Book Review: The Scarlet Gospels

In my reading I have three favourite authors, three people who get space on my shelves no matter what, and although there are a few close seconds, so far no other author compares for space in my collection when it comes to Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett and Clive Barker (Although Charles de Lint is quickly moving into a strong contender for number four).

I've re-read all three authors a few times and still go back for more, so when a new book comes out, you can bet I'm chomping at the bit to crack that new spine and get reading.

Barker's latest, The Scarlet Gospels, combines two of his most famous characters - the demon known as Pinhead (introduced in his novella The Hellbound Heart - later adapted into the film Hellraiser), and Harry D'Amour (introduced in the short story "The Last Illusion" in Books of Blood volume 6 - later adapted into the film Lord of Illusions).  

Personally I enjoyed it, but as someone who has been looking forward to this book since he first mentioned it as an idea in the late 90s, I will say I felt it lived up to it's promise, and worked quite well as an extremely creepy read.

As with most of his books, I wouldn't recommend it to the faint of heart - it is filled with some truly gruesome and horrifying content, and as it focuses largely on characters from his previous works, I wouldn't recommend it as a  first dip into the books of Mr. Barker (check out Books of Blood for that).

Not sure how I feel about the new "Book of Blood" Movie

I just saw the trailer for the new film Book of Blood, based of the short story by Clive Barker and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it.

First off - I love Clive Barkers books, I own all of them and I even bought the six-part short story that came with all the nasty looking toys from MacFarlane Toys (story was worth it (totally keeping that) - but the toys are in a box in my basement somewhere - any offers?)

Although some of his movies are hit and miss - Loved Nightbreed (probably because it takes place in my home province of Alberta, Canada), Liked The Lord of Illusions, and was steadily disappointed by the Hellraiser series. I have heard great things about The Midnight Meat Train, and have it on my Ziplist.

Anyway, I found the trailer for this upcomming movie and here are the pros and cons as I see them.

Pros

- Starring Jonas Armstrong (Pictured right) - loved him in the BBC Series Robin Hood

- Directed by John Harrison - who worked on the Dune Mini-series for the SciFi Channel and directed one of my favourite episodes of Kindred: the Embraced.

Con - actually only the one

-The story the film is based on is a framing story for the six-book series The Books of Blood; basically it shows us where all these great stories come from, and gives the collection of short stories a starting and ending point. Even if you take the final story in the series and add them together, you get a page count of 15 pages!

So there you have it - I like the director's work, the lead actor's work, and the story the film is based on, but how do you make even a 90 minute film based on 15 pages of prose?

Check out the trailer at Spike.com

and let me know what you think.