Honestly, whenever someone mentions Clive Barker, your brain probably goes straight to Hellraiser or maybe Candyman if you're feeling that 90s nostalgia. But the 2020 Hulu film took a different swing at his massive legacy. It wasn't just a straight adaptation of one story. It was this weird, interwoven tapestry. If you’ve looked up the books of blood cast, you’ve likely realized that the movie tries to juggle three distinct narratives simultaneously. It’s a lot to keep track of. Brannon Braga, who most people know from Star Trek, directed this thing, and he pulled together a cast that ranges from seasoned character actors to fresh faces who had to do some pretty heavy lifting in the gore department.
It's a strange beast.
The film serves as both a tribute to the original 1980s short story collections and a standalone horror flick. Because the stories "The Book of Blood," "Miles," and "Bennett" all crash into each other, the actors aren't always sharing the screen, which makes the chemistry a bit localized to their specific segments. Let's break down who actually made this nightmare happen.
The Anchors of the Anthology
Britt Robertson is the name most people recognize first. She plays Jenna. If you’ve seen Tomorrowland or Under the Dome, you know she has this "girl next door" energy that works perfectly for horror because she looks genuinely terrified when things go south. In Books of Blood, Jenna is a girl suffering from misophonia—that’s a real condition where certain sounds drive you absolutely insane. Robertson has to play this hypersensitivity while also running away from some pretty dark family trauma. It's a high-wire act. She isn't just a scream queen; she’s portraying a very specific kind of neurodivergence that lends itself to the supernatural scares.
Then there is Anna Friel.
She plays Mary, a psychologist who has built her entire career on debunking "fake" supernatural phenomena. Friel is a powerhouse. You might remember her from Pushing Daisies, which was bright and whimsical, but here she is cold, grieving, and skeptical. Her performance is the glue for the middle segment of the film. She’s dealing with the loss of her son, Miles, and that grief makes her vulnerable to a medium named Simon.
Speaking of Simon, he’s played by Rafi Gavron. You saw him in A Star Is Born as the manager, but here he’s much more oily. He claims he can talk to Mary's dead son. The dynamic between Friel and Gavron is arguably the best part of the movie. It’s a psychological chess match. Is he a con artist? Is he actually hearing the dead? The way Gavron shifts from "sensitive medium" to "terrified victim" is one of the more jarring transitions in the film.
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The Brutal Side of the Books of Blood Cast
We can't talk about the books of blood cast without mentioning Yul Vazquez. He plays Bennett. Now, if you like crime dramas, you’ve seen Vazquez everywhere—The Outsider, Severance, Russian Doll. He has one of those faces that just screams "I’ve seen some things."
In this movie, he’s a professional hitman looking for a priceless book.
His segment feels like a totally different genre at first. It’s a gritty noir. He’s joined by Andy Jordan (played by Freda Foh Shen), and they basically go on a scavenger hunt through a neighborhood that looks like it’s rotting from the inside out. Vazquez brings a level of gravitas that keeps the movie from feeling too much like a "teen scream." He’s old-school. He’s mean. And when he eventually meets the supernatural elements of the story, his reaction is much more grounded than your typical horror protagonist.
- Britt Robertson: Jenna (The girl with the "sound" problem)
- Anna Friel: Mary (The skeptical mother/scientist)
- Rafi Gavron: Simon (The guy who writes on his skin... literally)
- Yul Vazquez: Bennett (The hitman)
- Cory Lee: Chelsea
- Saad Siddiqui: Dan
It's an eclectic group. Most of these actors have deep roots in television, which makes sense given the episodic nature of an anthology film.
Why the Casting Choices Matter for Clive Barker Fans
Barker’s work is famously "unfilmable" according to some critics. His prose is so dense and visceral that it’s hard to capture on camera without it looking silly. The books of blood cast had the difficult job of making the "Book of Blood" concept—where ghosts literally carve their stories into a human being's skin—look painful rather than ridiculous.
Rafi Gavron had to spend hours in the makeup chair for that. Those aren't just special effects; they are practical applications that the actor had to move in. When you see him in the final act, that's not just CGI. It's a grueling physical performance.
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The casting of Anna Friel was also a smart move. In the original short stories, the characters are often quite thin—they exist to be victims of the macabre. But Friel gives Mary a layer of arrogance. She thinks she's smarter than the ghosts. That makes her downfall much more impactful. If she were just a "grieving mom," we’d feel bad for her, but we wouldn't be as engaged in the mystery of whether she's being played.
The Production Reality
Let's be real for a second. This movie had a bit of a rocky reception. Fans of the original 1984 books were annoyed that it wasn't a "pure" adaptation. They wanted "The Midnight Meat Train" levels of gore or the poetic horror of "Lord of Illusions."
But the cast actually saved it for a lot of people.
Even if the script felt a bit disjointed, the performances were solid. Take Freda Foh Shen, for instance. She plays a relatively small role as a partner to the hitman, but her chemistry with Vazquez makes their segment feel like a lived-in world. You believe they’ve been working together for years. That’s hard to do in a movie where you only get 30 minutes of screen time per story.
Making Sense of the Intertwined Stories
The movie tries to pull a Pulp Fiction by having the characters cross paths in ways that aren't immediately obvious. You might see a character from the first story in the background of the third.
The cast had to play these "background" moments with the same intensity as their lead scenes. Nicholas Campbell and Catherine Bruhier also show up in supporting roles that flesh out the world. It’s a "small world" horror vibe. Everything is connected by the idea that the dead want their stories told, and they don't care who they have to hurt to do it.
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If you’re watching this for the first time, keep an eye on the "Book of Blood" itself. It's not a physical book. It's a person. That person is a member of the books of blood cast who has to stay remarkably still while the camera lingers on the "writing" on their flesh. It’s uncomfortable to watch, which is exactly what Barker intended.
Practical Steps for the Horror Completist
If you’ve watched the 2020 film and want to see more of how this cast stacks up against other Barker adaptations, you should probably do a comparison watch.
First, check out the 2009 film Book of Blood (singular). It stars Jonas Armstrong and Sophie Ward. It covers the same "framing story" as the 2020 version but does it with a completely different tone. Comparing Rafi Gavron’s Simon to Jonas Armstrong’s Simon is a masterclass in how different actors interpret "supernatural victimhood."
Next, look into the specific filmography of Yul Vazquez. If you liked his tough-guy-meets-ghosts vibe in this, his work in The Outsider (the Stephen King adaptation) is essentially the spiritual successor to his role here.
Finally, read the source material. The "Books of Blood" volumes 1 through 6 are where all this started. You’ll find that while the 2020 movie took some liberties—like creating the Jenna character almost from scratch—the core "meat" of the stories remains. The cast did what they could with a modern update, but the raw, 80s splatter-punk energy of the books is a different beast entirely.
Watching the film after reading the stories makes you appreciate the actors more. You realize how much "internal" dialogue they had to project through their faces because the movie stripped away Barker’s narration. It’s a tough gig, but this cast handled the blood and the books with a lot of respect.
Actionable Insights for Viewers:
- Watch for cameos: Several actors from the various segments appear as "extras" in other stories to show the timeline is happening simultaneously.
- Research Misophonia: To understand Britt Robertson’s character better, look up how sound triggers can cause physical "fight or flight" responses; it makes her performance much more grounded in reality.
- Compare Adaptations: Watch the 2009 Book of Blood back-to-back with the 2020 Hulu version to see how the "Medium" character has evolved in horror cinema.
- Deep Dive into Vazquez: If the hitman segment was your favorite, follow Yul Vazquez’s work in The Outsider for a more expanded version of that "cynic vs. supernatural" trope.