Eye Candy #82 - "The Midnight Meat Train"

The Midnight Meat Train: It’s been a while since Hollywood has graced us with a Clive Barker movie and I have to say, I’ve missed them. Sure “Nightbreed” and “Hellraiser” weren’t “Gone with the Wind” or even my favorite horror movies, but they certainly weren’t dull. And you just know you’re not going to get a straight horror picture out of ol’ Clive. Leon is a photographer who takes pictures of accidents and crime scenes. Whilst taking pictures, he discovers a large taciturn man who seems to be present at the site of various disappearances, all involving the subway late night. The man, Mahogany, is a butcher and a serial killer, but oh, you know this isn’t your father’s serial killer movie. He uses a silver meat hammer to kill his victims before hanging them like slaughterhouse carcasses in the subway cars. Leon sets out to stop Mahogany, while Leon’s girlfriend tries to find out what exactly has gotten into Leon’s head and his desire to expose the butcher. Throw in some utterly ridiculous and gory violence (people being hit on the head so hard their eyeballs pop out, blood squirting like arterial spray, decapitations completely with Behead-o-cam, teeth and fingernails ripped out with pliers, hooks ripping through ankles, disemboweling) which gets fun after a while, but then the film takes a swerve about 2/3rds of the way through into pure Barker territory because you get to learn WHY Mahogany is killing people…and WHO he is killing them for. Vinnie Jones is certainly menacing as Mahogany (and he says all of one word in the film), and Bradley Cooper and Leslie Bibb are both good as Leon and his girlfriend. What was most refreshing about this film is that it wasn’t a remake of any other horror movie, whether American or Asian. I can’t remember the last time I saw one that wasn’t a remake of some kind. Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”