Midnight Meat Train was my 7th and final flick for my horror week. I had seen this one once before and I thought it was great, now after watching it again I thought it was even better the second time around. Its like they say, twice as nice! Below is my detailed review of this movie!
This movie was released in 2008 to a select few theaters and definitely nowhere near me otherwise I would have seen it in the theaters. I guess that due to the extreme gore and brutality of this film it was not made for wide release even though it had Bradley Cooper in it. Cooper stars as Leon an amateur photographer trying to break into the business. In a small and definitely offbeat role Brook Shileds stars as Susan Hoff the photographer extraordinaire guiding Leon. Leslie Bibb plays Leon's girlfriend Maya but the main star is Mahogany played by Finnie Jones. I remember him from his role as the ecstatic crazy soccer player in the movie Euro Trip. Mahogany is a crazed beast of a killer who murders people on the subway and does so quite brutally.
This film was very unique and clever. The story was something new that hadn't been done before but the gore factor was the big draw to this film. This movie had wonderfully executed graphic kill scenes all at the hands of Mahogany. He was a man of very few words in fact I believe he only spoke a few at the very end of the movie and that was it. He is almost a prototype of someone you would think to to be a calm collective serial killer just by his demeanor alone. He was so calm that it was downright eerie and creepy. Just take a look at the pic below to see what I mean.
As the movie progresses Leon starts to suspect that the guy on the train, Mahogany, could be a dangerous killer after reading a newspaper article about a model who was missing who entered onto the train that he was on. The story is basically how Leon follows Mahogany and comes to a shocking conclusion. His girlfriend and her friend both get involved as well and they are all in immediate danger as they have no clue what they are up against.
Mahogany is shown killing passengers at will and does so in brutal fashion. The most notable to me was the couple and the friend who lost their lives to this deranged killer. The CGI special effects in this movie are brilliant and some of these death scenes are so brutal and so gory they look incredibly real. One thing that makes this so is the unbelievably crystal clear sound throughout these graphic attack scenes. The sound editing in this film is absolutely amazing. You can hear every hit and stab and do so in ridiculously clear definition, HD one could call it. Just check out some of the photos below.
This movie had several things going for it and had it not been for the brutality and gore factor I think this could have been a top rate film that could have made lots and lots of money at the box office. It had Bradley Cooper in it who is one of the hottest actors around, all the makings of a great suspense thriller, clever storyline, intriguing yet mysterious villain/killer, and a beautiful creepy setting on a subway train in the middle of the night in the city. Right there to me those are top quality elements you want to have in a successful film. I think this one personally was a huge hit and one that after word of mouth got out about it did really well in the rental world.
My favorite scene would have had to been that kill scene involving the couple and the friend just because of the unbelievable special effects. The sheer brutality of the act being done and how it was done was shocking. I cant even explain what all happened but by some of the photos in this blog you can surely tell it was pretty crazy. This is one you have to see to actually get the full effect of everything and as crazy as it may sound there are even some scenes after that one that are just as crazy. The intricately detailed scene where he plucks out the teeth of the dead victims is haunting and again the sound is crazy clear. From the upside down naked bodies hanging like carcass to the tongue removing scene this film has enough graphic scenes to satisfy the biggest horror fan out there.
What I loved most about this film was that it does not in anyway seem like an under budget gore fest horror film that is basically plot less and just tries to force graphic scenes at the audience. Obviously with Bradley Cooper on board this wasn't a small budget flick but still it never hit the big screens nationwide so it obviously wasn't a big budget film like it could have been and I'm glad it wasn't. Had it been it would not have been the same because too many of the juiciest parts of the film would have surely been cut and it wouldn't have had the same bite as it did. With taking everything into effect as relying mostly on its horrendous nature of the crimes I would easily give this film an A-!
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