Hulu’s Fantastic Movie Adaptation Of Horror Series Books Of Blood Follows Three Gruesome Interlocking Stories Almost Guaranteed To Make You Squirm

A little throwback poster art from the original 2009 Blook Of Blood courtesy of SlashFilm.com.

Just in time for the holidays (Halloween isn’t the only holiday season to watch horror movies, Thanksgiving and Christmas were made for watching horror movies too, just drink a glass or two of Absenth while watching to up the strangeness and you’ll be good. It’ll be fine.) a new adaptation of Clive Barker’s film Book Of Blood has been birthed via Hulu to properly scare a new generation of horror fans. It is fascinatingly creepy, entertaining as hell, ohhh buddy there will be blood.

While the original (but weirdly erotic) 2009 movie Book Of Blood was a melding of the stories Book Of Blood and On Jerusalem Street, Hulu’s adaption pairs a loose rendition of the original BOB story along with two completely new stories (written by Brannon Braga, Adam Simon, and Clive himself) all of which are woven together to form a hellacious trifecta of WTF did I just watch that keeps you thinking about the movie long after the end of the closing credits. The first story kicks off with the shakedown of a bookstore owner (Brett Rickaby) who owes the mob money and when they come to collect on the debt, the owner tries to bribe the hitman (Yul Vazquez) with the location of a one-of-a-kind book that once sold would more than pay off his debt. With the address of the mysterious book in hand, the hitman and his driver take off to track down the supposed million-dollar literary work but not without leaving their calling card.

Photo courtesy of Phillyvoice. com

The second story revolves around Jenna (Britt Robertson), a traumatized 20’s something college student who quits school after suffering a nervous breakdown as a result of a relationship gone bad and due to her ongoing struggles with depression and misophonia, a rare neurological condition in which a person develops an over hypersensitivity to sound. When she admits to her parents she’s taken herself off of her medication they decide to send her back to The Farm, a mental health facility that Jenna had previously stayed at and had run away from because didn’t think she needed to be there. Upon hearing she was going back, Jenna steals a wad of cash from her parents and hops a midnight bus to Los Angeles, but gets off at a nearby town after she discovers she’s being followed. While looking for a place to crash Jenna she meets a lovely retired couple who own a run-down B&B just on the outskirts of town who have some very special, but peculiar, hobbies. The owners of this obscure B&B specialize in benevolently turning their guests into the living dead (does that make them ex guests? Ceased to be? Their metabolic processes are now ‘istory? Dead Parrot Sketch anyone?) who end up living out the rest of their lives, quietly, as permanent guests, hidden away in the house from the public. I bet  Yelp reviews are hard to come by for this place.

Photo courtesy of comicbook. com

The last story is a new take on the Book Of Blood, where a con man named Simon (Rafi Gavron) targets a beautiful psychiatrist named Mary (Anna Friel)  famous for debunking supernatural events and the people who create them, for his next big con. Simon convinces Mary that he can communicate with the dead through horrific supernaturally induced episodes, and when during one of his communication events with the dead produce bits of conversations between Mary and her recently deceased 7-year-old son Miles, conversations she hadn’t told anyone about, she falls for the con, hard, and eventually for Simon. But the dead were paying attention to what Simon was doing and they were not happy with him. Rather than killing him outright, the dead sentence him to live out the rest of his life as a living notebook of their stories which they carved into his body for safe-keeping. Mary is then tasked by the dead to protect and care for Simon which she does quite happily because at this point she is thoroughly insane, of which she simply cannot be faulted for. I mean it would be hard on anyone to just give up their life-long career to work for the undead for free, and while you’re not dead, you’re living with someone who’s possibly dead but possibly not who just sits around all day, naked, rocking back and forth in a rocking chair, staring out a bedroom window. A healthy relationship this is not.

All three of these stories wind around, into, and through each other effortlessly but not obviously so when the last 15 minutes of the movie hits, you find yourself surprised but not too surprised at the ending yet still feeling thoroughly anxious and unnerved from what you just saw. The cast is phenomenal, the storylines are smooth with very few plotholes, the visuals and special effects are incredible, and the soundtrack provides just the right amount of grit to keep things feeling highly charged and emotional, not cheesy or over-the-top. Highly recommend giving it a go on October 7th right here

Books Of Blood official trailer can be seen here

The dead will have their stories told, even if you become their ink and paper. Photo courtesy of IMDb