Just around the time I'd finished devouring every Stephen King paperback known to man, a friend of mine asked me if I'd read "Clive Barker's Books of Blood" yet. I said "no." (This was over 20 years ago, so don't get all crazy on me, horror freaks.) My next trip to the local book store sent me home whistling a happy tune with all three editions of the Books of Blood tucked beneath my arm. (I've since graduated to this omnibus edition.) And to say I loved these slick, sick, twisted little terror stories would be an understatement on par with "Halloween is a good movie."

(For the record, in the U.S. the "Books" are known as Books of Blood Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, The Inhuman Condition, In the Flesh and Cabal. So now you know how to track 'em down. Previous films based on some of these short stories include Rawhead Rex (from a Volume 3 tale), Candyman, which is based on a story from Vol. 5 called "The Forbidden," and Nightbreed, which came from the title tale in Vol. 6. The classic Hellraiser sprang not from the Books of Blood series, but from a standalone novel called The Hellbound Heart. The upcoming Midnight Meat Train is based on a story from Volume 1 -- and it's one seriously nasty story, believe me. Lastly, my very favorite "BoB" story is one called "In the Hills, the Cities," and if you've ever read it, then you know why you could never make a movie out of it. Darnit.)

Anyway, all that geek blather poured out so I could share some news from ShockTillYouDrop.com (a fine new horror site with a really goofy name), and that news is this: Looks like the company behind Meat Train is planning to unleash a whole bunch of Books of Blood adaptations over the next few years. The next two on the docket look to be "The Book of Blood" and "Pig Blood Blues," both of which can be found in Volume 1 -- and yes there are some stories in that book that don't have the word "blood" in the title. But like Mr. Barker says: "Everyone's a book of blood; whenever we're opened we're red."

Pig Blood Blues should be the next flick to hit production, and writer/producer Anthony DiBlasi is having some fun with the adaptation: "It has this amazing 'Lord of the Flies' element with all these boys trapped together and this evil entity is stuck in there with them. Where the short story just touches on the supernatural element, I focused a lot on making it a ghost story. But keeping the pig, of course." I guess you guys will just have to read the story to find out what the heck Tony's talking about.

By the way, FEARnet recently posted the first on-set pic from Midnight Meat Train, so feel free to check that out if you love all this creepy stuff.

Tags: books of blood, BooksOfBlood, clive barker, CliveBarker, midnight meat train, MidnightMeatTrain, movies, pig blood blues, PigBloodBlues, the book of blood, TheBookOfBlood