Clive Barker’s Book of Blood – Blu-ray Review

The Film:

While Clive Barker isn’t at the level of Stephen King, he has offered us some incredibly imaginative tales of pain, blood, and mythology. On the cinematic side, his stories have been well received, and yes, I think Lord of Illusions and Midnight Meat Train are decent adaptations and worthy horror flicks, along side his two genre classics in Hellraiser and Candyman. I think Barker’s take on the duality of pleasure and pain, heaven and hell, are interesting, all companied by great visuals. These dark tales feel almost counter-culture in the horror community, but the one thing I never thought could be associated with Barker’s name, was boredom, and sadly, that’s what Clive Barker’s Book of Blood is.

Even with some great visuals, like the dead writing their stories on this kid’s flesh, the 101-minute film, is relatively uneventful. With a confusing prologue and epilogue, the film is slanted towards the paranormal this time, as a teacher and a student, investigate a young girls violent murder in this haunted house. This promising story is a combination of a couple of short stories by Barker, but there’s little actual story within the 101 minutes. I think this would have worked better as a short film, like for an anthology series or something.

I don’t want to be down on the actors or even John Harrison the director, because the film’s look and acting are pretty good. The sound design almost works besides the weak story, but even with this young girls brutal murder-her face is literally ripped off from the bone!-and most of Barker’s themes are intact, heaven and hell, violence and sex walking a fine line together, it’s just ho-hum. I still feel as if Barker’s stories are primed for great films, someone just needs to be as visceral as a face ripping off. The fact that this film didn’t get a wider push, might not have anything to do with the mishandling of Midnight Meat Train, as it’s more to do with the fact that the film isn’t really all that good.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: The audio has some punch to it. The DTS track offers some thick bass and sharp speaker activity. The video is high def decent, if that’s a term, with nice level of clarity and detail. Since the film was shot on digital cameras, on a low budget, don’t expect it to really pop off of the screen. Blacks are a dark gray, darker scenes are soft, you know, the usual. Overall, a decent presentation.

Book of Blood: Behind the Scenes: This standard def 20 minute piece is fairly routine, examining Barker’s stories, the production, and other typical behind-the-scenes information in interviews.

Trailers: A couple of high def trailers for various LGF horror films.

Conclusion: Clive Barker’s Book of Blood is a bit of a disappointment, sadly. The Blu-ray is decent, making curious horror fans an okay choice for a rental.

The Film: Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating: