The Good
I am usually a fan of anything with Clive Barker in the title.
The Bad
I thought this movie wouldn't be so predictable.Clive Barker's Book of Blood t doesn't really advance or detract from the horror movie genre. Mary Florescu is a Paranormal Researcher who is starts to study Simon McNeal. This poor college student is having a tough time because (aside form recent tuition hikes in the UC system), he has the unenviable task of channeling messages from people who have long since shuffled the mortal coil. For some reason Florescu doesn't see this a red flag and rather then keep things on a purely research level, she and him start to have a physical relationship that begins to effect their "working" relationship. What ensues is Florescu having to call into question everything that she does and does not believe. Eventually, she is brought to hell and back all while trying to save her subject through impossible circumstances.
Clive Barker's Book of Blood is a decent movie but there isn't anything that is really that special about it.
Features
Behind the Scenes Featurette
This featurette is what it is. We get the actors in the film, as well as other creative types, talking about making this project. This film is based on the Clive Barker stories "On Jerusalem Street" and "The Book of Blood." Why two short stories were needed to put this script together is beyond me, but I am actually curious the read the source material. It seems like this movie might have had a chance to be a bit better than it is, and I just want to know what the writers and everyone else had to work with.
Video
High Definition - Widescreen Presentation. This film looked good on Blu-ray but it sadly fell into that over done horror trap that movies of this ilk sometimes have a tough time avoiding. You know what I mean, those quick cutting moments where once the gore starts it flows to almost laughable proportions. I didn't notice any points where the images got overly baked or grainy in any one area, and on the whole this release did look solid. That said, the image didn't seem to warrant a next gen release.
Audio
English 5.1 DTS HD-Master - English 2.0 Stereo Audio. Spanish Subtitles. English SDH. The audio that this disc employs is good but nothing really got my heart racing. They try and use the audio to aid and abet the scares on screen, and by and large they pull this off to a certain degree. However, the audio felt flat in certain areas and I am not sure that other users would think that the sound on this disc was going to represent the Blu-ray experience that well.
Package
A man with a lot of things written in blood (including this films title) on his bare-chested body graces this front cover. The back serves up 5 images from this movie, a Special Features/Technical specs listing, a description of this movie, a credits list and technical specs. All in all this movie looks well packaged even if it isn't doing anything that amazing.
Final Word
I guess this movie should be on Blu-ray D but I don't know that it needed to be. Afterall, this format is supposed to be "next generation." I honestly don't feel that there was anything happening cinematically that warranted its release in such a strong format. It isn't like they packed this release with so many features that it could qualify as a special edition. Also, I doubt that the DVD is going to do so well during its release that it will warrant multiple releases. It almost feels like they may have jumped the gun with this putting out this movie in on Blu-ray disc. If they ever had a chance to get crazy with extras and the image quality of this film, this is it.
If you like Clive Barker and the other films he has done (of what I have seen, I do) then you probably want to see Book of Blood for that reason. If not, you can probably skip this film.