macabre with his novels, and the movies made from his material have been decently done.
For instance, Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood” has produced movies such as “Candyman” (“The Forbidden”), “Lord of Illusions” (The Last Illusion”), “Tales from the Darkside” in 1986 has “The Yattering and Jack” from these stories as well. And there are several more.
On top of that, there was already a movie adaptation for this specific works called “Book of Blood”, which was released in 2009. Although I haven’t seen that one, it appears to have similar characters from the book and similar attributes as this new rendition in 2020 offers. A man with writing violently etched into his skin by the dead, the man with the writing in his skin IS the Book of Blood, who can connect and open a path with the dead, and that people seek the Book of Blood.
“The dead have stories to tell!” is the motto here. But done here in a gruesome manner of etching it into a man’s body!
Getting on to “Books of Blood” from 2020 now. The movie is an anthology, with three stories being told, and intertwined together as horror anthology movies tend to add. After all, aren’t hidden Easter eggs the new rave in movies these days? Hell. It adds a little fun to the game.
Overall, I felt like the movie itself was simplistic in story and filming, and a little slow in the beginning, but entertaining. The first half of “Books of Blood” was a creeping build up to the better, more intense, bloodier, last half of the movie. I mean, if you’re going to put the word ‘blood’ in the title you would assume there would be some splattering and gore, right?
It gets there. Trust me.
The three stories, titled “Jenna”, “Miles”, and “Bennett”, are aptly named based off characters, or someone related to the main character, in those stories.
The first, “Jenna”, follows a daughter who runs away from home to avoid being sent to an insane asylum by her fed up atrocious mother and lands a room for rent in a seemingly random town. Also, possibly running from a yet-to-be-revealed dark secret. Turns out that the married couple that host her in their house are more dangerous and deadlier than a pissed off mother. They have a dark secret of their own. This story was pretty cool as it played out. I was bored as the lead-in was slow, but it picked up the pace eventually. Oddly, I felt like I was watching a dialogue based off of idioms, or poetry, or something. I remember thinking that most people do not talk this way most of the time. It was a little overkill with that weirdness, but went away as soon as the action and thrills began.
Secondly, “Miles”, is where we see the repeat story of the “Book of Blood” movie from 2009. Mary, the mother of Miles (who dies from cancer at a young age), is hell-bent on disproving any and all mediums that proclaim they can interact with the dead. Enter Simon. Simon shows that, not only can he interact with the dead, he can create a pathway to and from where the dead reside. And he can do it while naked. Through a couple twists and turns in the story, which I actually loved what they did with the main twist here, the Book of Blood is revealed. The scene where this take place is maybe the creepiest, and best, part of the movie.
Said Book of Blood is being sought after by Bennett, which is whom the third story is based upon. In the opening scene Bennett appears to be a collector of debt, of the fatal sorts. His actions of offing a bookstore owner starts the movie off and leads Bennett with his newly found search for the Book of Blood. We are reintroduced to Bennett after “Jenna” and “Miles” play through their storyline. He finds the Book of Blood, but it is definitely not what he expected and gets a lot more than he bargained for! (Speaking of idioms)
What I liked about the layout of “Books of Blood” was that the three stories were not told to us linearly. As the characters from each part were intertwined throughout the movie, so were their stories. We start with Bennett, then switch to Jenna for quite a while, then Miles, then they all really start to blend near the end And we are left with a body trail and a desire to watch the movie again to catch the little moments of paths crossing.
I would want to watch this again to figure out the timing factor of when the he three stories cross each other’s paths. I think it was a good enough movie for that (if not for the thousands of movies coming out in October 2020!!) but it’s not one that I’ll be dying to re-watch again and again.
It was…okay. Creativity was alright, gore/bloody factor was pretty good and believable, acting might’ve been the highlight of the movie, writing was decent. There were some creepy aspects to the stories, like the married couple that takes Jenna in for a room rental and their secret, the scene where Simon is presented to the Book of Blood, and the final decision by Jenna which closed out the movie.
So, I think it was worth a watch, maybe two. I gave it 3 out of 5 Bloody Reels. Let us know what you thought if you watched it!
Stay Spooked!
“Books of Blood”
Released: 2020
Rating: TV Movie
Director: Brannon Braga
Writers: Adam Simon, Brannon Braga
IMDB Rating: 5.6 out of 10
Metascore: 42 out of 100
Rotten Tomatoes: 24%
Runtime: 1 hour 47 minutes
Free Streaming as of this Blog: Hulu
Comments