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storyline is ok, Vinnie Jones as Mahogany is really scary. what bothers me most is the CG blood, this is becoming some kind of a trend in new movies, sometimes it looks good but sometimes it is really funny (like the Ted Raimi scene here). what I really liked was the camerawork, really dynamic sequences of fights and the most awesome thing in this movie - the hammer which the killer used to butcher the victims. it is a well made movie, nothing groundbreaking but still worth a watch. if you like other movies inspired by Barker's novels you won't be disappointed. MEAT, FLESH and BLOOD - this is what matters.
I can get over the bad acting because the storyline was okay. It could have been great had it not been bogged down with the couples relationship. The characters did horribly stupid things, for example everything the wife did, except for bringing a gun. The fight scene at the end was more tacky than anything because of the apron armor and over dramatics which weakened the effect of the interesting ending. If they cut down on all the boring over acted loving couple interaction and hinted at the existance of creatures maybe it would have been more exciting.
I thought that this movie was everything a horror fan could ask for. It had loads of gore, monsters, a psycho serial killer, an awesome fight on a subway train and a lot of suspense. It is a real shame that this only got a limited release cause it would have done really well. Instead they chose to release "The Strangers" which was no where near as good as Meat Train. Well thats hollywood for you. When this comes out, buy it because you will not be disappointed.
with all the crap that comes out theatricality how did this one end up how it did? if people went to see Mirrors (it sucked by the way) why would people not see this? sure the name is kinda iffy but people also went to see snakes on a plane (nuf said?) the movie shows skill all over its shot well paced well the writing is good (its Clive Barker nuf said?) so why is this getting the the shaft? am i out of the loop? did Barker piss some one off at lions gate? did Ryuhei Kitamura sleep with some ones wife? i don't know why it got such a bad release 102 discount theaters for god sakes its injustice dame it! give this one a shot even if its on another web sites on-demand channel
thanks to clive barker and to Ryuhei Kitamura for this treat! too bad there was so much mess around the distribution...oh well...America, where mediocrity and laziness is rewarded and quality is shunned. but then there's moments like these :-)
Pretty good horror flick. It started slow, but really built up. Vinnie Jones is one scary bastard.
Posted By: anaphylaxis1 at 4:21pm, September 10, 2008
It is almost impossible to talk about "The Midnight Meat Train," the first film in a long-awaited series of adaptations of Clive Barker’s Books of Blood stories, without discussing the film’s handling by Lionsgate. The film played several international film festivals over the past year, gaining a good amount of positive buzz, but Lionsgate moved its official theatrical release around several times before finally settling on August 1. When the film was released, it was carefully dumped into discount theaters—where tickets run between $1 and $4—mostly a good distance from major metropolitan areas. So despite being eagerly anticipated, "The Midnight Meat Train" ended up with a release that doomed it to failure.
The reasons behind this decision aren’t entirely clear. There are rumors that the film got tied up in politics inside the studio, and there’s no question that R-rated horror is a hard sell at the box office these days. Regardless of whatever reasons led to the film’s unfortunate theatrical opening, it certainly didn’t deserve to be dumped so unceremoniously. While it’s not “The Film That Would Have Saved R-rated Horror” by any stretch of the imagination, it is unique enough (and its pedigree impressive enough) that it deserves to be seen by the horror fans who have been waiting so long for it to appear.
Leon Kauffman (Bradley Cooper) is a frustrated photographer who wants to capture “the city” as it’s never really been seen. He lives with his waitress girlfriend Maya (Leslie Bibb) and manages to get an audience with influential art dealer Susan Hoff (Brooke Shields), who tells Leon he is failing at his goal and to “keep shooting” the next time he finds himself at the dark heart of the city. Meanwhile, the mysterious Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) is butchering people like cattle on late-night express trains. Their paths cross one night after Leon saves young model Erika (Nora) from a group of thugs, only to discover that she has gone missing the next day.
From here, Leon becomes obsessed with Mahogany after following him off the train one night. Leon’s personal life starts to deteriorate as his obsession becomes more intense, and the bizarre secrets of Mahogany’s life are unearthed. Anyone who has read the story will find the most familiar parts are all packed into the film’s last few minutes. As is typical for any short story adapted into a feature-length film, there is a lot of padding. Most of this is character development, and while the actors are mostly fine (especially Vinnie Jones in a completely silent performance), Kitamura handles much of the non-action scenes a bit awkwardly.
However, when it comes to those gory sequences, Kitamura takes every opportunity to do what he does best—show off. The violent sequences are shot with hyperkinetic energy, playing all sorts of camera tricks that are often as disorienting as they are viscerally exciting. If anything, Kitamura’s weakness as a director here is that he is too involved with stylizing the violence to realize that it makes the violent scenes a lot less scary when the audience is murmuring appreciation for another clever shot. This is complicated further by some questionable CGI effects and at one shot that looks as if it was cut-and-pasted frame-by-frame directly out of Timur Bekmambetov’s "Wanted" (although this was finished long before that film).
All that said, "The Midnight Meat Train" is a much more interesting and unique film than pretty much any of the PG-13 “horror” films the major studios have had on their slate recently. It looks great, it does a great job of capturing the tone of the Barker short story (particularly at the end, when most of the story is actually used), it has a fantastic Carpenter-esque score, and it has its share of tense moments. Unfortunately the film’s release (and the subsequent fan uproar) make it difficult to approach the film on its own terms: it has become a symbol of the major studios’ perceived negligence of horror fans, and as such is likely to quickly gain a mass of enthusiastic fans. However, taken on its own merits, it’s just a decent horror show that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Here’s hoping future "Books of Blood" adaptations don’t find themselves in similar circumstances.
Originally posted on Rabbit Room:
http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/forums/journal.php? do=showjournal&j=33039
Saw this in my local discount theater, and I thought it had quite a good stylish look to it. I've read the original short story, and had high hopes for the movie. I does mostly follow the story, but misses some of the extreme brutality of the book version. I would say you get 80% of the book, and the gore is impressive. What captured my interest the most was the visual representation of the story, not unlike "The Ring" or even "Silent Hill". Overall, I'd say this should have gotten a more mainstream release, and would have proven to bring in the audience. Lionsgate messed up on this one, and missed a great opportunity. Hoping the DVD includes some great bonus features.
Awesome movie. Saw it at the London Frightfest last night. The look is ultra-stylish, the cold tone of the story reflected in the visuals. Vinny Jones is fantastic as serial killer Mahoganey. Great gore with some fabulous on screen deaths.
It has been way too long since I have seen a straight up, no bullshit, horror film on the big screen. Being a Clive Barker fanatic, I was very pessimistic about the outcome this film would have. To my knowledge, all the major Clive Barker releases (Nightbreed, Hellraiser, Candyman, Lord Of Illusions) involved him not only writing the script, and directing the film, but they were also the brainchild of his short stories and books. Because this one was going to be done by a different director (Ryuhei Kitamura who I don’t know a whole heck of a lot about) and the character Kaufman was now a photographer vs. an account-like in the story-I thought the film was not going to be all that great.
Personally, I don’t get much more satisfied when I walk into a movie thinking it is going to suck and coming out amazed, which is exactly what happened when I saw the Midnight Meat Train. Vinnie Jones was excellent as the silently terrifying killer Mahogany! I could go on forever about how his facial expressions-the way he sat waiting for the train holding his bag, to the time he was doing the killing-really sucked me into the character behind this malicious iconic horror archetype. Even though I am a big fan of the funny slasher over the top flicks or the Evil Dead/Dead Alive want-a-be’s, I realized that the world was ready for a no-bullshit, non humors, blood fest.
Now as far as Lionsgate limiting the release of this film: your loss! This film is an instant Barker classic that is going to be followed and remembered by fans for decades to come. I only hope to see more films from the Books of Blood. Maybe after The Book Of Blood Movie they are doing (which may go straight to video this time because the movie industry cares nothing about quality horror films) I would like to see The Yattering Jack, Son Of Celluloid, Sex Death and Starshine, Pig’s Blood Blues…..or fuck it make all of em….they are such great stories every single fucking one! My only hope is that any other Clive Barker adaptation is as kickass as this one was!!!
Excellent movie!! Lions gate screwed up big time by not giving this film a proper release.The dollar cineman in my area already pull the film! What a shame,i wanted to see it a few more times on the big screen. The ending did leave a big "?" at the end.Maybe that was done purposely in order to have a Midnight Meat Train 2? I hope so!
Good, gory fun. Dissapointing ending. "Midnight Meat Train", to me, had the "It" problem. Great, scary, then BOOM, its a big hairy spider. But overall, satisfying.
TWO WORDS TO DESCRIBE THIS MOVIE F*%&*KING AWESOME! i was amazed how good it was. very very gory. some really great scares and an AMAZING TWIST. loved it. whoever dumped this movies in the dollar show is INSANE!
I like most have been waiting for this film for a damn year. Today at 9:35pm, I had the pleasure of seeing this amazing movie for $1.75. I was completely blown away by this movie, it had character development, GORE, great writing, GORE, great directing, and did I mention GORE. I am so glad that I had a chance to see this movie. Alot of people out there will claim blasphemy, but I saw the Dark Knight the day before and it paled in comparison to The Midnight Meat Train.
Anybody, everybody go see this movie before its too late. I am definitely going to buy this on DVD.
wow great movie!! i saw it at danberry doaller saver this weekend and loved it! i can't beleave this didn't get a bigger realease.. go now and see it quickly.
Despite the multiple setbacks with this movie, it's finally gotten it's release and those of us who've been dying to see it all year are finally be rewarded for our patience.
It starts off slowly, building up characterization and introducing a little of the plot that hints at things to come, but it picks up very quickly. Actually, it's a bit jumpy..it starts abruptly, slows down and then speeds back up. Almost like a subway train ride actually. I loved the ending personally and didn't see it coming until it actually arrived. There were a few things looking back that I missed, but it still tied in well.
If you have the chance to see it, do so! It's an absolute must see on the big screen and I'd love to see it again.
Well directed, well acted, perfectly cast, but a little slow at times. Although it had a decent amount of gore, you hardly even notice it because it is actually part of the storyline instead of just being there for shock value. Vinnie Jones is perfectly cast! It's like the part was custom written for him. A little slow paced for my taste, but when there was action it was great. It reminded me of a horror version of "no country for old men". Although it sucks that Lionsgate didn't even give it a chance, it most likely wouldn't have achieved much mainstream success no matter how wide of a release it got. some of the camera angles were amazing! I'm a huge Kitmura fan after this one, can't wait to see what he comes with next. Hope he stays in english.
i just seen the this movie in Grand Rapids, Mi. i have been very excited to see this film cause i had seen the directors other films and was entertained, because he has alot of style. the story is a mess, the gore was great and the direction was good. i agree the movie didn't get really interesting till the end and it was over:(
I loved it. Flat out. I had been waiting a while for this film, and maybe that coupled with the controversy made it even better, but I loved it.
It's a darkly shot movie, that takes full advantage of the claustrophobic environment of the subway setting. The effects were tight for the most part except for the Ted Raimi scene, it just didn't work, but obviously I don't think Lionsgate would have cared to shell out the cash to fix it anyways.
The story, tone, and ending are total Clive Barker. I love his work because it's irreverent and usually takes something familiar and makes it fresh. This is no exception.
The film begins with a good bit of character development, that I actually found quite enjoyable. In between these scenes we see "The Butcher" taking lives on the train, until Leon and The Butcher begin to intertwine. It follows pretty standard from there, but yet it still felt fresh. The last 15 minutes however were amazing, and much of it I did not see coming.
It's a wonderful little film. It would be perfect late night viewing. It is a damn shame for what happened to it. It almost feels like a PR stunt to garner interest but sadly it's not. Either way, if you have a chance, see the flick.
The Midnight Meat Train. Wow. What a great title. This should be a fun, dark-humored flick, right? No, not really.
The title, the premise, and the outrageous gore create a tone that should make the movie fun (and funny in the best way possible) to watch, but it isn't. The confused tone created is more of a dark, serious film. The problem is, you've seen this movie before. It's a humorless American Psycho or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre set in an underground subway instead of rural Texas. I kept waiting for it to go somewhere new, but rather it became repetitive. The film wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. It was simply okay.
It really wasn't until the ending in which the movie became slightly original and somewhat interesting. But by then, it was over sadly. The mystery of Vinnie Jones' character grew old and the deprecation of our hero's mental state was very fast and seemed unbelievable. The behavior and actions of his girlfriend made her seem extremely superficial and selfish. While the argument could be that she's trying to help her boyfriend, I saw it more as she wanted to prove him wrong.
I went in knowing nothing about the movie except that there was a bunch of anger over the movie going directly to "cheap" theaters. Well, it really had direct to DVD written all over it. The film must have had a low budget because it seems nothing is done with practical effects. Everything, including most of the blood and the subway trains and shots in the train were done with CGI. It leads to an outrageous scene involving Ted Raimi, but I've always been more of a practical effects person when possible. Low budget movies can and have been successful in the past at creating tension and using the cheaper CGI effects, but this simply wasn't one of them.
I started off thinking it was going to be a darkly-humored movie with the likes of American Psycho based on Jones' early scenes and was confused when I found myself realizing it was trying so hard to be a serious, but unoriginal horror film where the ending finally made the movie interesting, albeit with the almost expected, if actually unique, twist.
well, i just saw this film in wichita, ks. and it wasn't bad. definitely worth seeing. some parts were a little far fetched but every movie like this is. not as gory as inside or high tension or even frontier, but still a hell of a movie. glad to see american made horror again.
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