Dir. Ryuhei Kitamura, USA, 2008, 98 mins
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Brooke Shields, Vinnie Jones
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Steven King short stories often result in cinematic success, so why not give Clive Barker's back catalogue a go? A literary genre in himself, he has only inspired one classic, 1980's chiller, Hellraiser, which has since been diluted through insipid sequels and self-parody. So it's time to catch the Midnight Meat Train and join ex-footballer, Vinnie Jones as he does a lot more than grab Gazza's ghoulies, taking a ride on the subway, and smashing skulls whilst he's at it.
A simple and well-worn tale of an innocent couple, corrupted by the darker underbelly of society; photographer Leon (Bradley Cooper, Monster in Law) has an assignment to capture the seedy side of the city, that subsequently leads him to ride the same carriage as slaughterhouse worker (where have we seen that before?) Mohagany (Jones), a serial killer who's a top-up short of an Oyster card. As Leon gets enveloped in the appeal of the dark side he threatens the sanctity of his relationship, and gets a one-way ticket to his grisly fate.
There's a lot to like about the set-up of Ryuhei Kitamura's low-key horror; it's competently shot, though not always taking advantage of the subway setting. Remember the claustrophobia of the underground pursuit in John Landis' An American Werewolf in London? There isn't one example of how the constricting environment is used to crank up the tension, the train is simply a window-filled vessel up-which to splatter the “300-style” comic-book blood, and t should have been an ergonomic character in which to imprison its captors. It removes any notion of tension from proceedings.
The acting is expendable after some initial promise; Cooper's transformation into rough-sex thriving, aggressive obsessive, is flick-of-a-switch unbelievable, a slower DLR (a London-based train line that barely functions) paced descent into depravity would have provided a much more interesting examination of the human psyche in a cityscape dystopia. Vinnie Jones however, is at his best; mute and mean with but one word of dialogue.
There is a stab at some mythos behind the murders with an ending derivative of The Descent, but the overall sheen and TV feel to proceedings mean that this ride quickly derails.
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