Review: The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

[tom elce]

The Midnight Meat Train (2008)
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Tom Elce
Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Vinnie Jones, Leslie Bibb, Roger Bart, Brooke
Shields, Tony Curran, Barbara Eve Harris, Peter Jacobson, Stephanie
Mace, Ted Raimi, Nora, Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson, Dan Callahan, Don
Smith, Earl Carroll
Rated: R (MPAA), 18 (BBFC)

"Please, step away from the meat"

In a mediocre year for horror movies, "The Midnight Meat Train"
reveals itself to be a welcome break from the teen-targeted garbage we
have now come to expect from the major Hollywood studios. Gritty,
violent, and funny unapologetic for how low-rent itself is, the film
is 100 minutes of celluloid from which the palpable dread of the
affair constantly drips. An inventive little horror film on the order
of the esteemed Clive Barker (he behind the memorable if slightly
overhyped "Hellraiser"), the film is refreshing in almost everything
that goes into it, so capably made that it makes little difference
that its ending goes into territory that is wacky to say the least.
Its quality is a feat for a film whose title sounds like that of a
porno film.

Leon Kauffman (Bradley Cooper) is a New York photographer trying to
catch the perfect picture with his camera so that he might gain the
approval of an esteemed contact (Brooke Shields) of his friend Jurgis
(Roger Bart). One his late night travels he rescues a model from a
group of threatening gang members by pointing out a nearby CCTV camera
pointed in their direction. When the woman's face turns up in the
newspaper the next day, Leon takes the photographs he took of the
night to the police and continues visiting the train station where she
disappeared. There he notices Mahogany (Vinnie Jones), a silent man in
a suit who carries a briefcase with him, and whose own travels appear
to coincide with a bizarre number of disappearances.

"Midnight Meat Train" is not perfect, leaving a few loose ends hanging
by the conclusion and arguably playing up too much on the gore. What
makes up for these faults, however, is the atmosphere director Ryuhei
Kitamura brings to proceedings. As Leon begins to follow Mahogany
throughout the day, we urge him to get the hell out of there,
anticipating what is to come from a silent man who seems the perfect
choice for a sociopathic serial killer. Naturally, Leon doesn't back
off, his surveying of the suspected murderer rapidly becoming an
obsession that threatens his relationship with girlfriend Maya (Leslie
Bibb) when it seems, to her and everyone else, that Leon is going
crazy.

He's not, and the results are what horror fans watching would have
hoped for. Several sequences on the train where Mahogany carries out
his murders are both creative, frightening and intensely bloody. Using
a series of weapons to dispatch of his victims, Mahogany registers no
emotion when taking human lives, this most notable part of him lending
to one of "The Midnight Meat Train's" most effective sequence. Having
decided to finally follow Mahogany onto a train, Leon lets himself in
for a terrifying ordeal that just might confirm his suspicions.
Similarly excellent, however, is a scene between Maya and Jurgis set
in Mahogany's apartment.

Written by Jeff Buhler and based on Clive Barker's story, "The
Midnight Meat Train" is a complete 100-minute horror film that easily
puts to shame the abysmal likes of the recently released "Saw V." With
fine performances all-round from Bradley Cooper, Vinnie Jones, Leslie
Bibb and Roger Bart, it is a film both magnificently developed and
capably acted, a flawed but nonetheless expert little horror movie
that, for all the wackiness of its denouement, also comes to a whopper
of an ending. Non-fans of the horror genre most certainly might not
like it, but if blood, guts and suspense are all your thing, horror
fans could do much much worse.