Editorials
[Butcher Block] All Aboard Carnage-driven ‘The Midnight Meat Train’
Butcher Block is a weekly series celebrating horror’s most extreme films and the minds behind them. Dedicated to graphic gore and splatter, each week will explore the dark, the disturbed, and the depraved in horror, and the blood and guts involved. For the films that use special effects of gore as an art form, and the fans that revel in the carnage, this series is for you.
If there’s one thing you can count on in a Ryuhei Kitamura horror film, it’s the copious amount of bloodshed and gore. With Kitamura, gore is most definitely an artform. Based on Clive Barker’s 1984 short story of the same name, The Midnight Meat Train follows a photographer obsessed with dark subject matter getting in over his head when he discovers a serial killer that butchers unsuspecting night commuters in grisly fashion.
In other words, there’s probably not many movies as aptly titled as this one. There’s a lot of human meat, blood, brain matter, and limbs being carved up on the late-night subway train in this horror movie. Bradley Cooper stars as Leon Kaufman, the photographer that stumbles upon and then becomes obsessed with the ruthless serial killer. His concerned girlfriend Maya, a character not in the original short, is played by Leslie Bibb. But the real reason to watch this movie, aside from the gore, is the perpetually intimidating Vinnie Jones as killer Mahogany. Jones only utters one word of dialogue in the entire movie, but he’s such a strong physical presence that you’ll hardly notice. Or care. Also look for horror vet Ted Raimi in an eye-popping death scene.
Those unfamiliar with Barker’s original short story will be caught off guard behind the reveal of Mahogany’s motive. A gory cat and mouse thriller between photographer and serial killer doesn’t usually lead to a larger conspiracy theory involving sacrificial offerings to underground dwellers, but leave it to Barker, and screenwriter Jeff Buhler (The Prodigy, 2019’s Pet Sematary, Grudge) to go there. Along with it a not so happy ending, depending on your perspective.
Despite the carnage and mayhem unleashed at the hands of the butcher Mahogany, the kill sequences and gore took a lot of careful planning by Kitamura. Storyboard artist Todd Harris drew endless storyboards based on Kitamura’s direction and the script to meticulously plot out every shot. Though there were some digital effects, most of The Mightnight Meat Train’s gore was done practically. That meant a minimum of 3 gallons of blood needing to be cleaned up from the set daily; some days used at least 25 gallons worth of fake blood. But, the most impressive feat was the insane amount of prosthetics needed for this production.
Limbs, severed heads, and full-sized human bodies to be dangled like butcher meat or mounded in piles.
The extensive prosthetic work was done by Matthew Mungle (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Bram Stoker’s Dracula) and his team from his co-founded special makeup effects company W.M. Creations, Inc. Mungle, and his special makeup effects company specialize in aging and prosthetic makeup, one of the most challenging aspects of special makeup effects, and delivers some eerily lifelike human bits and pieces for The Midnight Meat Train. Look to the woman getting decapitated on the train, or Leon losing his tongue for great examples.
Barker, who served as producer on the film as well as provided paintings for set dressing, was pleased with the final film. Unfortunately, the movie was dumped onto brief limited theatrical release, showing only on roughly 100 screens, before DVD release shortly after. The move infuriated Barker, who notoriously blamed ego behind the scenes at Lionsgate for the less than ideal release. Luckily movies usually have a long shelf life and an ability to amass a following years or decades later, and the graphic reputation of The Midnight Meat Train along with Barker’s seal of approval means that we can board this bloody train whenever we’d like.
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
You must be logged in to post a comment.