Review of The Midnight Meat Train (2008) by Greenisgood — 04 Sep 2019

TL;DR- I see what this film was trying to do, and to quite a extent appreciate it for it's originality. There was one scene in particular that should have been edited out, along with the aforementioned 'Scene' and streamlining some story, scenes/characters would have given us a tense and tighter 'Must-Watch' masterpiece. A good one time watch and probably why this movie is relatively obscure even with stellar performances from Cooper and Vinnie Jones. The movie scores high for Originality which is Clive Barker's gift to the existence of the movie, would have been better if it were to focus on it's stronger points rather than trying to make it more palatable for the masses.

The Good.

Bradley and Vinnie were the best parts of the film. Their cat and mouse dynamic gave us the more tense and edge of the seat scenes, even them facing off each other towards the climax was extremely satisfying. I seen a lot of comments mentioning the over all ending and plot being a negative point, but with Clive Barker's imagination it was expected to go in this direction and personally it was effective.

Some of the gore effects, and I emphasize 'SOME'; were extremely unsettling and the horrifying coldness of 'The Butcher' added that panache which will give gore-hounds bang for their buck. The originality of the story is one of the stars though the screenplay and how the story flows was almost perfect for what the film was trying to be, just misses it's mark.

The Bad.

The one scene I mentioned earlier was the scene of Bradley Cooper being marked by the Demon/Creature, this one scene was really not necessary along with a few other unnecessary things which we will come to. It was probably done as a setup to quell any sort of back lash for the ending, but personally I felt it would kept the mystery intact and allow for a more impactful movie as a whole. Not seeing Bradley Cooper getting marked by an out-worldly figure and only having Cooper see the marking on The Butcher's chest would have been the cherry on top since the Train Driver explains it all anyways.

As for the other unnecessary parts to the film that should have been streamlined was Leslie Bibb's Maya who added nothing other than a waste of time clearly since some of her important scenes were haphazardly written. Other than having the love story wedged in there for no reason Maya serves as just a distraction from the film, since all she does is play a helpless girl.

It would have been more effective to have her be Leon's Sister who may have been a photographer herself, it would have been the emotional tether but effectively cut out the love story altogether giving us more time and individuality for the characters.

Maya exists earlier in the film to signify to the audience Leon's increasing obsession with 'The Butcher' but the time frame is so abrupt that it is actually jarring when she goes from normal to upset/crying about the same.

The whole scene of her breaking into Butcher's room was so dumb and I challenge any one to sit through it without wondering how did she figure out or see the exact door of Vinnie's hotel room when all she saw was a photograph of the Hotel Name. In the scene as well when The Butcher exits his room Maya and Jurgis come from around a corner where it would have been impossible to tell which room he came out of. Also her getting on the train made no sense as well since Cooper was going on to the train any ways as we see from his preemptive gearing up and his shocked look when he sees her on.

Jurgis too was just a distraction as Jurgis and Maya could have just been one character Leon's Sister who was a photographer or a journalist herself fulfilling every story element the aforementioned characters existed for as well as streamlining the plot and budget. Budget mainly since the initial Establishing kills of Vinni Jones awesome portrayal of 'The Butcher' is marred by some very poor and scene ruining blood splatter effects. Thankfully this was absent in the latter half of the movie being replace by good practical effect.