One of last year's biggest head scratchers, the August scuttlebutting of Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train, made more than a few heads turn. Without any fanfare whatsoever, the film was unceremoniously dumped in dollar houses and second run theaters nationwide -- another casualty in last year's big Lionsgate shake-up that also killed fellow films Repo: The Genetic Opera and The Burrowers (the very best of the three.) Studio politics, not quality, sent these three films to limited release and, ultimately, to DVD. And all three are worth the watch.

Midnight Meat Train is a full frontal assault on modern horror filmmaking. Unlike much of Lionsgate's fare, it is not some super-slick, teen-geared, ultra-gory horror film starring Abercrombie & Fitch models and the stars of CW TV shows. Nor is it some zero budget, all-grunge-and-grime-and-green-gels, the like of which we've been getting with all the Saw/Hostel clones. No. If this is akin to anything, it is the classic monster movies of the '80s -- the soul-filled horror that has something to say. It just says it with monsters.

And there's really no surprise there. After all, this is based on Clive Barker's very first published (and, apparently, written) horror short story. And it very much shows. Midnight Meat Train isn't exactly the model of intelligent horror. And it certainly lacks the complexity of Barker's later work in which he created entire civilizations and mythologies. But it is a lot of fun and a very effective horror film. Vinnie Jones plays Mahogany, a butcher who rides the subway late at night and uses his trade on fellow passengers when he happens to get them alone on a car. Unfortunately for Leon (Bradley Cooper), a photographer trying to capture the seedier side of the city, he catches Mahogany in the act and subsequently becomes obsessed with him, tracking his every move and trying to get solid evidence on him.

While the movie suffers from a number of minor flaws (like the fact that New York City apparently has only one working detective for the whole city and some of the most over-the-top, ridiculous gore sequences you're likely to ever see), the cinematography is incredible, far and away the best of its kind in horror filmmaking right now. And the film takes its time building a story; the ultimate payoff and reveal make the whole story well worth watching. It really is a good old-fashioned monster movie. Pure and simple.

While the disc comes with a number of special features, very few of them are as watchable as the film. There's an interview/history with/of Clive Barker in which he lays out Midnight Meat Train and talks about its importance in his career and how long it took to get to the screen. There's also a discussion of the film's heavy Mahogany, and how desperately they tried to make him into the next horror icon. And the final featurette is called Anatomy of a Murder Scene, which chronicles how they went about one of the goriest, cheesiest, most garish killing sequences in the history of cinema. You'll either love that sequence or be staggered by its audacity (can someone's eye really be knocked out of its socket with a hammer blow to the backside of the head?). Either way, they're gonna show you how they did it. Lastly, there is a full feature commentary with the director and Clive Barker, which is loaded with trivia.

Recommend (0)

|  Comments (0)

|  Email

|  Share

Share  Facebook Digg del.icio.us