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'Books of Blood': Fans disappointed with Hulu horror anthology say it 'doesn't feel like Clive Barker'

The film takes a certain amount from Barker’s story titled ‘The Book of Blood’ but thereafter, the other stories seem to have no basis in the books. Naturally, Barker's fans are not happy

Hulu’s adaptation of Clive Barker’s '80s horror fiction collection, ‘Books of Blood’, is a halfway decent attempt at making a horror anthology film. The movie directed by Brannon Braga, co-written by Braga and Adam Simon, and executive produced by Seth MacFarlane, takes a certain amount from Barker’s first volume — more specifically, the first story titled ‘The Book of Blood’. But thereafter, the other stories seem to have no basis in the books. And all three stories in the horror anthology film are somewhat interconnected. 

The film is visually great. The jump-scares are a few too many to be effective, but they are good jump-scares nonetheless. And two out of the three stories are well-written, even if they don’t take much from the source material. But where the writing fails is the connections are underwhelming and don’t really pay off. In fact, ‘Jenna’ and ‘Miles’, the first two stories, would have gained more had they been feature-length. The last story, ‘Bennet’, was more or less terrible. The film also felt lengthy despite it not really being so, which is a fault of the execution.

But did horror aficionados enjoy this horror feature? The reactions seem mixed, leaning towards negative. Film writer Candice Frederick wrote on Twitter, "I found #BooksOfBlood super disappointing. “Now that the embargo is lifted on #BooksOfBlood I can say I really did not care for it. It's not a bad film but it's very mediocre and forgettable. Worse it doesn't feel like Clive Barker at all. I give it 2 and a half out of 5. Doesn't even feel worth writing a whole review for,” wrote Matt Elliott of HorrorNews on Twitter. More horror fans expressed similar opinions. One Twitter user said, “Well I give #BooksOfBlood a 7/10. It was not bad but it was just lacking any kind of Barker feel to it. On that note, we need a remake of ‘Rawhead Rex’ directed by @panoscosmatos or @RichardStanley7 #MutantFam #horrorcommunity.”

Another Barker fan wrote on Twitter, “BOOKS OF BLOOD OPINION: This was another of Clive's stories turned into a movie that seems to have had little input or influence from him. If you're hoping for something dark, twisted, visionary, this isn't it. This is B Braga doing his interpretation of a horror anthology,” adding, “If it was just a horror movie it would be fine. This had nothing of the atmosphere of CB about it. Nothing.”

The obvious reason why people felt the Barker feel was missing was that, for the most part, it wasn’t Barker’s stories. As one fan pointed out, “I'm not sure why you'd ‘adapt’ #clivebarker's BOOKS OF BLOOD just to add your own stories, but as my Horror Movie Month time is limited, I had to abandon @hulu's attempt in favor of anything else. Better luck next time.” Another Twitter user suggested, "Books of Blood would do much better as a series than a movie. There are several volumes of books & a lot of stories. A movie can maybe fit 2."

‘Books of Blood’ is available on Hulu.