Paranormal author Mary Florescu (Sophie Ward) is investigating a haunted house. Lucky for her, Simon (Jonas Armstrong), a young man with psychic abilities, has just enrolled in her class. She brings him to the house and gets astonishing results immediately, but can't tell if Simon is a charlatan or the real deal. This John Harrison (TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE) directed film arrived on DVD this week from Lionsgate after being on the shelf for a bit. After a decade of Barker sequel exploitation, I'm glad to see someone trying to faithfully adapt his "Books of Blood" stories (with this tackling "Book of Blood" and its sequel "On Jerusalem Street"). Sadly, this is a dud as the movie is just there. We don't get any real character depth and Mary's experiments seem to solely consist of her sitting in the house while Simon goes to sleep. More importantly, why is Simon doing what he is doing? Harrison does get a few creepy scenes going but will squash them dead in an instant with a boring dialog scene. That said, I'd rather watch this than a ghetto set CANDYMAN VIII: SWEETS FOR THE STREETS AND BEATS. Look for Doug Bradley in a 30 second cameo.
Review of Book of Blood
