THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN
1 out of 5 stars


wasn’t really blown away with this one... i even had really low expectations too! :P

based on a short story written by horror master clive barker, japanese director, ryuhei kitamura, takes it on and actually gives us a really creepy version of new york city and the subway system. this one stars bradley cooper as leon, a NYC up-and-coming photographer, who tries really hard to capture the essence of the city... his GF maya (leslie bibb) hooks him up with an interview with susan hoff (brooke shields), famed art gallery owner, and she basically tells him to come back when he’s got better pictures of the city. (the ones he presents to her a kind of a bore) this sparks an idea in leon’s mind, and he photographs a pretty young japanese girl getting assaulted by a trio of thugs. he even photographs her getting into the subway,and it really freaks him out when the same girl is declared missing the next day... leon has a hunch that a tall, creepy guy simply named mahogany is behind the disappearances of countless victims, and by tracking his movements, he finds out that the mohogany is butchering people up on the subway! (very bloody scenes esp. since his weapon of choice is a solid silver meat cleaver)

this one started out quite nicely and was very thrilling, but towards the end, you’re lead down a very weird plot “twist”. (it’s not even much a twist, but more of a WTF?!) the butchering scenes are really graphic and truly will gross you out, but points/1 star for good cinematography and nice color filtering to give this a cold/edgy feel. to put it lightly: it could have been better. horror, it is not, but a thriller, it could have been great. the plot “twist” needed more explanation, plus who the hell was mahogany anyway?! ugh... sometimes i really want a good fleshed out story within a movie. however, in this case, it was too much literal flesh and not much of the metaphorical kind... :/