The Midnight Meat Train | |
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Directed by | Ryuhei Kitamura |
Screenplay by | Jeff Buhler |
Based on | "The Midnight Meat Train" by Clive Barker |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Jonathan Sela |
Edited by | Toby Yates |
Music by |
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Production companies |
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Distributed by | |
Release dates |
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Running time | 98 minutes [2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $3.5 million [3] |
The Midnight Meat Train is a 2008 American horror film based on Clive Barker's 1984 short story of the same name, which can be found in Volume One of Barker's collection Books of Blood . The film follows a photographer who attempts to track down a serial killer dubbed the "Subway Butcher", and discovers more than he bargained for under the city streets.
The film was directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, and stars Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Brooke Shields, Roger Bart, Ted Raimi and Vinnie Jones. Its script was adapted by Jeff Buhler, the producer was Tom Rosenberg of Lakeshore Entertainment, and it was released on August 1, 2008. The film received mixed reviews. Producer Joe Daley, a long-time friend of Buhler's, brought the two writers together and helped develop the script, along with producers Anthony DiBlasi and Jorge Saralegui, for their and Clive Barker's production company Midnight Picture Show, which was responsible for Book of Blood , the next film adaptation from the anthology of short stories that spawned The Midnight Meat Train.
Leon Kaufman is a photographer who wants to capture unique, gritty city shots. He is crushed when, instead of giving him his big break, gallery owner Susan Hoff criticizes him for not taking enough risks. Emboldened, he heads into the city's subway system at night, where he takes pictures of an impending sexual assault before saving the woman, who kisses Leon before running to catch the subway. After she thinks she's safe, a mysterious man comes from behind her and hits her with a weapon. The next day, Leon discovers she has gone missing. Intrigued, he investigates reports of similar disappearances. His investigation leads him to a butcher named Mahogany, whom he suspects has been killing subway passengers for the past 3 years.
Leon presents his photos to the police, but Detective Hadley doesn't believe him. Leon's involvement quickly turns into a dark obsession, upsetting his girlfriend, Maya, who also disbelieves his story. Leon follows Mahogany onto the last subway train of the night, only to witness a bloodbath. The butcher kills several passengers and hangs their bodies on meat hooks. After a brief scuffle with Mahogany, Leon passes out on the train. He awakes the next morning in a slaughterhouse with strange markings carved into his chest.
A concerned Maya and her friend Jurgis examine Leon's photos of Mahogany, leading them to the killer's apartment. After breaking in, Jurgis is captured, though Maya escapes with timetables that record over 100 years of murders on the subway. She goes to the police but finds Hadley still skeptical. When Hadley presses Maya to return the timetables, she demands answers. At gunpoint, Hadley directs her to take the midnight train to find Jurgis. Leon heads to a hidden subway entrance in the slaughterhouse, arming himself with several knives.
Leon boards the train as Mahogany completes his nightly massacre and corners Maya. Leon attacks the butcher with a knife and the two fight in between the swinging human flesh. Human body parts are ripped, thrown, and used as weapons. Jurgis, hung from a meat hook, dies when he is gutted. The train reaches its final stop, a cavernous abandoned station filled with skulls and decomposing bodies. The conductor appears and asks Leon and Maya to "please step away from the meat." The true purpose of the abandoned station is revealed as reptilian creatures enter the car and start eating the bodies of the murdered passengers. Leon and Maya flee into the cavern. Mahogany, battered, fights to the death with Leon, who stabs a broken femur through Mahogany's throat. A dying Mahogany grins and tells Leon, "Welcome!"
The conductor tells Leon the creatures had lived beneath the city long before the subway was constructed, and the butcher's job is to feed them each night to keep them from attacking subway riders during the day. He picks up Leon and, with the same supernatural strength as the deceased butcher, rips out Leon's tongue and eats it. The conductor brings Leon's attention to Maya, who has been knocked unconscious and is lying on a pile of bones. The conductor forces Leon to watch as he cuts Maya's chest open and removes her heart. He says that, having killed the butcher, Leon must take his place.
Detective Hadley hands the train schedule to the new butcher, who wears a ring with the symbol of the group that feeds the creatures. The killer boards the midnight train and is revealed to be Leon.
The film's original director, Patrick Tatopoulos, originally planned to shoot the film in 2005 in New York City and Montreal. Tatopoulos left the production in 2006 and was replaced by Ryuhei Kitamura. Shooting was moved to Los Angeles, due to the prohibitive cost of shooting in New York City. Various locations, including the L.A. Metro subway system, were used instead. [4] Shooting began on March 18, 2007.
The "official" soundtrack from Lakeshore Records (only containing two remixes of the separately available actual film score) was produced and remixed by Justin Lassen and includes the bands and artists Iconcrash, Breaking The Jar, Blind Divine, Manakin Moon, Three Dot Revelation, Apocalyptica, Slvtn, Alu, Robert Williamson, Johannes Kobilke, Second Coming, Illusion of Order, Jason Hayes, Gerard K Marino, Penetrator, and Digital Dirt Heads. [5]
Initially, The Midnight Meat Train was set for a May 16, 2008, release but was delayed. [6] [7] Ultimately, the film's release on August 1 was limited to the secondary market, of which only 100 screens showed it, with plans for a quick release on DVD. [8] The world premiere was on July 19, 2008, at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal, in the presence of director Ryuhei Kitamura. [9] An internet campaign was started by several horror websites to draw attention to the scaled-down theatrical release. [10]
Barker was angry with Lionsgate's treatment, believing the studio's president Joe Drake to be shortchanging other people's films to focus more attention on films like The Strangers , where he received a producing credit: "The politics that are being visited upon it have nothing to do with the movie at all. This is all about ego, and though I mourn the fact that The Midnight Meat Train was never given its chance in theaters, it's a beautifully stylish, scary movie, and it isn't going anywhere. People will find it, and whether they find it in midnight shows or they find it on DVD, they'll find it, and in the end the Joe Drakes of the world will disappear." [11]
The Midnight Meat Train was released theatrically in Australia on February 19, 2009. DVD and Blu-ray releases followed on July 14. [12]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 71% of 34 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9/10.The website's consensus reads: "A creative and energetic adaptation of a Clive Barker short story, with enough scares and thrills to be a potential cult classic." [13]
In a review written for The Austin Chronicle , Marjorie Baumgarten awarded the film a score of 2½ out of 5 and wrote, "The Midnight Meat Train, at least until it crumbles in the last act, is a well-done horror movie that harks back to the slasher films of the Eighties." [14] Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress praised The Midnight Meat Train, deeming it the best English-language horror film of 2008 and writing, "Well, Midnight Meat Train may be no classic of the genre, but it's certainly a better and more interesting film than most of what passes for horror movies these days." [15] In a review written for PopMatters , Bill Gibron opined that the "splatter noir" film was "part genius, part genre excess" in which the ideas of short story author Clive Barker were "wholly realized in brilliant fashion." [16] Jenni Miller of Première gave the film a score of 3/5 and wrote, "While it's difficult to make a short story into a feature length film, and Midnight definitely has its hiccups, director Ryuhei Kitamura's slick direction and Barker's grotesque details make it stand out from today's slew of remakes and sequels." [17]
Luke Y. Thompson of LA Weekly found the film's plot weak, but had an otherwise positive response to it, calling it "worth the trip" with an ending that was "so totally nuts, you've gotta admire the cojones behind it." [18] Kaleem Aftab of The National criticized the film's story and "cartoonish" special effects, but admitted, "Nonetheless, there is a sprightly energy to the proceedings and a neat twist that makes this mindless fun something of a guilty pleasure." [19] Nigel Floyd of Time Out gave the film a score of 3/5 and found that, while it matched the brutality of the Clive Barker short story on which it was based, it lacked the short's "undertow of skin-crawling, mind-curdling horror." [20] While highly critical of the film's "patently ridiculous" finale, Rob Nelson of Variety still commended aspects of it like the acting and atmosphere and concluded, "Film isn't scary, per se, but it's mostly effective nonetheless." [21]
The Midnight Meat Train was labeled a "fan film" by Tim Cogshell of Boxoffice Pro , who gave it a score of 2½ out of 5 and wrote, "It’s intense, perhaps, beyond reason. But one supposes that's the point. Still, one cannot fathom why anyone would deliberately put themselves through such a thing as this, beyond the requirements of one's occupation—say, film critic or coroner." [22] Phelim O'Neill, in a review written for The Guardian , offered mild praise to the film's "unrestrained attitude to gore" and visuals, but lambasted its "rudimentary characterisation and tired jump/scare tactics" and ultimately awarded The Midnight Meat Train a grade of 2/5. [23] Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly was dismissive of The Midnight Meat Train, giving it a "D" grade and writing, "Jones is a terrifically imposing villain as he slays and flays late-night subway commuters—but the gorefest shifts from a suspenseful '80s slasher template to laughable fantasy/conspiracy mythology, culminating in a finale that redefines train wreck." [24]
Clive Barker is an English writer, filmmaker and visual artist. He came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer. He has since written many novels and other works. His fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser series, the first installment of which he also wrote and directed, and the Candyman series.
Hellraiser is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker in his directorial debut. Based on Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, the film's plot concerns a mystical puzzle box that summons the Cenobites, a group of extra-dimensional, sadomasochistic beings who cannot differentiate between pain and pleasure. It stars Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, and Doug Bradley as the leader of the Cenobites, identified in the sequels as "Pinhead".
Ryuhei Kitamura is a Japanese film director, producer, and screenwriter. Kitamura relocated to Sydney, Australia at age 17 and attended a school for visual arts for two years. In 1997, Kitamura directed and produced the short film Down to Hell, which received a positive response from students, teachers, and an award which motivated Kitamura to seriously pursue a film career. He went on to independently finance and direct his feature film debut Versus (2000). The film proved to be successful within the film festival circuit and opened doors for Kitamura to direct more high-profile films such as Alive (2002), Sky High (2003), Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), The Midnight Meat Train (2008), No One Lives (2012), the live-action adaptation of Lupin the 3rd (2014), and several other Japanese and Hollywood productions.
Nightbreed is a 1990 American dark fantasy horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, based on his 1988 novella Cabal. It stars Craig Sheffer, Anne Bobby, David Cronenberg, Charles Haid, Hugh Quarshie, and Doug Bradley. The film follows an unstable mental patient named Aaron Boone who is falsely led to believe by his doctor that he is a serial killer. Tracked down by the police, his doctor, and his girlfriend Lori, Boone eventually finds refuge in an abandoned cemetery called Midian among a tribe of monsters and outcasts known as the "Nightbreed" who hide from humanity.
Godzilla: Final Wars is a 2004 kaiju film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, with special effects by Eiichi Asada. An international co-production between Japan, Australia, the United States, and China, the film was produced by Toho Pictures, CP International, Zazou Productions, and Napalm Films, and is the 29th film in the Godzilla franchise, the sixth and final film in the franchise's Millennium series and Toho's 28th Godzilla film. The film stars Masahiro Matsuoka, Rei Kikukawa, Don Frye, Maki Mizuno, Kazuki Kitamura, Kane Kosugi, Kumi Mizuno, Kenji Sahara, Masami Nagasawa, Chihiro Otsuka, Shigeru Izumiya, Masakatsu Funaki, Masato Ibu, Jun Kunimura, and Akira Takarada. In the film, when a mysterious race of aliens known as the Xiliens arrive on Earth, the Earth Defense Force (EDF) find themselves locked in battle with various monsters attacking cities around the world, leading them to revive the only chance to save their planet: Godzilla.
Books of Blood is a series of six horror fiction anthologies collecting original stories written by British author, playwright, and filmmaker Clive Barker in 1984 and 1985. Known primarily for writing stage plays beforehand, Barker gained a wider audience and fanbase through this anthology series, leading to a successful career as a novelist. Originally presented as six volumes, the anthologies were subsequently re-published in two omnibus editions containing three volumes each. Each volume contains four, five or six stories. The Volume 1–3 omnibus contained a foreword by Barker's fellow Liverpudlian horror writer Ramsey Campbell. Author Stephen King praised Books of Blood, leading to a quote from him appearing on the first US edition of the book: "I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker."
Leslie Louise Bibb is an American actress and model. Bibb first appeared on television in 1996 with minor roles in a few series, and on film in 1997 with a small role in Private Parts. Her first recurring TV role was in The Big Easy (1997). For her role as Brooke McQueen on the WB Network dramedy series Popular, she received a Teen Choice Award for Television Choice Actress. She has appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Christine Everhart in Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), What If...? (2021), and several viral marketing campaigns in which the character hosts WHIH Newsfront. She appeared as Grace Sampson / Lady Liberty in the Netflix series Jupiter's Legacy (2021). Bibb starred in the 2012 television series GCB and in the 2024 television series Palm Royale.
Versus is a 2000 Japanese zombie action film directed and co-written by Ryuhei Kitamura. The film was an independent co–production between Kitamura's company Napalm Films and Wevco Production in association with KSS and Suplex. In the film, a nameless prisoner, a nameless female and her Yakuza abductors fend off zombies in a forest that resurrects the dead while the Yakuza's mysterious leader attempts to open a supernatural gate hidden within the forest and seize its dark power.
Alive is a 2002 Japanese science fiction film directed and co-written by Ryuhei Kitamura. It is based on the manga of the same name by Tsutomu Takahashi and stars Hideo Sakaki, Ryo, Koyuki, Jun Kunimura, and Tak Sakaguchi. In the film, two death row inmates are confined to an isolation cell with an alien organism that surges the violent nature of its host. Alive was theatrically released in Japan on June 21, 2003.
Hellraiser is a British-American horror media franchise that consists of eleven films, as well as various comic books, and additional merchandise and media. Based on the novella The Hellbound Heart by English author Clive Barker, the franchise centers around the Cenobites which includes the primary antagonist named Pinhead.
Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh is a 1995 American supernatural horror film directed by Bill Condon and starring Tony Todd, Kelly Rowan, William O'Leary, Bill Nunn, Matt Clark and Veronica Cartwright. Written by Rand Ravich and Mark Kruger, it is a sequel to the 1992 film Candyman, which was an adaptation of Clive Barker's short story, "The Forbidden". Its plot follows a New Orleans schoolteacher who finds herself targeted by the Candyman, the powerful spirit of the murdered son of a slave who kills those who invoked him.
Tak Sakaguchi is a Japanese actor, director, fight choreographer, stuntman and martial artist. He is best known for his role in Ryuhei Kitamura's cult film, Versus. Since his debut, Sakaguchi has worked with Kitamura several times, often appearing alongside fellow Kitamura staple Hideo Sakaki. He has also worked with frequent Kitamura collaborators Yudai Yamaguchi and Yuji Shimomura. Sakaguchi is a talented martial artist, and most often appears in films featuring copious fight scenes, usually performing all of his own stunts. He is purportedly skilled in Bajiquan, Shorinji Kempo, Boxing, Kickboxing, and while recently filming Re:Born learned the tactical martial art Zero Range Combat developed by Yoshitaka Inagawa.
Book of Blood is a 2009 British horror film directed by John Harrison and starring Jonas Armstrong, Sophie Ward, and Doug Bradley. It is based on the framing stories "The Book of Blood" and "On Jerusalem Street " from Clive Barker's Books of Blood.
Darker Magazine is a Russian monthly horror webzine. It covers various sorts of horror media, including slasher, splatter, exploitation films, as well as horror literature, videogames, comic books and dark music. The magazine is in regular publication since April, 2011. It is part of Russian Horror Web. It publishes articles, interviews, reviews and short stories by Russian and foreign authors. The zine also helds an annual literary contest “The Devil's Dozen”, which is the largest among horror stories in Russian. Darker Magazine is a cult outlet in Russian Internet horror segment, and its mission is support of horror in Russia. It is published on the initiative and with the assistance of The Horror Authors Association and Horror Web media network. The zine is funded by its subscribers.
A creepypasta is a horror-related legend which has been shared around the Internet. The term creepypasta has since become a catch-all term for any horror content posted onto the Internet. These entries are often brief, user-generated, paranormal stories that are intended to frighten readers. The subjects of creepypasta vary widely and can include topics such as ghosts, cryptids, murder, suicide, zombies, aliens, rituals to summon supernatural entities, haunted television shows, and video games. Creepypastas range in length from a single paragraph to extended multi-part series that can span multiple media types, some lasting for years.
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Anthony DiBlasi is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter known for his work in horror films. He made his directorial debut in 2009 with the film Dread, based on the 1984 short story of the same name by English novelist and filmmaker Clive Barker. DiBlasi also directed and co-wrote the 2014 film Last Shift and the 2018 film Extremity.
Hellraiser is a 2022 supernatural horror film directed by David Bruckner, with a screenplay by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, from a screen story co-written with David S. Goyer. A reboot of the Hellraiser franchise, the eleventh installment overall, and the second adaptation of the 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker following the 1987 film, the film stars Odessa A'zion as a young woman recovering from addiction who ends up with a mechanical puzzle box that can summon the Cenobites, humanoid beings who thrive on pain being pleasure. Jamie Clayton, Adam Faison, Drew Starkey, Brandon Flynn, Aoife Hinds, Jason Liles, Yinka Olorunnife, Selina Lo, Zachary Hing, Kit Clarke, Goran Višnjić, and Hiam Abbass appear in supporting roles.
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