The Midnight Meat Train

I would like to start off saying, it is a bit upsetting that this movie has been undersold. I went into this movie know a it was based on a short story, but I had not read it nor heard anything about it.

The acting was very good Overall from a semi-star cast. Bradley Cooper did a great job, as did Leslie Bibb. Vinnie Jones did a good job by pulling off the Sphynx-like roll from Gone in 60 Seconds. He was a calm, quiet collected man who just looks like a natural born killer. I was wondering why Brooke Shields name did not come up or was used to sell this movie, but found out she is just a minor roll in the movie. Peter Jacobson (one of the new members of Dr. House) has a small roll in the movie as a bit of comic relief.

The plot line, I am saying this without reading the book, was decent, but there were times I feel the viewer had to make jumps with what was going on. I won't give away anything in the movie, but it just seemed like there were times that a whole scene took place that was a bit unnecessary, though they may have been thrown in as red herons. The movie is rather straight forward and basic, but it is still able to keep you pulled in. I was kept excited throughout the whole movie until the end and the plot twist occurs.

The violence/blood did not seem over the top for what was occurring. Never was there a part that someone spurted massive amount of blood out of a paper cut. The violence was a bit disturbing, and there were a couple dismemberment/decapitation scenes.

After watching this movie, I felt that this could become another gore cult classic with such as Dead or Alive. Also, if this was well publicized and launched in more theaters, I think it would have easily outsold The Happening and The Strangers, the biggest horror flicks of the summer.

Clive Barker's more sanguinary inclinations are paid tribute here through a hulking golem, a malevolent meat merchant in his dapper best, named Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) who smashes, eviscerates and cleaves through unsuspecting commuters on the last train home. Adapted from Barker's seminal anthology, "Books of Blood", the similarly named "The Midnight Meat Train" is more than just an opportunity for some sophomoric snickering over its title but one of Barker's most revered short stories about a supernatural serial killer that ekes out fascination, fear and obsession from a lone photographer, Leon Kaufman (Bradley Cooper) stumbling upon the butcher's late night deliveries.

Director Ryuhei Kitamura (of "Versus" and "Azumi" fame) offers up one of the year's most brutally alluring gore fests in his American debut. With the gritty and detailed hard-edge of early 70s horror films (why, hello there Lucio Fulci!), his flair for CGI augmented visuals and the intense seduction of experimental camera-work in a cinematic environment so increasingly sanitised of actual visceral terror, Kitamura refreshes the genre's ability to unsettle and provoke audiences and jolt jaded horror enthusiasts out of their PG-13 apathy.

Kitamura works with a modest but shrewd sense of space in the decaying subway, the claustrophobic train and the creeping gloom of the city. There's a certain simpatico between Barker's distinctive tone and Kitamura's balls-to-the-wall film-making that compliments each other to the benefit of the film's atmospheric resilience. The unvarnished horrors cooked down deep in the gallows of the tunnels, plunged into darkness form the basis of Kaufman's terrible fixation on the disappearing passengers and that indescribably malicious man who stalks the shadows. Mahogany is the film's myth, the legend of The Butcher. Prepossessing the exactitude of traits essential to the character, Jones has the nasty glint in the eye, the mysterious swagger of indestructibility and the imperative of consuming evil, as well as having the benefit of looking like the quiet guy in the corner of the bar who could take out an entire gang of hoodlums without spilling his drink.

Kitamura's modulation of the material's emotional stakes and his slow-burn style of ratcheting up tension gives the story further layers to plunge into, not withstanding Cooper's unlikely presence as the film's corruptible protagonist. Jeff Buhler's screenplay from Barker's 25-year-old story is uneven at times but keeps an atmospheric dread of hopelessness. Supporting characters include Kaufman's wife (Leslie Bibb), a counterpoint to the man's wavering sanity and a threadbare characterisation of his good-humoured pal Jurgis (Roger Bart) who stands to represent Kaufman's humanity. But even if these emotional contrasts don't work, the film itself is a tidy and effective meta-slasher that resonates beyond corporeal carnage. Kitamura's subtextual ingenuity is shown through macabre imagery of animal carcasses hanging off meat hooks as Mahogany tenderises, disembowels and stores his victims just like the morsels of flesh they are.

Clive Barker's fantastical and mad blend of visceral shocks and profoundly unsettling explorations of worlds coexisting and buried deep within the one we think we understand has become an important component of our contemporary literary and filmic universes. While "The Midnight Meat Train" never hits the spasms of metaphysical despairs in "Hellraiser" or the diabolical mind-warps of "Candyman", this is forthright horror – simple, powerful and unadulterated.

There's something deeply disturbing about the 'show biz' politics and intrigues that managed to exile such a well made film to the 'dollar theaters'. On the other hand, horror purists of all calibre will probably get a kick out of seeing the visceral shocks and convoluted twists Riuhei Kitamura and Clibe Barker have prepared for our enjoyment in the environment of a seedy, rundown theater. If the disturbed denizens of 42nd Street have all but disappeared, scared away by the gloss and glitz of the cineplex and the popcorn munching crowd that inhabits it, perhaps the final bastion of grindhouse cinema can be found in watching a brutal, bloody shock horror film in an empty theater with row upon row of sticky floor and no one but a handful of genre enthusiasts there with you.

There's also something deeply disturbing about the mentality of the movie-watching public. That a, by the look of it, worse sequel (and I'll be surprised if it's any better than its predecessors) will gross more than MMT, simply because of a household franchise name, a shot of a tape player and someone musing off screen "I want to play a game...", seems to confirm UK grinders Napalm Death motto "the public gets what the public doesn't want".

That's not to say that MMT is an excellent horror flick. No, far from it. But it does exactly what it says on the tin and then some. If the pace slackens a bit after the balls-to-the-wall pummeling that is the first half hour, it is salvaged by Kitamura's (intentional or not) decision to channel the dark, neon-noir of David Fincher.

If the CGI blood is a sign of things to come in the field of mainstream American horror or a leftover from Kitamura's days in Japan, that's for him to know. What Kitamura brings in his cinematic baggage however is his distinct stylistic hallmarks - when the camera repeatedly spins around a train wagon in motion, one will be hard pressed not to recall a similar rotating camera trick from AZUMI. A long overhead crane shot seems to combine the off-kilter axis games of Argento with Tarantino's now-famous crane shot in KILL BILL.

If some people complain that the editing and style appear to be too music video-ish, I will respectfully disagree and point them in the direction of such atrocities as DOOMSDAY and HELL RIDE. Kitamura at least understands rhythm.

The 'novelty' of staging a slasher in a subway train is what gives MMT the first push. The other is the inspired casting choice of having Vinnie "Mean Machine" Jones in the role of the baddie. The third is the distinctly Clive Barker-ish twist that ends the film - not exactly my cup but that's because my sensibilities are totally different from Barker's.

MMT might never quite reach its full potential story-wise, but it's fast-paced and brutal, exactly what the title promises. 7.5/10

A frustrated photographer named Leon (Bradley Cooper) is assigned by ambitious owner of art gallery named Susan (Brooke Shields) asks him to improve the quality his pictures.Leon neglects his waitress fiancée (Leslie Bibb) and roams the undergrounds at night in search of something rare and actual. Then he finds a strange and silent meat-packer (Vinnie Jones) at the last midnight train. After that, Leon goes to the Police precinct but the Detective Hadley(Barbara Eve Harris) doesn't believe him.

This frightening movie displays terror, shocks, hard-edged drama , and creepy images . While the look is suitable atmospheric and eerie, the argument stretches plausibility to the breaking point. This is an acceptable Clive Baker adaptation of the short novel with same title. The picture is full of suspense,thrills, mystery, and lots of blood and gore .This slick gore-feast is a triumph of style over movie logic. It's packed with overwhelming body count, excessive gore, grotesque killing, and rivers of red blood. The picture is smartly designed ,stylishly photographed filming in shades and lights . It packs,tension,suspense,chills,horror and lot of blood and gore including slitting the throat,attempted rage, slicing ,stabbing, all courtesy of excellent craftsmen. They create a creepy make-up of horrible and bloody images. The gutsy murders are gruesomely executed and equally are ghastly graphic .The film is constituted by some well done horror set pieces with creepy and spooky atmosphere.The butcher-murderer appearance deliver the goods with hair raising chills, full scares and scary frames.The story is borrowing from the original short story by Clive Baker who has several cinematic adaptations, as ¨Nightbreed¨, ¨Lord of illusions¨, ¨Hellraiser¨ and ¨Candyman¨ with their uncountable sequels. Thrilling musical score with frightening sounds and appropriate cinematography with dark atmosphere by cameraman Jonathan Sela. The motion picture is skillfully directed by Kitamura. Rating : Acceptable and passable Clive Baker rendition that will appeal his followers.

A great movie i must say. Its been a long time there comes a movie that hits you in head. I mean literally. This is perhaps the most under-rated horror movies of the 2008. The reason might be the gruesome violence and the nature of it. Surely this is not for the faint of heart. The movie has a great storyline and the more you see you more you are involved within and you have to see the ending. I won;t comment much on the story. You have to see it to believe it. But i will say that it is not to be missed. and trust me you will think twice travelling in subway at midnight after watching this great piece of horror genre.