Clive Barker's MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN

[indianasmith]

My friend Todd watched this and said it was really good, so I rented it this week and gave it a go last night, after the wife and I got in from watching RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN.  Talk about contrasts!!

I am not sure where to put this thread.  The movie was well-done, extremely gory, and quite scary in places.  But watching it was a reminder of why I have never really liked Clive Barker in the first place.  This movie is DARK!  Not one admirable character in the whole thing.  The Butcher, who kills people riding the Subway late at night and carves up their bodies, is a memorable villain, and the ending is quite horrific.

But the storyline is so relentlessly grim I felt like I needed a shower after watching it.  I have enjoyed Stephen King and Dean Koontz, and even old Graham Masterton's horror novels in the past.  In most of their works, especially  King's, there are some truly frightening and evil villains.  But in all those works, there is at least one character who consistently does the right thing - and usually survives to tell the tale.

Without giving too much away, let's say that this movie doesn't end happily for ANYONE  . . .

except maybe those inhuman entities, deep under the city, who feast night after night on human flesh . . .


prepared for them by the Butcher.

[Torgo]

This has always been my favorite short story out of The Books of Blood.  The filmmakers made the best film version of it that I felt they could and I really enjoyed it.  Very dark and extremely gory especially in the unrated director's cut version released on dvd. 

[skuts]

The whiney, clingy girlfriend with her cliche' "you have to choose me or your quest" complaint and her fruity friend were really poisonous additions to the story. Why the screenwriters felt the need to add these characters is a mystery to me. The minute she opened her mouth, I was praying for her to get the hammer. Too bad it took so long. Vinnie Jones was great, though.

[WilliamWeird1313]

I really didn't care for it, personally. I loved the original story from the Books Of Blood, but this just seemed like a case of trying WAY too hard to make a very short tale into a feature length film. I could actually FEEL the screenwriter stretching. For me, the material was spread way too thin. I thought it became dull after a while, and I think it tried too hard to scare me/disturb me without ever once succeeding. Kinda like that kid at the mall, hanging outside Hot Topic, trying to make you think he's "dark and tortured" but really he just tries way too hard and comes off as annoying. The acting was alright, though nothing special. Vinnie Jones was suitably intimidating, but that's about it. The chick deserved a good smack. And the special effects were, in my opinion, pretty f**king bad. That Ted Raimi kill will rank as one of the worst attempts at a gore gag I've ever seen for a long, long time. I did like many of the visuals of the film though. The director (I can't remember his name right now, but he's the guy who made Versus) did a great job. I especially love the way he used lots of dull, sterile metal for the subway cars to really play with the idea of the subway as both a slaughterhouse and an autopsy room as well as a means of transportation. Overall, though, I just thought the movie was hack-y. It beats you over the head with itself.

But that's just me.

[Rev. Powell]

I didn't read the short story, and I didn't like the movie at all.  I pretty much agree with what William wrote above.  I found it dull and univolving.  A gore film may be preposterous, but they should never be boring.