in ,

Book of Blood Review

From the mind of John Harrison, composer of such scores as Creepshow and Day of the Dead comes this new atmospheric adaptation to Clive Barker’s story… Book of Blood. In simple terms, it’s about a paranormal investigator who falls for a college professor while researching into a house that is said to be crossroads for the dead. It’s an un-chronological story with some pretty good set design, atmosphere/tone and a couple good scares.

What I noticed right about this movie is the atmosphere and the set design; it was very spooky, dark, gothic (almost) and brilliantly shot. It gives this movie this really ‘dead’ look to it and it also gives the whole house this gloomy, sad, cautions mood. Even scenes that are outside of the house are either raining or had just rained, keeping the audience in this depressing mood. There were times when I felt really depressed just because of the coloring this movie had. Plus, I love the set design and the art direction of this film… it was kind of gothic and Victorian.

One thing that I really enjoyed about this movie was the special effects. For an independent movie, some of the scratching and the face tearing looked pretty real to me… plus, it the CGI didn’t look too artificial. I really enjoyed the makeup considering how long it must have taken to do a full body filled with scares. This was one of the highlights of this movie and it didn’t overshadow anything, which is what special effects should be. There were some scares in this movie, but I will admit there was maybe one or two times that I actually jumped up since it caught me off guard. So, I’ll say the scares were abundant.

There was a lot of character study in this film and what I mean by that is that the story focused a lot between the relationship that Simon and Mary have and that is the only downside to this movie. The movie drags on for a long time and barley touches base on the supernatural elements. I can see why they would do this, it wants to build up the characters, which is fine but it should be a little more equalized. Other than that, I really enjoyed this movie.

I am a huge Clive Barker fan and this movie wasn’t a disappointment but I think it could have been slightly better that had an equal focus on both the horror and the relationships. Honestly, this was an average movie with some pretty intense moments… not to mention the gore. It was a fun watch and I think Barker fans would love it.

2 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Actually I do not really like the Jonas Armstrong, what is the reason a lot of reviews saying this movie bad?

    Book of Blood has its bloody moments, but it's not an all out gorefest. It's actually more of a supernatural thriller.

    The film, at parts looks like a made-for-TV film, at other times it's very cinematic. my hope is that once it's digitally mastered for wide-release the color balance and contrast will be cleaned up.

    After all, I've watched this movie and think it is not so bad, so for those who do not watch please do not hesitate.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.