Movie Review – The Midnight Meat Train [ 7.5/10 ]

The Midnight Meat Train - simply promises to be the best horror film of 2008

A month or two ago, I didn’t even know one of the short stories featured in Clive Barker’s Book of Blood collection was being made in to a horror film. Then someone told me to wake, smell the coffee… and watch blood sprawling everywhere!

The Midnight Meat Train is about experiencing pure, unadultrated horror. Where movies like The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, or Iron Man are contending to be this summer’s action block-busters, TMMT will take you along for a one-way trip filled with terror and gore!

The movie follows a struggling photographer, Leon Kaufman, played by Bradley Cooper who is encouraged by an art gallerist, Susan Hoff (Brooke Shields) to capture the soul of the city in black and white. Thinking this to be an opportunity to make it big, Leon follows her advice and takes to the subway stations with hopes of capturing his masterpiece. This is where a photographer turns in to a detective when he catches glimpse of the brutal serial killer Mahogany (Vinnie Jones); in his charcoal suit and tie. Things are just not the same any more.  Driven by curiosity, Leon pays no heed to any one including his girlfriend Maya (Leslie Bibb) who is fearful for his life. He follows Mahogony deeper in to a world shrouded in evil and chaos until all dear to him gets sucked in the abyss as well.

The pace that director Kitamura sets is fast, brutal, and hardcore-horror. Still at certain moments, it seemed as if the plot was rushed. Could be just me but certain scenes I believed were only added to show emotions like obsession and adamant natures of the characters, only because perhaps it was just not possible to explain them in any other way. Still that does not take any thing away from what TMMT has to offer in terms of presenting a horror-fest.

One major reason that seperates this movie from other horror productions is that there is nothing remotely close to a quick death in TMMT. Kitamura does not give you that pleasure. The violence is elaborate and gruesome. He dares you to sit through intense scenes where people are getting turned to pulp with a hammer, throats being slit open, eye-balls yanked from their sockets, naked and lifeless bodies hanging by their feet in the train compartments, and Mahogony getting down to business in the nastiest and most chilling fashion imaginable.

The characters play their parts to perfection. Leon the curious, Maya the caring, Susan the blunt, and last but not the least, Mahogany the terror! On a side note, it was disappointing to hear that Lionsgate has plans to shelve the movie on to DVD release too soon thus depriving it of the wide over theatrical release it so deserves. Whether it is because of the sheer gruesome nature of the film or any thing else, it is unfair to not give a movie due credit and a chance to shine that might just be the horror film of the year! It’s ok for the SAW franchise to get to eat the cake. Why not TMMT?

For any one who loves and craves for quality gore, this movie will not disappoint you. It is an A-class slasher that will send chillers down your spine. If you think horror movies don’t scare you any more, give this one a shot.

Movielicious Rating: [ 7.5/10 ]

Image Gallery: The Midnight Meat Train

The Midnight Meat Train

Watch the trailer for The Midnight Meat Train