Genre film specialists Raven Banner have announced that they have optioned Clive Barker’s short story JACQUELINE ESS: HER WILL AND TESTAMENT for adaptation into a film.

The story follows a housewife who, when recovering from a suicide attempt, discovers she has the ability to reshape human flesh, equally able to induce agonising death or sexual euphoria with nothing but thought. She becomes a prostitute specialising in delivering erotic rapture, and despite encounters with her being invariable fatal, she attracts a clientele of men who want to go out in the most elated way possible.

The world of horror is no stranger to adaptations of Clive Barker stories, with films ranging from the classic (HELLRAISER; CANDYMAN) and the good (LORD OF ILLUSIONS; THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN) to the underrated (NIGHTBREED), the mediocre (THE BOOK OF BLOOD; DREAD) and the dire (RAWHEAD REX) having popped with relative consistency over the last 30 years or so.

Published in volume two of Barker’s six-part story collection THE BOOKS OF BLOOD, JACQUELINE ESS is a prime example of the author’s fascination with human sexuality and its inherent mutability, and how the laws of the supernatural can be used to both explore and enhance it.

The film is expected to go into production in the autumn.

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