THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN
US, 2008, 103 minutes, Colour.
Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Brooke Shields, Vinnie Jones, Roger Bart, Tony Curran, Barbara Eve Harris, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson.
Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura.
The Midnight Meat Train is based on a short story by Clive Barker. Clive Barker has a reputation for extreme horror stories, some filmed including his Hellraiser series. This film combines an ordinary world with a subterranean world of gore.
The title refers to a train running in the New York subway after 2.00am. A mad butcher travels the train, bludgeoning people to death, carving them up, the train serving as an abattoir. What is revealed at the end is a subterranean culture of cannibals.
Vinnie Jones is well cast as the emotionless violent butcher who travels the train, dressed in a suit, with a briefcase and his tools inside. He looks particularly menacing while also inexpressive. The hero is photographer, Bradley Cooper (just before The Hangover and his move into screen stardom). He wants to photograph the real New York, submitting his photos to gallery director, Brooke Shields (who seems in another film). The photographer’s wife is played by Leslie Bibb who becomes more terrified and involved with a very pessimistic ending.
The film’s gory sequences may be too much for many audiences – it is a kind of New York grand guignol. It was directed by the Japanese Ryuhei Kitamura. (In a small scene, commenting on the hero and life as a box of chocolates is Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson who was to appear with Bradley Cooper as one of the main characters in The A Team.)
1. The work of Clive Barker? Horror? Alternate worlds? Gristle and gore?
2. The adaptation to the screen, the visuals of the Meat Train, the murders, the abattoirs? In context or too much?
3. The New York subway, the alternate trains? The subterranean station? New York apartments, the streets, the above-ground subway stations? Police precincts? The art galleries? The blend of the ordinary and the sinister? The musical score?
4. The focus on Leon, his photography, in the streets, photographing people? His taking the photos to Susan Hoff? The friendship with Jurgis and his help? Susan and her interest, dismissal? Wanting the real New York, the moments after the confrontations? Leon’s going out, the Asian girl in the subway, her attackers? His photographing them? The menace, the surveillance cameras? His going to the police? The official not listening to him – and the later revelation of her sinister presence? His going back, following the butcher, his seeing the ring, connecting the abduction with the butcher? His relationship with Maya, love, at home, photographing her, her work at the diner, the jokes with the owner? His going out at night, the photography? His nightmares? Following the butcher and witnessing the killings, the carvings on his chest? The sinister reality that he was to be the successor?
5. The cases, the headlines, the police, the official and her not being interested? The meeting with Maya? Her telling her about the Meat Train? The later revelation that she manipulated the community underground? Commissioning Leon?
6. Maya, her wariness, love for Leon, greater involvement, going with Jurgis to search the butcher’s apartment? Reporting to the police? On the train, the threats, Leon saving her? Her finally dying?
7. Jurgis, friend, the photography gallery, Susan Hoff? Celebrating Leon’s success? With Maya and the search, his death, strung up?
8. The sinister driver, his giving the orders in the train? The confrontation with Leon, Maya’s death?
9. Leon’s final torment, the fights with the butcher, the grim realities, the butcher’s death? Leon’s survival, seeing him again in the suit, his becoming the butcher, the explanation by the train driver?
10. A world of weird imagination and horror?
