The Midnight Meat Train (2008) User Reviews (359)

"Please...step away from the meat" Spoilers!

[Anyanwu · 5/10 · 16 August 2008]

That was the funniest line in the movie, and sadly the movie is just OK. I was upset when I heard that Lions Gate was going to dump this flick on DVD. I even wrote Joe Drake an email pleading that it get a regular release. (he's probably laughing at me right now) I stood in line with a butt load of folks to see the midnight screening last night at the Nuart in Los Angeles. I stood next to the director. I was standing near the writer too (who seemed either drunk or stoned when he first walked in, but then, maybe that's just how he is on the regular). I was excited. This was the one time it would play in a theater near me.

I saw it.

A couple of problems for me.

1. Pacing. There seemed to be scenes that slowed the story down and derailed the momentum. I wanted to feel like the protagonist was spiraling into a world that he should not have knowledge of, and yet he is drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Perhaps more editing. Especially the love scenes.

2. The Girlfriend. Men, please stop making women in your movies cliché, shrill and annoying. There were forced love scenes and quite frankly, the actress added to the slow pacing. She should've been proactive and supportive of the leads journey into hell. And do we need to see women falling down while running away YET AGAIN?! Conflict is essential in a story, but it should be natural conflict that pushes the story forward, not contrived and coming off as nagging. Every time she came on screen I just waited for her to get off screen to get our guy back into the story. Side note, I thought Brooke Shields should've been the chick. She was great. Cold. Calculating. The type that would push her man further into the pit. That's the woman the lead needed, and he got the stereotypical girly-girl. Boo!!!! 3. The Butcher. He was creepy, but I felt that we shouldn't have seen him fully until halfway through the movie. The scary moments in any film is the fear of not knowing. In this movie we got glimpses of the Butcher, creating tension and fear for Kaufman. But soon after we see him fully as a regular human who kills people, it moved from horror into a slasher-suspense movie. It should've been more than that. The supernatural element should've been pushed more with The Butcher. The short story presented something epic and ancient in scope. The Butcher was a necessary job that had to be done to keep The City running. Once the film became a simple slasher-gore fest (which is not bad in any movie as long as the story works with it and we care about the leads), the Butcher just became a run-of-the-mill serial killer, no different than Jason, Michael Meyers or Freddy Fruger. Those guys did their killings for revenge. The Butcher has to kill to keep order in the human world. Just like ancient Greeks and Romans and other cultures that made human sacrifices to appease the Gods, an offering if you will.

That was the reveal in the short story. In the movie, he just kills for some nasty monsters we barely see at the end. Bad! The Butcher had noble work to do. Nasty work yes, (like any butcher in real life who kills the meat for society to consume. Most people eat burgers and steaks without thinking about what has to be done to the animals that provide that great meal. Please, go visit a slaughterhouse.)but it must be done for the rest of us to survive. This movie missed that point at the end.

4. Some of the kill sequences were just there to see how cool the CGI effects could be done. It stopped being scary to becoming typical Eli Roth/Saw 3-5 schlock. How many cool ways can we kill a person? Horror, to me anyway, should be horrific, not funny. Once it becomes funny at the expense of not really scaring people, then you've lost me. Granted, one of the funniest lines in the movie was when the subway train conductor tells Kaufman (after the train has ended its run) "Please, step away from the meat." The humor is surreal and it works at that moment because of the banality of the line. The conductor could've been saying, "Please step away from the ramp/shoe/dog etc". The conductor has a job to do, and so does the Butcher, so please step away from our work. Classic.

All that said, the movie is a mixed bag. I'd be curious to see what Clive Barker had to say. The film looks great, nice atmosphere, set design etc. I might've recast the two leads, but I'm glad I got to see it in a theater. I had the opportunity to get a real movie experience with the film.

Just Didn't Work for Me

[FilmFatale · 5/10 · 30 October 2008]

"Midnight Meat Train" is the story of a photographer who wants to capture the real heart of New York City. A chance encounter with a model who's being threatened by some toughs in a subway station leads to his discovery and eventual obsession with what appears to be a serial killer who finds his victims on the late-night trains.

I know this one has its fans, and MMT had its moments, with some refreshing gore. However, it just didn't work for me on any level. The leads were bland and I never cared about them. The pacing was off and never gave me any sense of dread - people just stumbled around, got on the subway, got killed, the photographer started to watch, go crazy, then solve the mystery. And there were too many ridiculous fight scenes.

At its heart, "Midnight Meat Train" had an interesting story once it got to the end. But I think it would have worked better as a short film, because I felt it was way too padded to make any sort of impact.

A Good Ride

[zyxek · 7/10 · 1 August 2008]

I saw this movie just now at a local discount theater, and I certainly can't say that I wanted my dollar back. The worst thing a horror film can be is boring, and Midnight Meat Train is never dull. Neither is it quite as exciting or tense as would be ideal, but you take what you can get.

Based on Clive Barker's classic short story, the film is about photographer Leon (Bradley Cooper), who wants to capture on film the "true" New York City. He has to sell photos of crimes and accidents to tabloids for money, though. He is given a meeting with a legendary art dealer (Brooke Shields), and accepts her advice to explore individual places more closely, in hopes of finding the image that impresses her and gets him a break in the art world.

He ends up encountering strange doings during late-night subway rides, and becomes obsessed with a silent, severe butcher (Vinnie Jones) who bludgeons passengers to death on a regular basis.

The movie works mainly because of its director. Ryuhei Kitamura might be the best visual stylist working in the horror genre. The scenes of suspense, intrigue, and horror are all inventively shot, while never distracting from what's actually going on. His timing of scares, however, could use some work. Jeff Buhler's script has quality dialog, good pacing, and is generally efficient.

The greatest weakness of the film is its lead actor. Cooper lacks the charisma and intensity necessary to involve the audience fully in Leon's descent into the underworld.

But I said before, it is never boring. The time passes easily, blood flows freely, but only when it needs to, and it is a joy to look out. It deserved a much wider and better promoted release, and is certainly worth seeking out.

Poor Film

[Michael_Elliott · 31 December 2008]

Midnight Meat Train, The (2008)

* (out of 4)

A storm of controversy hit earlier in the year when LionsGate canceled this films planned release into two-thousand theaters when instead they threw it into a bunch of budget movie houses. Many people screamed foul but after seeing this film there's a good reason why they didn't push it harder and there's further proof by them skipping a DVD release in favor of showing it on Fearnet, a free cable channel. A NYC photographer (Bradley Cooper) wants to make a name for himself by capturing the heart of the city but a expert (Brooke Shields) tells him he's no good. The photographer then goes out on some night shoots where he ends up following a serial killer who brutally mutilate people on a subway train. As a lover of horror movies it takes a lot to make me mad and this film had me mad way too many times for me to enjoy it. This is the type of film that depends on dumb characters to do dumb things because if they didn't then there wouldn't be a movie. Logic and horror films don't go together but this one is just so downright stupid that I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Here's a serial killer who butchers people to the point where there isn't an inch of the train that isn't covered in blood yet he doesn't get a drop on him. The police don't seem to care too much about all the missing people. We get a photographer getting in over his head for no apparent reason. We get a killer who spends plenty of time not only killing the people but trying them up like hogs, cutting off various body parts and so on. Isn't he worried about someone spotting him? Plus, since when does NYC not have a single person walking around? Not only are the performances pretty bad but so is the direction and screenplay. The screenplay has so many holes in it you have to wonder if a group of children wrote it. I'm not sure how close this sticks to the Clive Barker story but the ending is just downright horrid as well. It was nice seeing Shields but she's given very little to do and the rest of the cast members just sleepwalk through their roles. Gore hounds will find plenty of it here but the CGI effects are so incredibly bad that you'll be laughing at them.

One of the best adaptations of Clive Barker's stories

[movedout · 7/10 · 14 August 2008]

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.

Good scare - Barker done proper

[p-stepien · 6/10 · 6 November 2009]

Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) is big bad butcher, whose weapon of choice is a mallet and an ice hook. Day after day, night after night he takes the 2 am train to hell, where unsuspecting passengers are massacred and then hung up like dead meat.

Leon (Bradley Cooper) is an up and coming photograph, who is trying to make it critically, but so far his work has been unable to break it. His biggest fan and believer is his beautiful fiancée Maya (Leslie Bibb). One chance session in the subway changes the direction of his life. First he photographs a model being harassed by some thugs and after saving her from them takes a picture of her entering the 2 am train...

Clive Barker has really been prolific with all the horror he has caused come to life on the big screen. It is enough to mention that his stories was the backbone of such classics as Hellraiser or Candyman. That said he has also been raped as a horror writer with atrocities such as Rawhead Rex.

This movie doesn't hit the highs or the lows, but I must say it was pretty decent and definitely one of the best genre movies I have seen lately. No matter has essentially idiotic the plot I have to say it did cut loose of the copycat phase in horror cinema we are currently at. It had a certain freshness to it not only in the way it was told, but also in subject matter itself. I won't go as far as to say it was breakthrough original, but it was darn intriguing all the way through.

I normally rate a good horror movie based on gut feeling. The moment you can't wait to know what will happen at the end of the movie or in the next scene for that matter and at the same time you have to fight with yourself to continue watching - that lets you know this horror flick is actually pretty good.

Definitely full of flaws and the graphic gore isn't my kind of horror meal. Acting was great and tech credits all round were superb. Ryûhei Kitamura deserves accolades for this horror movie. Maybe not a classic, but given the far fetched material he had to work with it is a triumph.

Unsettling scenes , terror, tension at the last night train

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 28 February 2010]

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.

Bad, just... bad

[Pop2Dog · 1/10 · 16 May 2013]

I really wanted to like this movie. I really did. Even though I know most of the stories Clive Barker writes that become movies are usually crap, I hoped this one would be different. It wasn't. It was crap.

The thing that really ruined it for me was the AWFUL CGI. There is a scene where an eyeball flies through the air- it looks like something from an old Sega CD game. So obviously CGI. Did that flying eyeball absolutely need to be in the movie? No. It did nothing to the scene other than ruin it.

What was with the boils that Vinnie Jones was cutting off and putting in jars????? Did I miss the explanation for that??

Also, you can only suspend your disbelief so much. In this movie, you are supposed to believe that hundreds of people (if not thousands) have been going missing over the years, all of them being seen last in the subway, and only 1 cop is assigned to the case? And that cop is able to keep ALL the other cops in the city from investigating any of the disappearances? Come on! That is just ridiculous.

Why did Vinnie Jones have to work in the abattoir? Was he short of cash? Did the "monsters" think he needed a taste of working class America?

Why did he dress in a suit to go to work in the abattoir? Was he just trying to look cool?

The cameraman, who takes crappy instagram-worthy garbage, is pretentious and annoying. As is the stupid gallery owner woman, and the cameraman's dumb friend "Jurgis".

What kind of name is that anyway? Call him Bob or something. Any character who has a name like that, you just want them dead as soon as possible because their name makes you hate them instantly.

This movie is awful.

One of the worst movies I've seen in a long time.

"I got a train to catch"

[dworldeater · 8/10 · 18 May 2020]

It was a shame that this was dumped to direct to video by Lions gate. I remember seeing a trailer for it at the theater when watching another movie. Although it didn't get the theatrical run it deserved, The Midnight Meat train is a fantastic adaptation of a short story by Clive Barker. Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura did a nice job in his American debut. This is a very original story that was executed well on the big screen. The film was nicely shot, well acted with lots of gore and nice atmosphere. Bradley Cooper gives a really strong early performance as the lead and Vinny Jones was fantastic as the iconic butcher Mahogany. This is a pretty dark and disturbing horror flick that is very brutal, but still comes across as a classy production. Some of the CG effects are a little cringeworthy, but as a whole this film looks great and is massively underrated in my opinion.

Most Horror Fans Will Find It Watch Worthy Or Better

[TheAnimalMother · 6/10 · 3 November 2022]

Definitely not what I'd call a good film. However there are quite a few good things about it. Unfortunately, some things in the film that should be pretty straightforward, defy basic logic. There is a lack of focus to authenticity here at times, or just plain lazy filmmaking in certain parts that take away from the production. Overall though, the film is very watchable, and many horror fans will likely find enough good things in it to at least be mildly satisfied when it's all said and done. There are some good ideas and visuals in this film at times. The story and vision here could've worked even better, that is if the screenplay and finished product was just a little more thoughtful overall. 6/10.

Literally, the worst film I have seen for years.

[rabbitmoon · 1/10 · 12 October 2008]

Wow, how bad can it get. This was seriously bad. Not in terms of the gore - which was mainly laughable CGI - but in acting, atmosphere and direction.

The story was dreadful - the character arc of the main lead was a total joke. Within a few nights of stalking Vinnie Jones, he starts to become 'haunted' to the point of crying when photographing his girlfriend. Um... are all New York photographers this childish, suggestible and weak? His character development had absolutely no justification or point whatsoever - and by the very end you'll be laughing out loud at the utterly predictable, and totally absurd twist his character takes.

The gory moments were clearly just a weak, low-self-esteemed effort to jump onto the modern MTV style gore wagon - all cgi, blood yet no real emotion whatsoever. These parts were unintentionally funny - and distracting by their self-consciousness - wacky camera angles etc.

Overall this film commits the crime of blowing another potential idea. What could have had atmosphere (until the stupid monsters at the end) is ruined in favour of 'look at me'style self-conscious directing. This film wasn't made for and audience - it was made for a CV - a deeply selfish motive.

Masterful horror

[UniqueParticle · 10/10 · 31 October 2020]

I guess I'm one of very few that loves Midnight Meat Train! Beautiful cinematography, great cast, incredible grisly deaths, and decent story about a photographer that finds out some twisted things happening in New York. Bradley Cooper and Vinnie Jones are great I'm surprised neither haven't done more horror projects. I'm shocked a few hated this movie there's definitely terrible movies and this isn't one of them!

for the splatter loving crowd

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 27 February 2016]

A vicious killer (Vinnie Jones) hunts the late-night subway with a meat hammer. Leon Kaufman (Bradley Cooper) is a street photographer who lives with waitress Maya (Leslie Bibb). Leon goes into the subway and breaks up a mugging. The woman goes on the train and is murdered by the killer. Leon goes to the police the next day but Detective Lynn Hadley suspects him. Gallery owner Susan Hoff (Brooke Shields) gets interested in the pictures of the muggers and suggests getting more pictures of the same intensity. Leon goes back to the subway and suspects he has found the actual killer. He starts stalking him.

There is plenty of blood and CGI gore but not much tension for the first half. Vinnie Jones is good at menacing. I don't really buy what Maya does. However it all climaxes with a fun bloody fight on the subway. The great aspect of Clive Barker's stories is the dark demonic hidden other world. This movie needs to start with that idea instead of keeping it all for the reveal. This is a good Midnight Madness movie for the splatter loving crowd.

Oh dear................

[p-steele · 1/10 · 6 October 2008]

Where to start. The film started out pretty well, but after the 30 min mark i caught myself watching the clock. The horror at the start of the film was good but then the story kicked in. It just got stupider and stupider as time ticked by.

The actors gave an average performance in this movie however, i got a bit bored of Vinny Jones constant scowling in the film.

As the film dragged on, and take my word for it, it dragged on, it just got more and more far fetched.

*** SPOILER ALERT *** SPOILER ALERT *** SPOILER ALERT *** Just when i thought the film could not get any worse, towards the end loads if skeleton looking monsters turned up, just to eat the dead people which made no sense at all. It turned out to be some sort of flesh eating cult and the good guys die at the end. The ending in fact just made me laugh at how bad it was. Once the lead role disposes of Vinny Jones, he becomes the new killer.

In closing, this film made Creep look like the best horror film ever made. I gave it 1 star because the female lead did a pretty good job but even she could not save this train wreck of a movie!!

Good Horror Let Down By The Ending

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 22 January 2010]

20 years ago Clive Barker was the second biggest name in the world of horror behind Stephen King . Weave World topped the fiction best sellers in Britain and HELLRAISER was a big box office hit both sides of the Atlantic . The 1990s saw a dip in his fortunes however starting with the disappointing cinema receipts of NIGHTBREED . Film adaptations such as CANDYMAN didn't fare any better and by the end of the decade it was becoming clear that the HELLRAISER franchise was ruining the original's reputation rather than enhancing it and by the time SAINT SINNER came along I was left thinking HELLRAISER might have been a fluke on the part of Barker rather than the sign of a horror genius . Thankfully THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN rescues Barker's reputation somewhat , though sadly it's no HELLRAISER

TMMT is based on a short story lasting 24 pages from the author's BOOKS OF BLOOD . This leaves screenwriter Jeff Buhler the slight problem of expanding it in to a 100 page screenplay . This he manages for the most part and he manages to capture the fear that people can experience sitting on a tubeway train alone at an ungodly hour . Unfortunately he forgets to expand upon the fact that people are going missing on a certain route . One disappeared passenger makes front page news because it sets up the story for protagonist Leon but previous and subsequent disappearances never seem to be referred to . Of course the police detective is part of the conspiracy but it'd need more than one police chief to keep the disappearances secret , especially when the aforementioned disappearance makes the front page

Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura does manage to bring a feeling of claustrophobic dread to the story and the sound mix is superb . Sound mix is one of the more underrated aspects of film making in something like a horror film where sudden noises causes people to jump out of their seat it's very important . The cinematography is dark and grim which is very appropriate for this type of film . It certainly gives the TMMT and a film like this benefits from a gloomy atmosphere . The film's greatest benefit though is Vinnie Jones as Mahogany , the silent serial killer who is murdering the passengers for their flesh

The big problem that Buhler and Kitamura bring is the pay off . In the original story the demonic creatures living at the end of the line serve a " Superbeast " - a giant monster predating mankind . If you stop to think about it such a creature needs human servants because it can't go in to the city to find flesh to feed upon . It also implies that the demonic creatures were once human . Here however there's no Superbeast and the demons just appear without any explanation who they are or what their motives are which seems to have confused everyone who hasn't read Barker's short story . They have my sympathy because up till this point the film is very involving and certainly one of the best horror films to feature an underground station

The Midnight Mediocre Train

[TheVideoGameScrub · 6/10 · 25 June 2022]

This movie has decent enough acting but the storyline never really pulled me in at any point. I never found myself that invested and when the movie was over my first thought was 'alright then'. This is not a bad movie but nothing memorable.

MMT is exactly what the title implies - fast and brutal

[chaos-rampant · 15 October 2008]

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

An Entertaining Thriller

[wacko129 · 7/10 · 1 August 2008]

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.

Wow.... Really??? Wow

[winkie_69 · 1/10 · 22 August 2008]

Do not bother to waste your money on this movie. Do not even go into your car and think that you might see this movie if any others do not appeal to you. If you must see a movie this weekend, go see Batman again.

The script was horrible. Perfectly written from the random horror movie format. Given: a place in confined spaces, a madman with various weapons, a curious man who manages to uncover all of the clues that honest police officers cannot put together, and an innocent and overly curious, yet beautiful and strong woman with whom many in the audience would love to be able to call their girlfriend. Mix together, add much poorly executed gore, and what the hell, let's put some freaks in there for a little "spin" to the plot.

The acting was horrible, and the characters unbelievable - Borat was more believable than this.

***Spoiler***and can someone please tell me how a butcher's vest can make a bullet ricochet from the person after being shot without even making the person who was shot flinch??? I'm in the army. We need that kind of stuff for ourselves.

1 out of 10, and I would place it in the decimals of that rounded up to give it the lowest possible score I can.

seemingly mindlessgoret initially gore transforms into A masterpiece of a dark, disturbing nightmarish unique horror masterpiece

[george_revell · 9/10 · 21 August 2018]

When I heard the imdb summary I was put off, I only ended up watching the movie because I had nothing better to do that evening ... but as the movie unravels, the mindless gore turns into the most astoundingly dark, disturbing masterpieces of horror that will promise to give goosebumps to even veterans of the horror genre such as myself. A very good horror movie I recommend to any horror fan. Especially the last third of the movie is just utterly brilliant combination of unraveling and unforeseen twists with dark and disturbing excellently executed content. If you like horror, you must watch this one. As scary as the original French martyrs.

Disturbing.

[nintendofanof1993 · 7/10 · 10 February 2011]

What can I really say about this movie. The whole plot is crazy at best. It is original but insane. It starts off a little slow but it comes to a random scene which is the basis of the whole movie. A girl that is up late at night decides to take the subway, but there is this guy who has a meat tenderizing hammer with him in a suit. Unknown is the hammer to this girl however as she quickly begins to fear this man and begin to move to a different part of the tram. Out of nowhere the man takes this hammer and bashes her skull in going into slow motion. With this begins the tedious flow of The Midnight Meat Train. It shifts between the developing of the main characters back to the subway station. It doesn't really even explain why he's there or what his purpose is in killing these innocent random people but it sure looks cool! There's really not a whole lot I can really say about this movie,its interesting but it keeps you in suspense.But as the flick progresses you see the characters for who they are. The main character is a photographer and he lives with his girlfriend in that classic cliché of the man being afraid to commit. The girlfriend is pretty much just there, and she becomes important later in this film. As the photographer starts going on the subway later at night he notices strange things like the man in the suit with the brief case. He then witnesses him killing someone with the hammer and the weird, gory, crazy scenes begin. I wont spoil the ending for you, but for the record it really bothered me. But that's all i'm saying. If you can find it, pick it up give it a watch its worth it for the shock value and the weird and freaky parts are definitely worth it. I'm giving this one a 70% So yeah give it a look see.

Don't waste your time on this film

[c-c-monaghan · 1/10 · 24 September 2008]

This was a terrible film. There was no story line whatsoever. To top it all off, when they couldn't explain the blood and gore (the only good part) ... they threw in a few aliens! I hate when directors (or whatever) run out of ideas and then blame the aliens! Watch this film if you like. But don't say I didn't warn you. Two things: How could Vinny say "welcome" when he didn't have a tongue? Its a pity Mr Jones didn't have a bigger role. Second thing that bugged me, why were we shown Vinny Jones' boils and him cutting them off and putting them into blue liquid, then these have no further role. Why not? I don't like to be shown something and that has nothing to do with the story line whatsoever. In short. Bad story. I wouldn't waste my time - wish I'd have watched Mirrors instead.

A great Horror thriller of 2008

[addybhai786 · 8/10 · 23 December 2008]

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.

"ALL ABOARD" -- "Next Stop --- Hell"........

[rstone-27 · 7/10 · 8 October 2008]

Clive Barker is awesome -- This ride begins with a dark eerie feel and takes you by surprise in so many different areas.

The CGI isn't as bad as most puts out -- as a matter of fact -- I think this is a very good use of the CGI...

Once you see the introduction murder -- what most refer to as the Hammer scene -- you will not want to leave your seat. You just can't wait to see whats going to happen next, then when you do --- its a ride you'll never forget -- This is one for the books.... Next Stop -- Hell --because the twilight zone has nothing on this train ride.

7 out of 10 and I'm not one to give a 7 on most movies.

See it for yourself -- If you are a fan of horror -- If not -- then steer clear -- its definitely NOT for you!!!!!!!!!!!

See you at the movies.

Lots of meat but no filling...

[ftyl · 5/10 · 16 October 2008]

The Midnight Meat Train is the latest film to be (however indirectly) associated with Clive Barker. This used to be a good thing, especially between the time of Hellraiser (1987) and Candyman (1992), but as both spiralled into the depths of serial trash (Hellraiser is on its 9th iteration) he has become more associated with sub standard slasher films. Whatever you may think of his garish and brazenly obscene writing style, the themes he confronts are strong and generally quite cinematic – voyeurism and the clash of the ordinary with the extraordinary, as well as perennial favourites fetishism and sadomasochism.

The Midnight Meat Train tells the story of Leon Kaufman (Bradley Cooper), a photographer who, in looking for inspiration for his work, is drawn to the subway in the pre-dawn hours. Initially hooked by a minor brush with the darker side of the city (he stops a gang from assaulting a girl) he is invigorated by the experience, and delves deeper. Here he find a mysterious man (Vinnie Jones) who rides the shrieking metal subway cars alone at night. Intrigued by the man's forbidding presence and spurred on by the praise he receives for his latest series of photographs, Kaufman returns to the unending night of the subway, determined to explore this terrifying and exhilarating new world beneath the sleeping city.

The movie is adapted from a short story in Barker's Books of Blood and, apart from the now customary producer credit, that is where his involvement ends. This is a real shame, as the material added to expand the script to feature length could have done with some of his inspired mix of squeamishly detailed viscera and surprisingly subtle characterisation. The story made a virtue of its brevity – requiring no set up and building to a pay off with minimal fuss (and maximum bloodletting). The script, however, loses itself early on in its frantic, almost childish need to play with your gag reflex. The opening scene is liberally slathered with agreeably viscous blood, and before the film is half over we have seen eyeballs knocked out of sockets (then stepped on), heads mashed with hammers and have careened through a skull in bullet time before exiting through the eye (eyes in general have a pretty hard time of it in The Midnight Meat Train). Likewise Kaufman's descent, literally and psychologically, comes off as half-baked. His morbid, possibly self-destructive curiosity is a familiar theme that can be effective but here there is not enough set up to make the journey believable. There is no attempt to explain exactly what would make him seek out these extra-curricular thrills. Indeed, his life with his girlfriend (Leslie Bibb, trying valiantly to wring something from her meagre material) is painted as pretty idyllic. The film also settles into a formula far too quickly: a kill scene is followed by a scene with the couple at home, as a counter-point to the supposedly harrowing gore and violence. Then there is some investigation, some minor stalker/slasher interplay between Jones and Cooper and another disjointed, unnecessarily explicit horror interlude. The ending shakes things up a little, and it builds to a suitably despairing denouement, but by then its effectiveness has been so diluted by 90 minutes of on camera vivisections and Coopers surprisingly placid performance that the final credits merely seem like welcome respite.

It's not all bad though. The premise and the idea of the ending, coming directly from Barker's story, are a cut above those of your average horror film and a testament to the strength of the original. Likewise, the direction (by Versus helmer Ryuhei Kitamura) is certainly energetic and his cacophony of camera angles, speed changes and in-camera effects are enough to keep you awake during the films slower moments. Unfortunately this over-the-top style – combined with some unnecessarily flamboyant (though generally well integrated) CG – also has the effect of negating any real sense of tension or unease in the few moments of the film that attempt to create suspense. The cinematography is crisp and manages to make itself stand out a little from the horror crowd, preferring stylistic (though perhaps a little too smoky) compositions to the gritty and grainy semi-realism of some recent offerings. The music is extremely jarring – reaching almost laughably frantic levels during the final fight and overpowering any scene which does not heavily feature the sound of metal on bone. As for the performances, Cooper's Kaufman is all grimaces and curiously underplayed, while Jones remains mercifully mute but generally looks more mystified than mysterious.

The Midnight Meat Train is another let down for Barker fans and, unfortunately, for horror fans in general. You may, if you are so inclined, get some enjoyment from the kill scenes – which are at least agreeably the other side of PG-13. You may also experience a little Outer Limits style shudder of approval at the ending that might make you reconsider your next nocturnal subway ride. But, ultimately, there simply isn't that much to The Midnight Meat Train and it is destined to ride the mediocre movie midnight train alone into obscurity.