DVD Review

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DVD: Midnight Meat Train (Unrated Director's Cut)
Rating: Unrated
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Vinnie Jones
Written By: Clive Barker
Directed By: Ryûhei Kitamura
Distributor: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2008
Extras: Audio Commentary, Three Featurettes
Series:

Midnight Meat Train (Unrated Director's Cut)

A Tale from Barker's Books of Blood

By Tim Janson February 19, 2009

Vinnie Jones in Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train(2009).
© Lionsgate Home Entertainment

Midnight Meat train is an adaptation of a Clive Barker story that was originally published in the very first of the “Books of Blood” series from the mid-1980s. Leon is a photographer who is trying to break into the artistic photography with his capture of real life street scenes and people. Urged by a gallery owner (played by Brooke Shields) to get more aggressive, Leon films a model accosted on the subway who later turns up missing. Returning to the subway, Leon becomes infatuated with a large, intimidating man (Vinnie Jones) he sees coming out of the subway station. He recognizes the man’s ring as one in a photo he took of someone near the model before she disappeared. He tracks the man to a meat processing plant where he works as a butcher and really is not fond of Leon spying on him.

Now, this guy’s nighttime activities are not kept a secret from the viewer. He goes by the name of Mahogany and travels the subway late at night, prowling for victims. He carries the biggest meat mallet you’ve ever seen, in a bag with several other implements of death. It seems Mahogany takes his job with him wherever he goes, killing unfortunate travelers and processing their bodies as he would a side of beef.

Midnight Meat train is wildly gory and intensely macabre. Mahogany takes great care with his victims, carefully removing teeth and fingernails, all while you squirm uncomfortably on your couch. Leon soon discovers that there are stories of a butcher killing people that date back a hundred years. He becomes obsessed with following Mahogany, becoming a twisted voyeur in the process.

As with most Clive Barker stories, the characters are never black and white. The protagonists are flawed and the bad people morally ambiguous, but not necessarily evil. Jones is mesmerizing as Mahogany, particularly because he doesn’t speak. He’s almost an emotionless robot, an inhuman killing machine. The mystery is in why he does what he does.

In the hands of director Ryûhei Kitamura, this is one of the best and most faithful adaptations of a Barker story, surpassed only by “The Hellbound Heart” which was the basis for Hellraiser. Kitamura builds the pace slowly at first and then gets it up to breakneck speed. The battle between Mahogany and a Guardian Angel played by UFC fighter Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson, was a blood-drenched classic!

The only drawback was that the ending left the viewer wanting to know more about that world beneath the city and what really dwells in the dark places. Barker has moved away from writing straight horror but he has a wealth of material in the Books of Blood that can be made into films and hopefully they will be as good as Midnight Meat Train.

Extras

There is an audio commentary with Clive Barker and director Ryûhei Kitamura. Barker genuinely seemed ecstatic over how well the film came out.

Clive Barker: The Man Behind the Myth (14:50) takes a look at Barker’s career and the development of this film. Barker’s first love these days seems to be painting and he takes viewers on a tour of his art studio with a look at dozens of his paintings and discusses his philosophies on art.

Mahogany’s Tale (5:12) A closer look at the film’s villain including interviews with Vinnie Jones

Anatomy of a Murder Scene (9:14) This featurette shows the development of the film’s most infamous scene as Mahogony kills a trio of tourists on the subway. You’ll see how the various effects were created and the literally buckets of blood that were used.

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