Clive Barker made his name with the Books of Blood, a collection of short stories that, thanks to Stephen King’s endorsement, injected more body consciousness and gay sex into mainstream horror than it was (perhaps) ready to deal with.

Now that we’re in the midst of a mini-Clive Barker revival I’m not shocked that someone has decided to adapt a series of tales from the Books; the only thing that surprises me is that we’re already seeing actual still images from the first, Clive Barker’s Book of Blood.

Matador Films recently announced that it would begin a series of page to film adaptations with Book of Blood, the story that opens the several volume collection of horror fiction. In it, paranormal researcher Mary Florescu’s investigations lead her to Simon McNeal, a college student who appears to be channelling messages from the dead. As their erotic relationship develops the line between the worlds of the living and the dead become blurred and finally collapse in a stunning and astonishing climax.

That’s Matador’s descripton. Not The Matador’s, though going forward I encourage all production companies to feature capsule film descriptions written by Pierce Brosnan. What the blurb doesn’t mention is that part of the strory involves gory writing on the human body, which is where the other Books of Blood come from.

In the literary world, it’s all oh so literal, see? How else would horror fic be taken seriously?

With Matador hoping to sell territory rights at the Berlin Int’l Film Festival, there’s already a teaser poster and pair of stills floating around the interwebs. Shock Til You Drop has the largest version of the poster, while Matador’s own site is hosting two tiny little stills. I can forgive the miniscule file size since one image features a woman holding a large, slack chunk of human skin. Finally, someone is following up on the Hellraiser legacy, at least superficially.