Episode: 378 • Duration: 01:02:40
As we mentioned in a previous Bobbing for Barker episode, look at that film title carefully – we’re talking the Hulu original Books of Blood this time, a similar name for a different Clive Barker film. This time, the movie truly is an anthology, although we use that term loosely considering there’s really only two stories adapted here and a short wraparound tale. We talk about how this one fares considering its lengthy initial story, how it manages the skinbook that we’ve already seen adapted once, and if this one is any better than the previous Books of Blood-based movies.
We’re also drinking Paradox Brewing’s Kolsh Affair with Blood Orange.
Bobbing for Barker continues with our final episode next Friday.
Hit that play button above to listen in.
Transcript – Bobbing for Barker (8) BOOKS OF BLOOD (auto-generated)
Click to expand full transcript
0:00
This September, hear the rattling of chains, see the master of illusions, experience the cabal of monsters, the purveyor of pain comes to Blood and black rum podcast this Halloween season with Clive Barker’s filmography in thobbing for Barker.
0:22
Hey guys, welcome back to the blood and black rum podcast.
I’m Ryan from Colts platation.com and I’m joined with my Co host Martin.
How’s it?
Going silly voices, silly voices yeah, we’re we’re back again with some more bobbing for Barker, the Apple themed Halloween tradition that we’re doing this year.
0:48
We have been covering all of Clive Barker’s filmography throughout the season and this episode is interesting because we’re going to be covering it’s it’s definitely a more contemporary film and actually only released a few years ago.
1:05
It’s actually been about six years now, which is a little surprising to me.
That’s not a few.
Years.
Yeah, I know.
I it’s just a little surprising, a little longer than I thought it was.
And it is also a play on another movie that we did earlier in this series, which again, they have a very similar title.
1:28
So we’ll ask you to very pay close attention to the title of the podcast episode because we aren’t doing the same exact thing.
It’s it is different.
And yet again, I’ll let Martin take this away.
What’s it based on?
The Book of Mormon.
1:47
Yeah, the the LDS.
Books of Blood.
Yeah, yeah.
Book of Blood.
Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, Book of Blood, Tales of Terror.
We so we did what we’ve done fables of.
2:04
Fear.
There you go.
You’ll have to start your own Fables of Fear.
We’ve done most of the stories in Books of Blood, apparently, because pretty much every episode of this show has situated around a story, short story that was part of Books of Blood, which was, you know, in truth, A6 volume series.
2:24
So of course there’s going to be a lot of stories in it.
And we’ve also done the movie Book of Blood, which we did like a couple episodes back and that one was based on the like wrap around stories in the books of blood.
And that’s kind of specifically focused on that one.
2:42
We kind of talked about that in that episode where we’re like this a little bit odd, you know, to to pick the wrap around story of all stories in a movie titled Book of Blood and kind of run with that instead of the obvious choice, which is an anthology of short stories from the books of blood.
2:59
And it makes more sense.
It just kind of writes itself and it’s literally what the books of blood are.
So we’re back today with another movie that’s now called Books of Blood pluralized here.
And this one was a Hulu movie, which I I don’t know if hold on.
3:17
Yes.
Did you do that intentionally?
What’s that?
What services is on Hulu?
Did you do that because Seth MacFarlane produced it?
Yeah, it’s so weird.
I’d say, isn’t that weird that Seth MacFarlane is just like, you know, creeping his way into the executive board at Hulu and just, like, stamping his name on just random stuff that they’re putting out?
3:41
I saw that, too.
And I was like, that’s, that’s interesting.
Seth MacFarlane.
Like, you know, or consolidation of media.
It doesn’t make sense because Fox is owned by Disney now and you know, right, It’s all owned, you know.
When you go to sign into Hulu now it’s fucking Disney greeting you like.
3:59
Hey it’s Disney, we have Mickey Mouse, we got ESPN in Hulu, we have 7 services for you fucker.
Yeah, exactly.
You can’t get away from us.
You know, that’s the real scary thing when you go to log into stuff like Hulu.
4:18
But yeah, this is one of those movies like that.
I feel like Hulu maybe doesn’t do well.
Hulu is not really technically like, I don’t know.
Are they solvent at this point?
I don’t even know.
I don’t know.
In the past, recent past, it was like Hulu is the ending.
4:33
We’re ending Hulu.
And then it kind of got bought up by Disney.
And I don’t really know the the crux of their business proposals between Disney and Hulu.
I think it’s like, well, because again, like they own all Fox’s stuff, so it’s like the house for, you know, all the FX and you know, stuff.
So yeah, like it’s always Sunny and all that switch, which was one of the reasons why like, you know, when before like, when you could just like watch it originally without like an account and have the ads and stuff is great because it’s like, I get to watch all It’s sunny.
5:02
It’s just fantastic, you know, but now.
They insidified it and made it a lot worse.
And yeah, I mean it.
So Hulu still exists in some form at this time, though in when this movie released in 2020, they were putting out original content quite a bit.
5:20
And they would also have a particular part of the Halloween season that they would call Hulu Ween, which I think is a pretty appropriate name.
I like it.
I think it’s pretty good.
Pretty nice play.
Yeah.
And so they were doing this Hulu Ween and they would generally have a couple of original movies or they also had like this, it was almost like ATV series, but it was basically movies like they were, you know, almost full length movies that they would do.
5:48
The name is escaping me right now, but they would it was, you know, kind of like an anthology of movies that they would do.
And so that was a thing that they used to do.
I’m not really sure that Hulu is making original content anymore.
But back in the day they were and Books of Blood from 2020 was a Hulu original film specifically.
6:07
So it didn’t get a theatrical release or anything like that.
I was direct to streaming and it it was part of the Hulu Ween output for them, which I find interesting because this movie is kind of directed by a guy who is mostly only worked in TV, written by a guy who primarily does a lot of TV and made into a feature length film.
6:31
And I think that’s a little bit strange when you just stop and think about it.
You know, like of course there are people that merge between the two, you know, production areas, you know, some people make TV and movies, but a lot of times you will have like a career person who’s just like, I work in TVI do TV.
6:51
I’m really good at segmented episodic TV.
And then you have a person who’s like, I’m really good at feature length films, but you know, I’m not really interested in directing episodic stuff and kind of working on some episodes, but not all as part of ATV show.
And that makes complete sense to me.
7:08
There are variations in how you would make content like that.
So it is a little bit interesting that Hulu kind of went for TV people for this movie.
And I think that kind of shows actually.
And as we’ll talk about when we get into the real meat of the Books of Blood, no pun intended, but I just wanted to preface that by saying it, it is kind of an oddity of like being almost ATV movie sort of thing, but also not very interesting.
7:40
What do you know about Books of Blood?
Have you, you know, ’cause you were saying you used to peruse Hulu, especially when it was free content, you just had to, you know, plod through the ads.
You know anything about Books of Blood?
Heard of it before?
I do remember seeing it commercials for it, unlike TV and the Internet back in the day.
8:06
Just like Clive Barker’s Books of Blood coming to Hulu.
Yeah, I remember the.
And that that was it.
Like, you know.
I feel like I remember the poster artwork, seen it here and there.
I don’t even know if maybe because I was like, maybe when I was perusing Hulu, you know, it’d pop up and be like, oh, it’s interesting Books of blood.
8:25
But for whatever reason, it does look familiar to me.
But other than that, like, I never, I didn’t watch it, didn’t really hear that much about it when it came out.
You know, wasn’t like it was being widely talked about or anything like that.
And yeah, again, really interesting.
8:40
I spent six years already since this movie released because it doesn’t feel like it.
It actually doesn’t even feel like Hulu is all that old.
But apparently, you know, apparently we’re all just getting old.
And even streaming services are starting to feel ancient at this point.
So.
And how do you feel about returning to the idea of books of Blood in this fashion?
9:01
You know, as we’ve already covered one part, like one major part of book, the Books of Blood in the movie Book of Blood.
What do you think about coming back to that here?
Well, expecting better things.
9:19
And when we watched A Book of Blood.
So you’re you were like.
I was, I was sitting with my fingers crossed, like, please God, let’s.
They’re going to do something.
Yeah.
And, and I think like the thing that when you come into it, the thing that looks promising is it’s an actual anthology.
9:40
You know, it’s promised there will be 3 shorts in this movie and so I think that that’s you’re like kind of like, oh, that’s kind of hopeful.
You know, it’s kind of the spirit of the original and maybe they’ll do a better job with some of them adapting some that you haven’t seen in film before.
9:57
So that’s kind of where I was at is like maybe this is going to be a little bit better than that other one.
Interestingly, this movie does do the wrap around story that Book of Blood is pretty much entirely consisting of, and it kind of does that as its own short story in this movie, which we’ll, you know, obviously talk about as we get into the three stories within the the film.
10:21
But yeah, I, I, I was expecting, you know, maybe a little bit better quality, even though again, these kind of sometimes these Hulu originals get short shrift in terms of like, you know, monetary budget, you know, they’re not throwing a bunch of money at you.
10:39
It’s more like, hey, we need a, we need a film for Halloween.
You got 1.
You know, you do this cheap.
OK, great.
You know, I think that’s kind of the whole deal with their with at least with their originals before.
So, all right, well, let’s take a break real quick and talk about the beer that we have on the show today.
10:57
I’ll let you take it away because you’re the one that picked it out.
What do you got for us?
Well.
As we keep saying, hey, it’s hard to find new beer.
It’s hard to find, especially at this time now that October’s upon at the end any real Oktoberfest because everyone’s moving on to winter packs already.
11:22
And it’s sad, but it has gotten nice and chilly up here in the around X.
So when I was out at one of our local stores looking for beer, just happened to find a new beer, beer we haven’t had before.
11:38
It’s just came out recently and it’s from a local brewery that we have had, you know, a fair amount, I would say on the podcast Paradox, which is based in North Hudson and it’s their blood orange Colsh.
11:56
And I got it because one, we love Colches here.
And two, I was curious to see how like a blood orange Piers with the Colts, you know, because blood orange, as we have brought up a couple of times on the podcast, when we have beers that are blood orange focus.
12:17
It’s a tricky thing because managing that, you know, bitterness and that acidity and how well that, you know, pairs with the style that like, you know, of beer.
So I was really interested in, you know, getting this just for that alone.
12:35
So and after drinking it, I’m, you know, I think it’s a damn good cold shit.
That blood orange prominent big on the first end, nice and bitter, not overly acidic.
12:50
It’s well-rounded with by the culture itself.
It’s got a nice clean, crisp body, very drinkable, very easy.
This is like a nice fall.
I would say like a nice fall style beer.
Like I don’t know if that’s what they were going for, but like a late fall.
This is like a good campfire campfire, you know, chiller to have like a lot.
13:14
Yeah, yeah, I would agree.
I think the Kolsch affair is pretty good.
It’s got a nice like, again, this is one of those beers where with blood orange flavour you can really go in a variety of ways.
The blood orange can be overpowering to the point where that’s all you get.
13:32
It can be a little bit too sickly sweet at times.
Or on the other hand, you can get something that’s like, where’s the orange?
I don’t really, I’m not really finding that I think this kosher fair hits a nice balance, get the nice blood orange flavour to it on the back end, but it’s not overpowering or overbearing.
13:49
You get a nice, you know, very pleasant Kolsch sweetness to it.
Overall very easily drinkable.
I think you’re right.
While this was, I think supposed to be released more like a spring summer type beer according to like where the what the expiration date or the sell by date was on it.
14:12
I think that at the end of the day, it also makes a pretty good fall beer because it’s blood orange is definitely not out of the realm of, you know, fall to winter type flavors.
So I think that’s a really nice fit for fall.
Overall, really nice.
Haven’t had a ton of paradox, but from what I’ve had of their beers, definitely have enjoyed most of the stuff and this is no different.
14:36
I I like this one quite a bit.
So very pleasant.
That was a nice crispy crack I just had if.
You It was an ice crack.
No, yeah, that was nice.
And it was only 999 for the four packs.
Yeah, that’s actually quite surprising that’s that cheap.
It’s not really not a bad price at all, you know?
14:55
Yeah.
And actually a shout out to as we’re, you know, we’re in the fall.
I’ve actually had the Paradox Oktoberfest quite a bit on tap and it’s because we used to have that at our local bar for some reason.
They would just, you know, they were marketing with Paradox for whatever the reason they had it and it’s actually really good.
15:14
Their actor fest is great too, so if you have a chance, check that one out too.
Paradise.
Yeah, I think a couple of Stewart’s around here carry like the pills Nerd and IPA.
Oh, OK, yeah.
I’m pretty sure I’ll have to double check, but I feel like there’s a couple, Not all of them, but a couple.
15:31
You know that carry them so.
Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely check it out if you if you have it around you, it’s, again, it’s not probably not super common out of New York State because it is pretty close, you know, local to us.
But if you do find it out there, check them out.
15:50
All right, so let’s talk Books of Blood.
What do we got here?
We have an anthology film that is three stories, however.
Does not, does not have Clive Barker’s name attached to it.
It does.
He’s the executive producer.
I didn’t.
See.
No, no.
But I mean like, yeah.
16:06
Yeah, you didn’t know.
In the titular.
Yeah, they just say from the nightmares of Clyde Barker.
They don’t say Clyde Barker’s books of blood or anything like that.
No, no, what we so it says 3 tales, right?
I, I take offence to that.
16:22
I am going to disagree and say that this is basically 22 stories.
The third tale is like one of the, you know, is it is it basically a wrap around and we’ll talk about the oddity of the, the editing and the direction here of, of how the film plays out.
16:39
It’s three stories.
How do?
You know, I’m going to say it’s an hump.
How do I know what?
Yeah, I’m going to say it.
That’s an oddity.
How do you’re assuming?
I’m going to agree with you on that.
True.
I guess that’s true.
I will say that it’s it has an eye.
No, it is.
OK.
16:54
OK, I assumed you would as well.
I assumed anybody with eyes could tell that it would have, but apparently not because it still got released this way.
So.
It was COVID man.
It was a different time you.
Know no offense to the movie, yeah, but so but but I do find that it’s really interesting the first and foremost.
17:15
So the film has like this wrap around story, which is fine like a lot of the anthology films do, starts off with these guys.
And it’s kind of very similar to The Book of Blood where it’s.
Yeah.
Sorry to cut you off, you’re forgetting the in 1984.
True.
Clive Barker released this the terrifying stories, no short story series known as Books of Blood and you will now like hear tales from yeah which make it which.
17:43
Very preface there.
Well, it’s funny too, because it makes it sound like, like so like in the film, like, like, it’s like an RL Stein thing.
Like you’re going to be like, there’s goosebumps everywhere, you know that you go.
Yeah, yeah, kind of takes away from the power and impact of the spooky stories you’re about to hear.
18:00
Like, you know.
Like it like, like it’d be like an Evil Dead, like Sam Raimi coming out like.
Hi.
Yeah.
Say Ramey here.
Just let you know, there’s a book called the Necronomicon we use.
It’s based off of things in real life, you know?
18:19
Yeah, It takes the.
It takes the power out of the.
Yeah.
Like, like, you know, ’cause then you’re like, oh, so it’s works of fiction.
Exactly, right.
Like you enter into a movie and obviously, you know, a horror movie is a work of fiction.
But at the same time there’s this sort of, you know, this barrier that you put up between yourself and your your realistic knowledge that this is not real.
18:39
And so the idea of you watching a horror movie is you set aside 90 minutes of your time and pretend like it is real, right.
And then and then pretend is sort of the fun.
And when you have a disclaimer at the beginning, like, hey, just wanted to let you know guys, none of this is real based on a Clyde Barker story.
18:54
Hope you enjoy.
That’s like, that’s like prefacing like you’re at a campfire and the person is telling you, you know, a spooky story and it kind of takes the IT puts a distance between what you’re watching and your reality of knowing that it’s not real.
My.
Favorite episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark is when Todd is like the story’s all bullshit.
19:15
The story I’m about to tell you is bullshit.
You know it didn’t really happen.
Now for.
Your approval.
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
I don’t think that I think the disclaimer at the beginning is is really unnecessary and they should have just kind of went with it.
19:32
And then, you know, maybe at the end they could have just said like based on stories by Clydeburg and that’s all you need really.
You don’t need to, you know, to be, you know, waxing the Clyde Barker’s ego there and saying, like, what are these books of terror that you put out?
19:50
Spooky.
Anyway, but yeah, the wrap around story is sort of the same as what we had in Book of Blood where there’s this these guys that are searching for the book of blood and that’s kind of the whole idea of the story.
And that’s fine with me.
Like I’m I’m fine with having that be the the beginning of the anthology and sort of the the.
20:11
The inciting moment of saying like, OK, now you’re going to hear about the Book of Books of Blood.
You know, the stories in the Books of Blood.
That’s fine with me.
However, I don’t really find that that would be, I don’t consider that the third story.
That’s just like part of the overall narrative of the movie.
20:28
What really ends up happening is you get one extremely long story.
That one is just all the stories are kind of just based on the name of the person that’s involved in the story, because the name is, you know, supposed to be carved into the skin of the book of Blood.
20:45
And so the first one is Jenna.
And this one is like just so fucking long.
I, I, I really questioned the reason why they decided to make this particular story, you know, one basically 1/2 of the movie way longer.
21:06
No, it’s even more 55 minutes long.
Well, no, yeah, but I mean like 1/2 in the sense that like they adapt 2 stories and now this one is way more than the overarching other stories combined.
It’s it’s, I don’t really understand the reasoning behind it because at the end of the day, this story is really milquetoast and it’s not very interesting.
21:28
And the film takes a really long time to even get into any crux of the of this conflict at all.
I don’t know if you felt the same way, but I was just like 35 minutes in.
I’m like, wait, I’m like, what the fuck?
What the fuck?
Is something actually going to happen?
21:44
It’s just like watching Jenna whine about like people chewing loudly.
If I wanted to do that, I would just like hang out with my sister.
Jesus, why you got to hit us all depressed people like so hard like no I just.
I don’t know, I found her to just be obnoxiously whiny in a in a way that like, yes, you know, it is obviously a part of her character trait, but I found it to be done in a way that did not really make me want to get in, get involved with her character.
22:18
You know, no offense to depressed.
Of course, I don’t know if you felt the same.
Ain’t this other auntist?
Jesus.
That’s right.
Yeah.
I, I personally, I was fine with that.
I did.
She didn’t bother me.
I thought, like, my problem when it comes to, like, the premise of this as as a whole is the it’s an anthology, not anthology.
22:43
And like, I think the story’s fine.
I think I I guess I’m more willing to give it grace for being, I don’t know if it was shot during COVID, but it’s, you know, released during, you know, heart of COVID.
22:59
And even though it says it’s a movie, it definitely gives, you know, for not like, it’s a bad thing, but like, you know, more of a, you know, premiere TV, you know, feeling vibe like, especially with like the house, like, you know, being a fucking like, coastal thing with like, windows everywhere.
23:22
Yeah, that’s right, honey, when we’re fucking everyone on the beach, you can see us.
You know, yeah, that was hilarious.
That actually like the the director or the the?
Like somebody was just like, this is going to look cool.
Exactly like so that’s the idea came first of like we want a split level house like that where it has a bunch of windows.
23:43
And that’s something, yeah.
And that’s something too, like, that’s also really TV ified, like, you know, film’s not going to, you know, do something like that.
But I think it’s like a fine premise.
And again, that first story with Jenna is like, I think it’s fun.
24:00
I don’t think it’s like a obtuse or anything like again, because of the whole like she’s depressed, she’s writing, you know, making these pictures that are, you know, like spooky, scary, screepy, you know, skeletons.
24:18
And her rich parents don’t want to be bothered with her being an asshole.
Something happened at college.
We don’t know what.
Something terrible happened and the like effects of her like being off her meds and the effects of the things she’s seeing.
24:35
Like are they halloos?
You know, are they, you know halloos Jins are are is she seeing or is what she’s seeing real?
And like how how it builds up and stuff.
I thought it was fine.
It does get long winded and stuff, but I personally love like she just stops out of town off a bus.
24:56
Spider Web Cafe room and board.
George Lucas is there, you know, to.
I like how she used the website go and sleep dot.
Yeah, go and sleep, Go and sleep.
Yeah, I always, I love too.
It was like either 38 or $39.00 or like a night like such a weird, like not like 40 bucks or something like that.
25:19
Like, oh, you keep the change, sweetie.
Yeah, you know.
But like, I love like, George Lucas and his, you know, his, this is what he’s doing now.
Like I want a bread and breakfast out of and, you know, on a town outside of Encino and with my wife.
25:36
And we’re having a good time.
I got really into carpentry.
Yeah, I think it’s fine.
I think again, the problem is with the storytelling is this shouldn’t be first.
Yeah, yeah.
This shouldn’t be the first tale, and it shouldn’t be as long as it is, but I think overall, I think it it it does work.
25:58
I feel like I did enjoy it.
I mean, I, for me, I think the, the things that I didn’t like necessarily enjoy about this movie was the way that it all felt like it really came together in almost like a slapdash fashion of just like it took a long time to get to its point.
26:17
And then once it does, it kind of just forces things into motion instead of having it feel more organic.
It’s almost just like, oh, OK, now everything’s happening at once.
And I kind of, I, I didn’t really care for that.
I also didn’t really care for that.
The fact that it, it feels like, especially at the what you think of as the end of that story, kind of, you know, because each story kind of fades out into this, well, it red basically, you know, it kind of fades to red and that signifies that it’s the end of the story and it goes on to the next story.
26:48
And it has like a little, you know, vignette where it shows the person’s name and skin and that’s kind of like signaling you’re on to the next story.
And the thing that bothered me about it was like the how abrupt it felt like that first story with Jenna ended.
27:04
It was just kind of like when she goes off the Cliff in the car and it shows the car at the bottom of the ravine or whatever, and they’re just like walking away.
And then it’s like, that’s the end.
And I was like, that’s it.
That’s like, there’s no, there’s no pathos.
27:20
There’s, you know, there’s nothing there.
It just is an abrupt ending that just leaves you literally Cliff hanging and that makes more sense once you see the end of the film.
But then again, that just makes you question why did they segment the film the way they did.
27:37
It doesn’t really make any sense.
To your point, the second story, which is called Miles, that should have really been first because that’s our lead in to the Books of Blood.
Otherwise, the first one doesn’t even really make all that much sense in terms of it being structured around the books of life.
27:58
Like it doesn’t, I don’t know why they would do it that way.
And, and and not only that, but like, well, let’s talk about Miles first.
Let’s talk about that story.
What do you think would so this is basically the same story as book of blood, right?
It’s the it’s the one that Book of Blood takes and makes into a full length story.
28:18
And at least Books of Blood knows better than to do that, than to make it into, you know what I mean?
Like knows more than to make it in a full length film.
It’s nice and truncated.
Yes, I think I liked the second story, Miles.
I think it’s a nice truncated version of when we did Book of Blood.
28:38
That is what it should have been because like at 2 hours long, like it there’s way too much, you know, I’m just going to get dicked and dunked and buy this guy, you know?
And here it’s like, bam.
It’s like, you know, very.
Yeah, the story beats are very on point.
28:55
It goes, it goes.
Like I did enjoy this quite a bit.
Like, I did think it was, you know, well paced and got, you know, through the points of, you know, books of blood in a, I mean, it sounds, you know, ridiculous, but like, just, like, you know, in my head, comparing it to books, you know, book of blood.
29:16
And it’s like a timely manner.
Like it’s not like, you know, dithering about like, it’s like, you know, yeah.
OK.
We want to get, you know, what is the books of the book of blood Because we had those guys in the beginning, like kind of find the books of blood.
29:33
It’s worth a lot of money.
We’re going to drive down the Raven Ball and find some blood and like here, it’s like, OK, like we’re getting to the point, you know?
Yeah, I, I think, I think this story is pretty good.
It does a good job of just like getting in and out and really getting to the point of the book of Blood.
29:53
I like the how it plays out a little bit better than Book of Blood 2 where it it it quickly reveals that Miles is faking it.
Right.
Like, it’s not like it strings you along for an hour and 20 minutes. 20 minutes book.
Of what did.
30:08
Oh, I forgot to check his asshole, that’s what he was.
Saying one thing that did make me laugh, though, is that, you know, obviously this the woman that’s investigating Miles is, you know, she’s supposed to be this really great debunker.
30:24
Like she’s a professor and she’s made a career out of, but you know, kind of doing what Harry, what Houdini did right, who he would sit down and just basically watch somebody’s who’s supposedly spoke to the paranormal and then he would debunk it and just say no, they had strings or, you know, they were, you know, using some vocals or something like that.
30:50
And that’s what she does.
She’s supposed to be really good at it.
And then when they get Miles in, she basically does 1 little strip search on Miles and calls it a day.
Like I looked in his butt and my finger in his mouth.
It’s.
It’s Simon, not Miles.
Oh.
Simon, I’m sorry, Yes.
31:05
Miles is the is the dead son of leukemia.
Jesus.
So she sully that bored child’s.
But she, she basically does a very like slap a haphazard investigation right of the of what Simon’s doing.
31:25
And it just made me laugh because like there was so much ridiculous involved set up for him.
Like I came in early the day before I paid a guy, the electrician to cut the lights.
I, I had to go into the room that you put me in and then, you know, draw all over it with the this special chemical before you asked me to come in the next day.
31:44
And then I sprayed ammonia all over it, which just like you would be able to smell the ammonia.
So like, I guess they were just kind of like, maybe he pissed himself, you know, like.
Well, not only that, it’s like, oh, there’s cat, Cat pissed.
Yeah, a cat pissed.
I just thought it was real, like funny the way that you know, it is.
32:01
Obviously it’s a nitpick, but it was just funny that she’s like, she’s such a great investigator and like they barely did any investigating whatsoever and we’re like just called it a day.
It’s true, you know, and not.
She’s again, it’s just like, it’s like the she all is.
She just wants to be dead.
32:17
It’s.
True.
Yeah, that is another great thing about this movie too, is it just moves really quickly into like, yeah, they’re fucking first.
It was about her dead son, right?
The dead kid.
She cared about the dead kid, but.
Then listen, I want, I want to know about my dead son, but while you’re doing it, kiss me and fuck me, right?
32:37
Yeah, that always that like make a new.
Make a new miles.
In book in book of blood that felt like out of really out of thin air as well.
But in here it feels even more kind of weird because it’s real.
32:52
The film makes a big point about it being about Miles, right?
It’s like Miles is really the the crux of and and and you can kind of overlook her saying she doesn’t like doesn’t want to investigate him because she has more of a personal attachment now to this.
33:07
So you know, he’s he claims he’s speaking to Miles and so you can kind of overlook that.
But then again, you would think that she wouldn’t want to be involved in any sort of sexual romance with him because first and foremost on her mind is talking to her dead son.
33:22
So it is weird in this movie too, but I’ll let that slide.
I think that the the story overall is pretty good though.
I think they do a really good job with the special effects work when he’s actually becoming the book of blood where she tricks him into, you know, basically doing the same.
33:39
They call it a convocation in this movie.
It’s great.
Great use of word convocation.
You don’t hear that very often in any of these horror movies.
Complication.
You don’t hear that America, period.
That’s that’s like too fancy of a word for like it’s a whole thing.
33:55
Yeah, yeah.
But I think that’s a great scene where he’s, you know, being like stripped, stripped apart and written on and done in a pretty good.
Penis and nipples are ripped off.
Yep I did I did like to these just like scalps randomly like just hairs gone.
34:16
It’s it’s pretty effective scene though.
I think that this story works the best and actually makes the most sense in predicating the idea of books of blood as a whole and probably should have come first.
I think it would be the more the more engaging story to come first too.
34:36
You know, like you don’t want to start off with your like softest and like least compelling story, which I feel is the Jenna story.
So I would have liked to have seen this this story 1st and then maybe move into Jenna.
34:52
But the the thing that really struck me as odd is just the way that the film then transitions back into what they they’re calling the third story, which is Bennett, which is the wrap around story that starts at the beginning of the movie where it follows him.
Basically just it’s almost like trick or treat in the sense that it is trying to bring all three of the stories together and and kind of completely wrap them around into one.
35:20
And so you see these things happening at the same time.
So you see like Bennett is driving and then almost hits Jenna, which you saw in the Jenna story.
And then you see him going to Ravenmore, which ends up being the house where what’s her name Mary is and where the books of blood are Simon.
35:42
And so that that idea is interesting, but at the same time, the structure of it just really didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me why they decided to edit it this way.
What are your thoughts on that?
Say that again, sorry.
The the the way that they decided to edit this where, you know, again, it’s it’s structured like trick or treat in that that all these things are sort of happening together.
36:05
And they kind of bring Bennett together with Simon, Mary and Jenna at the towards the end of the film.
But that the structure of the way they bring that together.
What made me really confused as to why they did it that way.
And I just wondered what you thought.
36:20
Well, it doesn’t work when there’s only three stories and as you said, it’s really more 2 because again, this month the Miles story is, you know, the wrap around like your intro and end.
Bennett.
36:36
Bennett.
Yeah, sorry, but you’re getting names wrong.
Yeah, I know.
Like it’s, I’m fine.
Like, I think you need more like, you know, short stories, like you need Jenna to be half an hour instead of 55 minutes, Have another story.
36:56
So like, you know, there’s more reason for it all to be tied together because, like, it doesn’t feel like, what?
Like, what’s the point?
Like, at the end of the day, like, oh, you know, she got dropped off there, almost got hit by Bennett when they were driving away.
37:14
And it’s again, like, yeah.
Like it doesn’t feel like like what’s the reason to care?
Right.
You’re kind of like, like, why does it matter that they’re all connected together?
It’s it, there’s no reason for it.
37:30
And, and I guess the the reasoning behind it is just that they all are part of the books of blood.
But then I took offense to that because after the Bennett story, it comes back to Jenna again.
And Jenna is not dead.
So she’s not part of the books of blood because the Books of blood makes it clear that only dead people are writing on this, on Simon.
37:50
So like, that doesn’t make sense, period, because at the end of the film, we don’t leave Jenna and she’s dead.
She’s just staring out a window.
And so I did.
I was like, that doesn’t even come together properly, you know?
And it because it because at the end, it kind of ends with Simon and Mary staring off out of like a almost like a Bates Motel, sort of like looking Norman Bates S thing where they’re looking out and she’s she you know, she kind of voices it like where’s the book the blood?
38:22
Who’s?
Going to be next, Where’s Vera Farmigo?
That’s right.
Yeah.
I just didn’t like the way that it kind of jumped between those stories improperly.
It didn’t.
It just didn’t really seem to add to the narrative at all.
And you’re right.
I would have loved to have seen, you know, obviously in a truncated version, I this movie is already too long at like almost an hour and 50 minutes long.
38:44
But there needed to be another story here that was.
Tied together, Yeah.
Like, like, otherwise it all just feels like happenstance.
Like, it doesn’t, it doesn’t feel like, oh, they’re all connected to the books of blood because they’re all, you know, dying on this night.
39:02
And there’s stories being told.
It’s more just like.
Yeah, OK.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, exactly that at the end of.
Call.
That’s pretty.
Much how I felt when the movie ended, I think I literally just said that at the end of the movie I was like, OK, like just kind of like you don’t really want to leave your viewer with that at the end of the film, you know, I don’t know, it just it just feels like.
39:24
And then not only that, but I think it’s funny that the film seems to have the Mary and Simon story is jumped back in time because when we see Mary now in the contemporary version where Bennett runs into her, she’s got white hair, you know, like she’s she’s aged 15 years and so.
39:44
When you take a Dick at that gun, I.
Guess so, I guess.
Makes you feel like an old lady, like you’re ready to settle down.
Yeah, yeah.
I just, I don’t know, just the way that it went together for me just did not work very well.
I, I wish there was less of the Jenna story and that there was an additional story added on here.
40:04
I feel like that would have been like, that’s the, the common thing for anthology movies too, is to not until like have like 4 stories, I want to say, you know, a wrap around and then three that make up your 90 minute movie.
40:20
You know, that’s kind of the.
Regular way to structure an anthology.
The the only one that I can think of that’s really weird like that and only has 2 is the 2 evil Eyes, which we’ve done as well, which had the Dario Agento story, you know, and, and and the George Romero story and, and they did that where they just basically split it in two.
40:43
Other than that, most anthology films are at least four stories.
This one feels strange.
Calling it in the anthology is very, you know, forgiving.
Yeah, yeah, I would say so.
You know.
What else?
41:02
What else didn’t I cover?
How’d you like that Dodge Challenger that they were driving around at night?
The zooming, zooming through the town, actually, that wasn’t kind of a cool shot.
I don’t know if it’s CGI or not or whatever, but the shot of the Dodge Challenger and they kind of zoom out drone shot of the showing the whole city as they drive through basically a straight away down into where this Raven.
41:30
What is it called?
Raven Raven Ravenmore.
Ravenmore straight out of PO right there where they drive to Ravenmore and Ravenmore is just covered in like a gigantic thundercloud.
It’s.
I love to, I, I love to that.
The idea is like, no one’s like, what’s up with that?
41:50
Yeah, they’re like.
No, no one’s like, you know, And within the whole world, it’s like, you know, like we got like, what the fuck’s going on there?
There’s like, Oh yeah, it’s creepy.
Yeah, we’re like, we’re like, where are we?
Are we like in Salem or something?
42:06
There’s a coffee shop called like the Spider’s Web where it’s literally just structured around Spider.
And it’s a, it’s a web cafe because it’s got the, you know, Bluetooth.
No one who who in 2020 is going to the casino.
42:22
Isn’t that?
Isn’t that weird?
Is that?
Even isn’t, is that even still a thing?
Like an Internet.
Cafe.
I have no idea.
Maybe it can, you know, like, but I I found I thought it was really funny.
It’s just like this.
The film is kind of structure around this like Starbucksian type cafe and it’s.
42:39
Like, you know, it’s millennial run because they got like little sign out front and it’s like our coffee runs on legs.
Yeah, like 8 of them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I just, I thought it was, you know, another funny touch to this movie where it was like, we can’t touch any, you know, any trademarked name.
43:00
You know, we can’t have a kayak as the hotel, you know, or Trivago or anything.
But well, but they have a Mercedes, a Volvo, a Jeep.
They got like every car badge in there.
They just couldn’t get, you know?
We have to.
43:16
We have to call it Go and Sleep.
You know what somebody should create it happen now like.
I know, I just I actually just looked it up just to see if there was a website and it’s not no Oh, the one of the other things that I love when you see those manufactured websites is when she clicks the book now.
43:37
It looks like a video of like a unnatural mouse movement, like a literally straight line to the book now and click where you can tell like that’s not a real user.
A real user fucks my mouse.
There it is.
43:52
OK, I click on it all right.
It’s just funny.
I I really like the when the inclusion of that stuff in movies because it’s so I don’t know, it takes me out of the movie for sure.
It’s, it’s, it’s a little gentle kiss, little gentle kiss that you’d press on like when you press something like, you know.
44:12
That’s right.
What else?
What else?
How did you like male ass?
Though you do get to see a lot of Simon’s ass in this.
Yeah, loved, loved it.
I think you’ll there is a little part where you can see his scrope, you know, in between his butt cheeks when he’s standing around.
44:29
But yeah, he’s not my pretty boy.
He’s hairless.
He’s.
Yes, that’s true.
He’s.
Like fucking like a swimmer like.
He’s gone through laser hair removal and you know, he’s he’s, he’s a aerodynamic.
44:45
Is that good?
Do you?
Feel Do you feel admiration for the Alcoholics that just sit there with a bottle of vodka understanding they’re able to just fucking pound it like they’re drinking up?
Yeah, I some I.
Really see that in movies?
You know?
A good example we brought up is in H2O, Halloween H2O, where Jamie Lee Curtis is just pounding vodka straight, which is something that I feel like you just don’t see that often.
45:10
You know, people generally I feel like are not just going raw dog on the vodka.
But yeah, it’s, it’s something like apparently in movies, I don’t know if it’s meant to signify like I couldn’t be bothered with anything else.
So I just fucking grab the vodka, you know, because grab.
45:27
Grab this bottle Mr. Boston.
Cheap and sad thing.
It’s yeah.
It’s funny because I was recently watching the movie Weapons as well, which came out recent like last year.
And she also goes ham on the vodka as well.
45:43
And it’s like again, yeah.
It seems like a laziness thing of like, yeah, I’m always going to have vodka in the house because it’s a good mixer.
So it’s just what I’ve got.
So I’m going to drink it.
You know, maybe that’s what they do.
But yeah, I don’t, I don’t condone straight up vodka most of the time.
46:02
I’ve heard if you have a really good vodka, it’s you know, it can be good, but.
You know what I’m sure they say that about just like every fucking if you.
Have a good anything?
It can be good straight but but generally vodka straight.
46:19
No, not for me.
If I want a potato, I’m going to have a potato.
Nice baked potato.
Imagine if they made a vodka that was, you know, baked, like cannibalizing.
Well, I was going to say, well, just because they got, you know, yeah, like the cotton can’t like all the different flavour vodkas and liquors now, Like, here’s one.
46:40
It’s baked potato flavour.
It’s got cherry cheese, sour cream, bacon.
Right.
Green onions like oh.
Potato vodka.
Let’s see, what else, what else I would say.
I would talk about the soundtrack, but there’s really not that much to to discuss.
46:57
I think it’s kind of just there.
I like I like the dark rock music.
Oh, the man.
I think it’s Marilyn Manson maybe.
Well, at the end, but I mean I’m talking about when they’re, I don’t know if you watched it with subtitles like I did the Hulu subtitles, like when it was in the opening with Bennett and his buddy in the car and the music was playing on the radio.
47:16
Dan, Dan, Dan Daryl, like the subtitle was for dark rock music.
I was thinking like oh fuck is that dark rock?
Music.
Yeah, I did have the subtitles on.
It said something similar.
I feel like mine’s just said Hard Rock but.
47:32
Yeah, Hard Rock would make sense.
But like, you know, like, yeah, poor deaf people are sitting there going like, oh, is that a new genre of music?
Dark Rock.
That’s true.
They confused.
They confused them.
They’re like trying to wreck, wrap their head around like, what does that mean?
47:51
Yeah.
What’s Lite Rock?
Yeah, you know, it is fun.
It is funny that it ends like the end credits.
Do you end with Marilyn Manson song because this movie does give like 20 twenties, you know late twenty 10s vibes of like how house on Haunted hill.
48:11
Like, you know, yeah, I can see.
That at times, you know, so like, you know, really sticking into the yeah, at at.
Times it does have that.
I feel like maybe it’s a little bit more refined than that, but no.
Definitely.
No, it definitely is.
I mean, it’s refined by the fact there’s no Chris Katan in it.
48:29
Yeah, but like it does like, you know, it does kind of have that vibe every now and then.
How?
How did you like, where, where did you feel about that inclusion towards the end where they actually go into detail about what happened to Tony, you know, Jenna’s boyfriend and they literally show the full, you know, discussion that they had on the phone about, you know, her basically talking him into suicide.
48:56
What?
How did you feel about that?
I mean, it’s I I do like it because it’s again, like it’s building up the entire time.
This idea, something happened between her and her boyfriend to college.
49:14
It was terrible.
It was awful.
And can’t speak about it.
That’s why she’s on meds.
It makes you think like, oh, she was like her boyfriend raped her, beat her, like, you know, the traditional college things.
And then like to get by the end to find out like she was like, yeah, no, we’re both just so not listing me and like, yeah, both throw ourselves off a fucking roof.
49:35
But you know what, You’re already out there.
You know, you fucking do it, you pussy.
And you know, a lot like, you know, I think that’s, you know, because it, you know, like, hey, she’s a piece of shit.
I honestly felt like it would have been better if they hadn’t have gone into exact like the full detail of showing it because I, I think it’s implied enough that that’s what she did without it needing to be explicitly stated in a scene.
50:07
That was my feeling of it.
I, I, I felt like I had already, I already had that inclination that that was what happened, that they blamed her for his suicide.
And I didn’t really need more than that.
I just, I, whether I feel like whether or not it actually was her fault should really be left as a question.
50:24
And you know that’s I.
Think you’re you picked up more than I did on that because you have this tendency to think women are the dead that’s true you you know you I immediately.
Jumped to it.
You were like.
She fucking until they give me evidence otherwise you’re like guilty.
50:43
It’s always her.
Yeah, no, I just, I had that feeling and I, I feel like to me, even if they were to give it maybe a little bit more explicitness, I feel like we don’t need to see the whole scene.
And I would rather have them just implied that she, she may have caused the suicide.
51:05
And I think that’s good enough because what it ends up doing is, you know, forcing you to, again, question whether she’s just being hard on herself or whether she really is that cruel, right?
And.
But at the same time, it’s kind of like I, I I agree, ambiguity is always a better thing.
51:24
But at the same time, like the way it ends with her, you know, going back to the Lucas farm to be, you know, turned into, you know, a zombie, you know, I mean, on her, on her own volition, like, like you can’t really, you know, do that if you’re probably not that explicit because otherwise.
51:51
True, I mean.
It would it would, it would just seem like, you know, And what the hell is she doing?
I guess that again makes it seem like, well, like it depends on how effective you feel like that that scene is too of her going back and basically saying I want to see no evil.
I want to hear no evil, you know, and, and really harkening on that, the factor that she’s been covering her ears with the headphones the whole time, right?
52:14
Like in and that becomes the main crux of it is that she decides she doesn’t want to hear anymore.
She doesn’t want to see anymore.
I think that that’s a little bit overwrought in my opinion.
I think it’s like, you know, Oh yeah, that sounds great.
Let’s cut off your eye, cut out your ears and cut off your cut off your ears and cut out your eyes and put you in a small little like place where you can just like live off of a little bit of tea or something that the woman likes to give you every now and then.
52:44
It feels overwrought to me, really.
I didn’t really care for it.
I feel like it’s, you know, kind of goofy.
But but to each their own.
If if you do end up like that, I guess you do need that, that that feeling of guilt, the overarching feeling of guilt that you get from that last scene to really make that to sell that, you know, if if you if you like that sort of thing.
53:06
I didn’t really care what else, anything else that we didn’t talk about.
I think that the one thing, you know, that that scene with the the kid in the hospital with leukemia, it’s pretty effective.
53:22
I think that was done pretty well.
You know, that again, that could be another place where you get really overwrought.
But I think that was done in a good way to sort of, you know, set the tone, set, you know, the sadness and the the grief that she’s feeling.
53:37
So I like that thought that that they did a pretty good job of that.
That’s about it.
I I think that’s about it for the movie.
Again, would have liked to have seen more stories.
I think it would have just added to the overall impact of the the film.
53:56
But you know.
Would you would you like to know something that the lady who played Ella Frida Foshan?
OK.
You know, that’s the lady who’s George Lucas’s wife.
And yes.
54:14
One of her acting credits.
Sure.
What do we got?
She’s the Chinese food lady voice and dude, where’s my car, ah.
There you are, all right, And she’s off.
And then?
She’s in Mulan.
Well, no one will recognize I got in an argument at work before over Mulan.
54:36
OK.
Wow.
Because they were saying, call it like, because they were saying like somebody was like the Hans.
And I was like, they’re not Hans.
And like, well, the same one that they’re Hans, like, you know, I’m like, no, they were the Mongols, not the Hans.
Hans didn’t go out into China.
54:52
And there was a big argument.
I’m like, I know what the song says.
Oh wow.
But they weren’t.
Yet.
It came like a three hour argument.
Came to blows.
Yes, it did, you know.
A nice, nice.
All right, so we got.
To now we got to do do is my car.
55:09
Yeah, at some point, yeah.
Saw that in theaters way back when.
Wow, really?
Time ago, Yeah.
Who let you like?
Can’t remember where I went with I.
Can’t believe.
I can’t believe your parents would let.
You.
Yeah, I went to see that way back.
55:26
All right, so we got to rate Books of blood.
So on a scale of zero to 10 misunderstood cockroaches, what would you give books of blood I’m.
Going to surprise you.
OK.
Surprise everybody.
OK, sick.
55:42
I’m going to give it a 6 1/2 out of 10.
I don’t think it’s that bad.
Like, it has his problems, yes, narratively it’s awkward and like some of the pacing and ideas don’t come fully to fruition when should be realized as an anthology.
56:00
But overall I do think it’s entertaining and I did, I wasn’t bored by it.
I thought it’s a pretty good effort, especially considering the dreck and you know, shit we’ve been watching, you know, with Clive’s name attached to it.
56:17
So it’s coherent enough.
It’s engaging.
The effects for ATV film are decent and not bad.
Like it’s like it’s like we talked about a lot about the problems with the film and there are problems with the narrative itself and how it’s structured.
56:37
But overall I don’t think it’s like like looking at Wikipedia like it’s got like a four or two like great ion that I don’t understand.
Like you obviously haven’t seen other quiet Barker’s shit.
So or you’re just giving it like review bombing it because like, yeah, I don’t think it’s that bad. 6 1/2 out of 10, I think I think it’s good enough.
57:00
Like I like would I recommend it?
Like no, but I would say like if you’re looking for something Clyde Barker related and you haven’t seen, check it out.
Like it’s safe.
It’s a above average anthology.
It’s fine enough.
57:16
It does what it needs to do, gets in, gets out, and there you go.
I’m going to give.
This a 5 1/2 out of 10.
I think that it is OK.
It’s that it’s it’s it’s good enough like it does it does enough to kind of elevate it from some of the other things.
57:33
And it certainly looks a lot better and plays a lot better than, you know, it’s other brethren Book of blood.
I think that the the overall structure of the movie is problematic.
I definitely would not have started the movie with Jenna because I do think it is a rather, in my opinion, is sort of a boring movie that’s a little bit, you know, good generic, a little derivative of stuff like people under the stairs.
58:04
It, it kind of wears its inspiration on its sleeve a little too much.
And, and I found it to be just a little too slow to start off the movie.
It does get a little bit better as it kind of gets into it.
And you know, after you start, you know, get through all the conversation about like the tea, the tea drying and all that stuff.
58:23
Like I pick my teas and and I don’t like weeds and I I want my family to stay under the same roof, but.
I have bodies here.
What?
Nothing, sweetie.
Yeah, never you mind.
58:38
I just have some more camel mule.
I just felt like that that story was way too long in the scheme of the full the overalls movie and it kind of took away.
And I and I really actually like the story that’s titled Miles, which is essentially the same as the Book of Blood movie, but just shortened and kind of given a little bit more emotion and heft to it and and a little bit more violence as well.
59:03
And truncated and off to where it feels like it is a stand alone story that you know exists at a an adequate runtime.
Another problem that I have is just like I I do feel like it’s missing a story needs another one to really tie this together.
I don’t think that the whole wrap around of it all happening at the same time is necessary or even makes sense in the scheme of things.
59:26
Like when it ends in Jenna’s still alive.
That’s doesn’t really make sense in the scope of the books of Blood.
So I I feel like my whole my issue with it is more structural.
It’s fine enough, it’s entertaining enough.
I think it does a pretty good job of not like overusing CGI too much.
59:44
Obviously has a little bit, but not not terrible.
And it definitely has enough production value to make it, you know, a fairly good looking and solid movie that obviously looks like it was made with a, you know, like a streaming service.
1:00:00
They all kind of have the same general look to them, and this definitely has it.
So it’s, it’s fine enough.
I I wouldn’t say like don’t watch it, but for me it was kind of middling and I definitely, you know, probably would not come back to it.
So 5 1/2 up for me.
1:00:19
And I did look and I think I gave Book of Blood like a 4 1/2 or A5 S.
We’re safe there.
I didn’t, I didn’t cross over my, my ratings because I, I, it’s all arbitrary on the day.
So I don’t really exactly put a lot of value into the number that I give a movie.
1:00:38
OK, so that’s Books of Blood.
We will be back again next week for our last episode of Bobbing for Barker, But we might have a bonus in here in between.
I don’t know.
We’ll see what happens, but yeah, our last actual episode of Bobbing for Barker will be next week.
1:00:59
It will drop just before Halloween.
So definitely keep an eye out for that.
And if you like what you’re hearing, you should definitely subscribe to us on any podcast app that you can think of.
I’m sure we’re on it.
Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, our home base at Spotify, whatever you use, just like and subscribe and leave us a nice review that always helps us out.
1:01:22
We also have a Facebook and Blue Sky account where you can search for us on there.
You know, tweet us or whatever you do on those.
I don’t use that often, but we’re there.
And you can also write to us on our e-mail address at [email protected].
Or you can let us know what you like, what you don’t like, what movies you want us to watch.
1:01:39
Take that into consideration.
You can donate to us on our Patreon page.
Anything you donate goes back towards beer.
So we appreciate that in advance.
And again, yeah, stay tuned for the last of our Bobbing for Barker episodes.
And then we’ll move into probably a couple episodes of just normal stuff, maybe a Thanksgiving episode, and then we start our Christmas stuff.
1:02:00
So.
I wonder what it’s going to be.
Yeah.
What’s our last episode going to be?
I don’t know.
When you think about the films that we’ve already covered for Barker, it doesn’t leave much else that we haven’t done.
So I think it should be pretty obvious.
1:02:18
But but yeah, we also might have a bonus episode in there.
I do want to get that in there, just like a nice little short bonus for you to to really close out bobbing for Barker.
So that that would be cool.
So thanks for listening to us.
1:02:35
Hope you enjoyed and we’ll see you back next time for another Bobbing for Barker.
Until then, take care.
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