Just as bloody and nihilistic as Hellraiser, writer/producer Clive Barker acts as your conductor on this train ride to hell. Well, actually Clive just acts as your gravelly voiced ticket taker as its Ryuhei Kitamura who directs the whole bloody affair.
It’s a ride a horror hound will want to take, but pray that you don’t end up on the same train as the dour Vinnie Jones and his hammer.
Photographer Leon (Bradley Cooper) wanders around the streets looking for interesting things to take pictures of. He complains to his waitress girlfriend Maya (Leslie Bibb) that their mutual friend Jurgis (Roger Bart) never introduces him to any of his wealthy contacts so that Leon can secure a gallery show.
Things change when Jurgis introduces Leon to gallery owner Susan Hoff (Brooke Shields). She is aloof but tells Leon when he starts to see the seamy underbelly of the city that he should keep shooting and then maybe he’ll have what she’s looking for and would result in Leon having a show in her gallery.
He takes his camera and moves throughout the city late at night. He sees an oriental woman being harassed by a street gang and makes them leave her alone. He watches her get on a subway train, but notices a hulking man also on the train.
That man is named Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) and he slaughters the woman once the train leaves the station. Leon reads that the woman has disappeared in the paper and approaches the police with the photos he took of her. He notices a distinctive ring on the hulking man’s hand and begins his late night wanderings to try and find the man again. He does and discovers that he works as a butcher of cattle in his day job and a butcher of people in his late night duties.
As Leon becomes more obsessed with finding Mahogany, but as he gets further into his investigation he may become more enmeshed with the devilish subway killer than he ever imagined.
After several films that were more anemic than horrifying, Clive Barker was ready to return to his bloody roots. Fittingly, he would turn back to some of his first works in Books of Blood and catch the Midnight Meat Train.
Clive acted as producer but stepped out of the way and let director Ryuhei Kitamura, who makes his American film debut, drive the train. The film has been lost in the subway for some time but makes its way onto DVD in this unrated, director’s cut.
The film has a gritty feel that certainly makes the comparison to Barker’s Hellraiser fit nicely. It’s also not afraid to let the red stuff flow in this cut. The film was given a short theatrical run, most likely suffering a lot of cuts for an R-rating, but it arrives on DVD with all the grue intact.
There are several horrible murders on the train cars. A group of tourists, including the always willing to be slaughtered Ted Raimi, is probably the most bloody with some eyeballs flying across the car. Jones also has a knockdown-drag out with another guy that is also good.
You have to give kudos to Jones and the filmmakers, because Mahogany (sounds like agony) is a silent hulking brute and in other hands they’d give him all sorts of quips and funny lines. Mahogany’s silence and brutal killing style are the things that make him a menace.
There’s also a little bit of Nightbreed here as to the reason as to why Mahogany is murdering those unfortunate enough to be riding the late train. It’s a welcome return to the good old days of Barker’s works and films instead of the endless and weary Hellraiser sequels. A bloody good ride as long as you’re not the meat.
The Midnight Meat Train is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced by 16x9 televisions.
Special features include a commentary with author/producer/cenobite Clive Barker and director Ryuhei Kitamura. The 15 minute “Clive Barker: The Man behind the Myth” spends the afternoon with the horror author talking about his writing and more his artwork.
The 5 minute “Mahogany’s Tale” looks at the character with Barker, Kitamura, cast, and the creature himself – Vinnie Jones (getting a word in here since he only has one line in the film). The 9 minute “Anatomy of a murder scene” looks at how they shot the tourist kill. Finally you get the 2 minute theatrical trailer.
The Midnight Meat Train is a welcome return to the root of Barker’s bloody success and easily compared to his breakout film. Let’s hope that the other planned Books of Blood feature films keep up the grisly good work.
The Midnight Meat Train is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a March 2nd release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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