Starring: Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Vinnie Jones

Directed By: Ryûhei Kitamura

Written By: Jeff Buhler, Clive Barker (short story)

Released: 2008

Grade: B

The Midnight Meat Train comes from Clive Barker’s book of short stories, Books of Blood. Barker as the producer of the film caused the film adaptation to stay true to his short story of the same title, The Midnight Meat Train. It is up for debate whether this was a good or a bad thing. The artist’s original vision was here, but this didn’t leave any room for any type of re-crafting in the matter. This wouldn’t be an issue if the movie would have been given the same approach in giving us the full story. The biggest problem is really the marketing especially regarding the title, that drove those away were weren’t familiar with Barker’s short story. Barker refused to change the title though, which gave the film the small release that it had in 102 dollar theaters, not giving it much of a profit. Aside from this there is no reason why it wouldn’t have as much mass appeal as any other horror movie. Hopefully, the DVD will give it a chance for a wider audience to discover and have fun with the film. Overall, The Midnight Meat Train is a compelling and enjoyable horror film.

Leon (Cooper) is a vegan photographer who is struggling with his art. He is often criticized for not taking any real chances to capture human struggle and emotion. For once rather than fleeing the scene of this before he can document it, he tackles this subject matter when he sees a young Asian model being attacked by a gang of young men. Leon also manages to scare them off by pointing out that they are also being recorded by video as well as the stills he has of them. The pictures he gets prove to be a breakthrough for him and give him a chance to have his own display in a prestigious art gallery. With this good news, he gets bad news as well. Leon learns that the girl that he saved disappeared last night. He becomes determined to know what happened to her and if others are in the same danger that she faced at the train station. His girlfriend, Maya (Bibb), becomes worried about him as he seems to become more obsessed with this missing girl when he should be concerned with his photographs. Leon can’t stay away from the train where he continues to see innocent victims murdered before his very eyes. The butcher who kills him gets in to his thoughts, but Leon won’t give up. He keeps on going back and even follows the butcher to the slaughter house where he works, risking his own life over and over again. Maya is at first scared by what is happening to her boyfriend, but as what Leon is telling her seems to become more and more real she takes a few risks of her own to trap the monstrous butcher. However, their luck may be running out. Getting too close to the butcher and his secret may cost them their lives.

Bradley Cooper did very well as our protagonist. He was believable and we were in the same position as Leon. Intrigued by the horrifying yet mysterious events that we were trying to find the true meaning behind. We learned with Leon and there was a closer understanding and bond with him as our main character because of it. Leslie Bibb also did a wonderful job as Maya. She seemed to have her head on her shoulders a bit more and was scared by anything that seemed outside of the reality that she knew. Her transition in belief was strong and made her just as vulnerable as Leon in the end. Vinnie Jones gave us a chilling nearly silent killer. He had a very eerie way to him and seemed to so effortlessly kill. There was great suspense within his character, putting up a cold and chilling wall that made us wonder what the madness and motives inside him were.

The CGI effects in the death scenes really hurt the image of the film. They look extremely fake, particularly one scene where an eye is detached from its socket and it is made to almost look like it is coming towards you but just seems overdone and artificial. Even the blood itself looks pretty fake, which is ridiculous since you can make realistic enough looking blood on nearly no budget at all. I enjoyed the actual way the deaths were constructed though. Many of them were very simplistic and strangely casual, yet they managed to be very dark and gripping. Rather than long death scenes we are given much shorter ones, whose numbers stack up and show us that this is a brutal and reckless man that will kill anyone and everyone who comes on that train at night. In this atmosphere there isn’t much hope as the bodies are never even found, making it seem like a conspiracy to those who haven’t witnessed this first hand. The simplicity is mirrored by the weapon of choice, a meat cleaver, making us wonder the significance this has. It suggests that there is something deeper going on then we are at first let in on. The image of the meat cleaver itself is unique yet terrorizing, partially because as a butcher it reflects a part of him. If this weapon is an extension of him who knows the barbarity within.

The end didn’t seem to really fit with the rest of the movie and it seemed like it could have been done differently with a much better outcome. Overall, I have mixed feelings about this though since it was the original ending to the story and Clive Barker didn’t want any changes to be made to it. The more I think about it the more frightening the thought behind the action is and it defiantly goes against typical horror movie endings and gives us something much darker. While I think the ending itself is brilliant, the way it was handled is where the mistake was made. It is very different than the story we have been dealing with and it seems to be out of context. I bit more foreshadowing, explanation, and setting the stage for the turn of events and very different atmosphere we end up in would have made this ending strong, impacting, and a support for a great horror film. Regardless, The Midnight Meat Train is a good movie, it just doesn’t reach this great level that it could have otherwise been.