Three horrific stories intertwine in this latest plundering of Clive Barker’s seminal horror story collection.

Sometimes you wish you could approach a film  without the knowledge you already carry. Brannon Braga’s new horror film was originally going to be a series, and it feels like it. The structuring is slightly off, as if it has been forced to sit together as a single narrative, rather than as weekly, standalone stories.

Barker’s stories from his 1984-5 tomes have been adapted many times, with great success (Candyman), middling success (Lords of Illusion) and then there’s Rawhead Rex! But there’s still some choice material to chew over, so it’s disappointing that the only material used from the books is the wraparound story The Book of Blood, which was itself adapted as a film in 2009.

The longest segment here is Jenna, a new story following a young girl who is off her meds and still struggling to deal with a horrific event – we discover why later on. Britt Robertson is excellent in this role, and the denouement quite unexpected and ghoulish. The other core story is the Book of Blood with Anna Friel’s Mary desperate to make contact with her recently-deceased son, and being taken advantage of by a huckster played by Westworld’s Ravi Gafron. Let’s just say that the spirits are not amused by his phoney act and they want to play.

The third story is a wraparound tale of hoodlums seeking a valuable book, not realising it’s a volume of flesh and blood rather than pulp. The movie ends with Mary teasing us that there are plenty of other tales to tell, and I’d love to see them, but hopefully they’ll be dipping back into the original pool of blood… I mean stories.

Verdict: A strange confection that’s part portmanteau and part pilot, let’s hope we get the chance to see more. 8/10

Nick Joy

‘They want their voices to be heard!’ 

Given the amount of genre anthology TV and films out recently, from the return of Creepshow and The Twilight Zone, to Nightmare Cinema and Scare Me, it should come as no surprise that someone has had another stab at the Books of Blood – Clive Barker’s groundbreaking collections from the ’80s. And that someone is Star Trek alumnus Brannon Braga, sharing the writing duties with Salem’s Adam Simon, bringing us a TV movie that ‘Dares to open those pages again!’

The whole thing is literally book-ended by the tale of criminals Bennett (Yul Vazquez, seen most recently in Russian Doll and The Outsider) and his mate Steve (Coroner’s Andy McQueen) who are looking for the mythical tome in question, to net themselves a fortune. But we’re also quickly introduced to Jenna (the marvellous Britt Robertson from Little Fires Everywhere) via her name, carved into the skin of the Book of Blood (a device used to separate out all the sections). Having endured a tragedy at school, and believing her parents (Saad Siddiqui and the always reliable Paige Turco) are going to send her back to ‘The Farm’ she runs away from home, heading for LA.

Though not before making a pit-stop at a quaint B&B she finds along the way, run by kindly couple Ellie (Freda Foh Shen from Elementary) and Sam (Haven’s Nicholas Campbell). There’s even a heartthrob staying there in the form of Gavin (Kenji Fitzgerald) who takes an interest. Something strange is going on in that house, however – as you’d probably expect – and it’s kicking Jenna’s misophonia (her aversion to sound) into high gear…

The middle section you might be more familiar with from the original publications and also the 2009 movie, where academic and paranormal debunker Mary Florescu (played by Marcella’s Anna Friel) encounters Simon McNeal (Rafi Gavron from Catch-22), who claims he can communicate with the dead. As an added incentive this time, Mary’s lost a son called Miles (Etienne Kellici from Ready or Not) and so is even more invested in either proving Simon wrong or embracing his abilities. Needless to say, things go horribly wrong and someone pays the ultimate price.

We wrap up by returning again to the other stories in the anthology, with characters even coming across each other at right angles a la Pulp Fiction – to end on an extremely chilling note. One that definitely sets out the stall for further tales: ‘So many stories… Whose will be next?’

While there’s a certain amount of gore on display here – the creation of the Book of Blood itself is particularly gruesome and takes advantage of modern effects technology – Braga’s already talked in interviews about his intention to focus on the psychological aspects of Barker’s original tales. Even in the parts that are not loosely based on these, this is very much apparent and for the most part works well, backed up by solid performances (I defy anyone to watch Friel’s scenes with her son and not tear up). There’s some cleverly crafted suspense and tension, complemented by genuinely creepy moments (the use of sound especially in the ‘Jenna’ segment to create a nod to Poe’s work), enough to satisfy the casual viewer as well as fans of Barker’s previous work – though the latter might well be hankering after more extreme explorations of the macabre. Hopefully, if there’s more on the way, we might see a few other adaptations from his collections as well – as there are a number that haven’t even been touched on yet for the big or small screen. All in all, though, this is an anthology film that holds its own amongst its contemporaries.

Verdict: ‘All stories end here.’ 8/10

Paul Kane