If you’re like most people, you’ve probably had a childhood experience with terror that has accompanied you throughout life. When I was growing up, the girl across the street from me spent hours crying and puking after deciding to watch Children of the Corn by herself one night. It was a brave decision which won her both my admiration, and a lifetime of nightmares haunted by Isaac.

My most vivid memory of terror — a true terror which made me physically sick with dread — was reading Clive Barker’s Books of Blood when I was way too young. The Books of Blood are a collection of short stories and by the time I was done with the second one (Midnight Meat Train), I had been changed forever, precious childhood innocence stripped. Never before had I even entertained the idea of such evil.

And now The Book of Blood is a film, coming to BluRay and DVD on September 22nd. It joins two stories out of the book, and the trailer looks genuinely scary:

Still it’s straight-to-video, and that’s almost always a guarantee of shittiness.

Clive Barker hasn’t really been done right by Hollywood, excepting (perhaps) for Hellraiser. Here’s hoping this project turns out to be a surprise.

Update: I didn’t realize that the story which robbed my childhood innocence had also been made into a movie. I don’t know if I can bring myself to watch it.