I didn't watch this movie before because I wasn't convinced by its bad reviews but after watching it, I can say with confidence it is a decent enough horror production. The way this story is told is similar to the recent anthology film called The Mortuary Collection, with the only difference that these stories are intertwined and happen almost simultaneously and in the same city.
The film begins with a thug wanting to get some money from a librarian and this is one of the mistakes of the film. No information is given about this altercation, and we don't know how the librarian knew about the Book of Blood. He just informs the thug about the book and its potential value. Soon after this scene, the second story begins.
This story is about a troubled girl who doesn't feel comfortable living with her parents. Later on, we will learn some information about why she is having issues but the important thing is that she leaves her house and decides to go to another city. She stays in what appears to be a normal house but it will actually be full of sinister surprises.
The third and last story is about a guy who claims to be able to communicate with the dead ones. He has his own method and the results couldn't be more disturbing. So much so, that he manages to convince a respectable professional woman who recently lost her son that he can communicate with him. This is the creepiest story of all, it has very cool horror scenes and is deeply related to the first one.
The second story, on the other hand, is completely unrelated so I think the writing of that story must have been done in a rush. All in all, Books of Blood provides plenty of horrors and disturbing stuff. I think most fans of this genre should be happy with what was accomplished in this film from Hulu. It was promoted as a horror production and it certainly was one, unlike other recent films/series who claim to belong in the horror genre only to be something else entirely.
This is far from a perfect film and from being a masterpiece, the lack of explanation about the problem between the librarian and the thug at the beginning of the film and the lack of integration between the second story and the rest are errors that shouldn't happen. However, despite this and other errors, it was an entertaining horror film for me and one I can feel comfortable recommending.
The best
- It provides original horror scenes, especially in the third story.
- If you are looking for some disturbing tales, this movie provides 2 of them.
The worst
- The order of the events/stories is messy.
- The first story begins with a fight but no explanation about this problem is given. Perhaps more information about the librarian would have been useful.
More information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11242218/
Review: AAA
In numbers: 7/10