Given its superiority to countless modern horror trifles
thrust into multiplexes, it would be difficult to fathom the straight-to-DVD
route taken by The Midnight Meat Train
(a token theatrical release in a few random markets doesn’t count) save for one
considerable detail: its gore. Ryuhei Kitamura’s adaptation of Clive Barker’s
short story is so thoroughly coated in over-the-top blood and guts that even
veteran genre fans will likely be astounded, the director delivering more
gutted corpses, ripped flesh, removed eyeballs and torrents of blood – some of
it achieved via CG, some of it done the ol’ fashioned way – than any film in
recent memory. Written by Jeff Buhler, Kitamura’s tale trades in Barker’s usual
brand of psycho-sexualized carnage, with everything from the titular
silver-steel subway train to the plethora of penetrating blades and hooks laced
with a demented eroticized charge. The story concerns photographer Leon’s (Bradley
Cooper) quest to document the soul of his fetid metropolitan home, which leads
him to nocturnal train slaughters performed by a silent, suit-attired butcher
(Vinnie Jones). Beginning with a shot of Leon pointing and clicking his camera
at the audience, The Midnight Meat Train
hints at being a horror rendition of Blowup
in which Leon’s act of watching and recording the fiend’s dirty deeds (which slowly
infects his mind and soul) is equated with our own voyeurism. Any such thread,
however, is never fully developed, of which the same can be said about the
script itself. Though Kitamura’s eerily patient cinematography creates
otherworldly dread, the proceedings frequently feel wobbly thanks to a raft of
illogical compositions and plot holes one could drive a semi through. Still,
those with a taste for the grotesque will no doubt appreciate the insanely
excessive nastiness with which the film culminates.
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