The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

It's pretty rare that I'm so impressed with a movie that I can't wait to see it again. This was one of those movies. It's certainly not for the faint-hearted, or the weak-stomached, but if you can take the extreme levels of gore on display here, I thoroughly recommend it.

This film is about the descent of a character, in this case a photographer called Leon (Bradley Cooper), into madness. When art gallery owner Susan Hoff (Brooke Shields!) suggests he needs to be "braver" in the photographs he is taking, he ends up drawn into a secret that nobody would want to know about, let alone pursue. He photographs a girl who later disappears, then, "coincidentally" ends up taking photos of Mahogany (Vinnie Jones), who, of course, is the guy he ends up suspecting "disappeared" her.

Leon's deterioration is well-presented, and the overall effect is that of growing dread, as he becomes more and more obsessed with finding the truth, regardless of the cost to himself and those who care about him. In the best Lovecraftian tradition, once you know too much, there is no going back...

The Midnight Meat Train is definitely one of the goriest films I've ever seen, and should definitely not be watched by anyone who can't stomach scenes of graphic over-the-top violence and dismemberment! Mahogany's main "tool of the trade" is a large meat tenderiser, certainly a novel weapon, and a nice change from all the hatchets and knives you normally see in splatter movies. The effects, partly prosthetic, partly CGI, are excellent, and probably too realistic, if anything! Certain parts were certainly hard to watch, if only because of the level of detail displayed on screen.

The standout performance, though, is from Vinnie Jones. His methodical approach to his work is just so much fun to watch. I'm not talking about award-winning performances, I'm talking about when a character just "feels right". The claim, in the DVD extras, is that they were trying to create another iconic horror movie villain, like Freddy or Jason, and I honestly believe they succeed. Unfortunately, given the film's limited release and subsequently poor box-office, we may not get a sequel - Not that it needs one, but I'd certainly go out of my way to watch it.

One scene that was particularly impressive was one where the camera spins around a railway carriage as the train plunges through the tunnels, all while a huge fight is going on  inside. A brilliant example of computer assisted camera work. The feeling of speed is quite palpable, as is the chaos of the battle going on.

The director, Ryuhei Kitamura, draws on Japan's film-making style to great effect. I doubt whether any US director would have had the courage, or the vision, required to make a film this brutal. If you liked this, you should definitely check out some of the other great Japanese horror films that have been made in the last 10 years or so. Black Hole Reviews has a long list of these, and I can recommend his blog for those who are interested.