Soon, his terror becomes a twisted dose of obsession to learn more about the mysterious "Subway Butcher," one that leads Leon down a track he can never come back from. THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN (director: Ryuhei Kitamura; screenwriters: Jeff Buhler/based on the short story by Clive Barker; cinematographer: Jonathan Sela; editor: Toby Yates; music: Robb Williamson, Johannes Kobilke; cast: Bradley Cooper (Leon), Leslie Bibb (Maya), Brooke Shields (Susan Hoff), Vinnie Jones (Mahogany), Roger Bart (Jurgis), Tony Curran (Driver), Ted Raimi (Randle Cooper), Barbara . Like Kaufman and the Mahogany from the film,it is implied that allMahoganys are deprived from their voices by having their tongues removed by the Conductor and cut ties with their families and lives to fulfill a bigger role than them, without even sharing any sort of privilege from the government aside from protection since their work is done in complete secret, complete silence. Keep killing suitable victims that enter the subway lines and feed their corpses to the City Fathers. It seems to make sense, thought it was just a result of being the executioner of monsters, perhaps a kind of disease from them. About Lakeshore Entertainment: Founded in 1994 by Chairman and CEO Tom Rosenberg, Lakeshore is the Academy Award winning producer of Million Dollar Baby and producer of such hits as the Underworld franchise, Exorcism of Emily Rose, Crank, Shes the Man, Runaway Bride and Arlington Road. What are the small things that scream "movie set" for you? First of all, the story, altho nothing breathtaking, is unique at least. A concerned Maya and her friend Jurgis examine Leon's photos of Mahogany, leading them to the killer's apartment. The scariest thing about the film isn't its source material -- a Clive Barker short story -- or the copious amounts of gore regularly spewed across the screen. The movie is an allegory for a man becoming homosexual. Mahogany is not a person, but a job/title protected by the highest government in United States of America. Verkopen; Mijn . Quite possibly the most overlooked and mishandled horror films of the past 20 years, The Midnight Meat Train truly lives up to it's title and MPAA Unrated status. So my mission was extremely hard but it was also very simple: make something better than Hellraiser and Candyman. News never stops. Walking through the derelict station, they notice piles of bones, and remnants of a world stretching back centuries, before a final battle between Mahogany (who is still alive) and Leon ensues. Edit, Awards Perhaps it was a little short story. Why is Leon so willing to put his life (and sanity) on the line? The thing is, I dont just push the gore, I push everything. Is it bad to write full-screen, or is there a deeper meaning? If this is the kind of quality material that Kitamura's going to deliver in Hollywood, I hope he stays there. Then, their corpses should go under a process that involves stripping them of their clothes, completely shaving them (that includes hair and genitalia) and hanging them by their feet using a hook to the holding handles of the subway. What purpose does her death serve to the plot, and why was she killed in that weird sacrificial way? Horror Film Wiki is a FANDOM Movies Community. A passenger walks by Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) who has no idea what's about to happen to him. He notices something odd about the empty train and gets up to investigate the compartments, but he stumbles and falls on his back in a pool of blood. And don't forget that he was already obsessed with Mahogany's work before that whole underground monster deal. Freddie Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Pinhead, and that's it! Clive Barker, its author, had arrived. Unfortunately too many producers, directors and writers just want to do it the easy way. Passing out on the subway floor, he awakes the next morning in a slaughterhouse with strange markings carved into his chest. Kings quote, stories like The Midnight Meat Train and the simple connotation of blood in the title of the collection led to an early critical pigeon-holing of Clive as a simple purveyor of graphic violence, with sex and horror thrown in in abundance for good measure. It has been a long time since a major horror film has been given such loving treatment by its director." I used to beg my folks to go to the zoo and watch the lions during their feeding time. 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 conductor then forces Leon to watch as he kills Maya with one of the butcher's knives. Origin Doorgaan naar hoofdinhoud. I started working with Clive on the screenplay way back in 2004, he recalls, and we did at least four drafts before Clive formed the Midnight Picture Company with partner Jorge Saralegui., Noting the need to change the emphasis for the screen from the narrative in the short story prompting the switch away from Leons profession as an accountant he explains, In the short were inside Leons head, so we know what hes thinking and feeling as he observes the city around him. It would have climaxed with a meeting of all the stations, all of the lines. Necessary Serial Killer, The ButcherThe Subway SlaughtererLeon Kaufman, Brute strengthHigh durabilityCombat skills. What remains to date though, is a fiercely inventive and groundbreaking classic of short fiction that changed the horror genre in the early 1980s and continues to shock and inspire, and a work of cinematic vision that captures both the punch and undertow of the source material, while expanding it in fresh and original directions for a modern audience. No punches are pulled. [5], Initially, The Midnight Meat Train was set for a May 16, 2008, release but was delayed. I don't see how something as weak as them could wipe out the human race, to be honest. I didn't like the movie,I wish the movie was "banned" just imagine a young child seeing this?In history serial killers and murders e.t.c.Were motivated by such movies,book of blood,hills has eyes e.t.c. But so far he's fucking scary, yeah, and visually he's great. | "[13], Cinematical called the film "easily the best Clive Barker adaptation since the first Hellraiser film," saying that "screenwriter Jeff Buhler manages to maintain the sly sense of dread that permeates the best of Barker's horror tales. Director Ryhei Kitamura Writers Jeff Buhler (screenplay) Clive Barker (short story "The Midnight Meat Train") Stars Vinnie Jones Bradley Cooper Leslie Bibb The Midnight Meat Train is a 2008 mystery horror-thriller 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. Third, the style is beautiful, dark atmosphere, quite dialog, gothic colours. He was quick, though, to defend the accusation that he was only interested in a single genre or of evoking a single type of reaction from readers. Finally, why did his girlfriend have to die exactly? In the late 1990s, Mark Pavia and Jack ODonnell put together a treatment but timings worked against it being made. The film currently holds a73% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where it was deemed by many as a cult classic in the making, and even leftVariety's Rob Nelsonmaking comparisons to the Rutger Hauer-starred horror "The Hitcher.". I think of my stories as having happy endings, perversely enough, because they very often end with scenes of revelation of one kind or another: characters understanding themselves and realising why they need fresh meaning in their lives. The Thai Version on the other hand is based on the Unrated Version and misses out approx. External Reviews Leon follows Mahogany onto the last subway train of the night, only to witness a bloodbath. Lakeshore Entertainments Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Richard Wright and Eric Reid are producing the film with David Rubin serving as executive producer, and Beth DePatie co-producing. I was asleep on the train, and when it ground to a halt, one of the guards shoved me awake and said, This is as far as we go kid; get off. It was midnight. ", MTV - Clive Barker Blasts Lionsgate Chief Over Midnight Meat Train, Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Interactive Movie, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Midnight_Meat_Train&oldid=1119700924, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 2 November 2022, at 23:39. 2008 103 min TVMA Horror, Sci-Fi/Horror Feature Film Released Year: 2008 Share on: Shop Packages 2008 103 min TVMA Horror, Sci-Fi/Horror Feature Film Cast & Crew Ryhei Kitamura Director Bradley Cooper Leon Leslie Bibb Maya Vinnie Jones Mahogany Brooke Shields Susan Hoff Roger Bart Jurgis Leon drives the narrative of the story, so in that sense, I felt a lot of pressure. A completely empty station. It was the first time I had adapted someone elses material and he was very gracious in letting me take some liberties with the characters, as long as I remained true to the spirit and the tone of the original short story. Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura ("Versus"), "The Midnight Meat Train" is that rarest of horror film that is likely to please both gorehounds and fans of old school horror. It's a very thin line because if he goes too cool, it doesn't work. Leon's involvement quickly turns into a dark obsession, upsetting his waitress girlfriend Maya, who is as disbelieving of his story as the police chief. In fact, the three slim books with their curious photographic covers made little initial impression on the general public but they did start to gain a reputation as something fresh and startling among specialist horror and fantasy circles. The conductor brings Leon's attention to Maya, who has been knocked unconscious and is lying on a pile of bones. They didnt break out to a wider audience, though, until they caught the attention of the biggest name in horror fiction of them all. It's visually engrossing, the acting and story are mostly solid, and it has a great lead villain in Vinnie Jones. The movie has a few admittedly suspenseful sequences and a compelling, unpredictable performance by Bradley Cooper, but it's a mess, in more ways than one. During this time, the photographer phases in and out where he sees some very non-human hands checking his body, eventually waking in Mahogany's slaughterhouse with strange markings carved into his chest. The attempted rape scene in the staircase is also entirely cut (so is the clue with the ring, or the model's murder)Brooke Shield's character also never appears and Leon's motivations are not about fame and money but more about morbid voyeurism.The theatrical version is more dreamlike and confused, as it is mainly focused on Cooper's character and writes off secondary characters 30 minutes in, and is more focused on Leon descending into madness and ultimately hell. Assembling 15 of them to oversee what should have been a fairly simple shocker sounds like a textbook case of too many cooks ruining the MEAT. A well-dressed, barrel-chested man enters the New York City subway at midnight and stalks the late-night passengers of a subway train. The Lowdown. Through his desperation to uncover the city's seedy side, he crosses paths with Mahogany (Vinnie Jones), a serial killer whose hunting ground is the deathly quiet subway where several passengers meet a grisly demise. Ryuhei himself was equally impressed with Jeff: Twenty years ago I read The Midnight Meat Train and it left a real impression on me. [7] The world premiere was on July 19, 2008, at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal, in the presence of director Ryuhei Kitamura. Ryuhei Kitamura does a masterful job of directing this bloodbath with . Very scary, oh so cool. Finally, the police chief hands the train schedule to the new butcher, who wears a ring with the eight pointed star on it, a symbol for the group that feeds the creatures. Hes a fantastic visual director. The DC remains the dominant version worldwide. New Poster for M. Night Shyamalan's 'Knock at the Cabin', Press J to jump to the feed. The Midnight Meat Train was released theatrically in Australia on February 19, 2009. Leon Kauffman: I've got a train to catch. Why does Leon not murder the conductor? Then, on page 12, Clive hit them with The Midnight Meat Train.. HD. The things that eat people are called the fathers. I'm not even remotely kidding. While this is never explained, this, along with the occasional bouts of him coughing up blood, suggests that Mahogany isn't the No. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Mahogany, battered, fights to the death with Leon. The Green Line runs red. Vinnie Jones, playing Mahogany, commented, Its one hell of a movie Its just in your face, raw as they come. There's an energy to the film's final 10 minutes that's unmatched in recent horror films, and Kitamura's penchant for hard-hitting action, while suitably controlled, is always just below the surface. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Without a kindred heart to love, and being permanently silenced from telling the world, Leon has lost everything. Why do the butcher and conductor feed them human corpses? Bloody Disgusting said that "Clive Barker fans will rejoice in what director Ryuhei Kitamura has given them. Goals Read our extensive list of rules for more information on other types of posts like fan-art and self-promotion, or message the moderators if you have any questions.