Review of The Midnight Meat Train (2008) by Frisby 2 — 19 Oct 2011

"Dark", "Grim", & "Brutal" are the key words that best describe this movie altogether.

This has got to be one of the darkest, & most brutally grim [horror] movies I have seen in such a long time, & it was worth it. But that ending...*shakes head* Neptune, I'm still confused about it. It has to be one of the weirdest & most confusing endings, if not the most confusing & weirdest, I have ever seen. So if anyone can explain to me the ending to this movie, I'll appreciate it.

Cast/Acting/Characters: Each actor here performs their characters perfectly, & since I never read the original short story this film is based on, I can't say if they were good or bad casting choices. And I have to say that each character in this movie seriously made me feel sorrow for them, even the villains & the victims. Now, Bradly Cooper, I recently became a fan of him, despite only seeing a couple of movies with him; he doesn't strike me as much of a horror guy, I can only see him as an action &/or comedy man, but even so, he does great here. He gives his best performance playing a dedicated photographer who suddenly becomes more obsessed with being more of a detective than doing what he loves the most & being with his girlfriend. Cooper is a great actor, & definitely a sexy one as well.

As for Leslie Bibb, I haven't seen many movies with her, in fact, I only recall seeing her in less than a handful. I don't remember seeing her anywhere in "Iron Man", & I did not have any interest in watching "Iron Man 2". Now I DO remember her from "Trick R Treat", only her role in there was a pretty quick one, & from Talledega Nights, she plays Ricky Bobby's hot wife. And from those movies I've seen her in, she gives a great performance without a doubt. She plays Cooper's girlfriend, in which she loves him so much & helps him with his photography, but begins to worry & fear for him as he becomes more obsessed with the Butcher & disappearances.

Then there is Vinnie Jones who plays Mahogany (weird name), the villain of the movie & the brutally sadistic butcher of the midnight train. He does a spectacular job playing his character, & that's saying something since his character doesn't say a word throughout the whole movie (despite the one little, yet barely understandable word he says in the end). Just by looking at his character gives you the chills.

The rest of the cast do a fine job with each of their characters, I just don't wanna be doing a review for each & every one of them.

Plot/Story: The story is about Leon (Cooper), a photographer who wants to make himself well known for his photography, & dedicate his life to his girlfriend Maya (Bibb). Until one day he becomes more interested in a specific man, & finds some sort of link to a few disappearances, & then becomes obsessed with this butcher. What I love about this movie's plot is that it has a good pacing, & gets to where it needs to without hesitation. Though the melodrama this movie has, could have used a bit more work. I'm not saying that the love between Leon & Maya was a bad thing for the movie, it just felt a little unfocused, & thus making you ask the question if their love was necessary in the movie.

But what I really like about this movie is how it makes even the villain look like a main character. But there was a serious lack of back story to him & much that wasn't explained about him or ever brought up again. Such as **Spoiler, skip the the next paragraph to avoid spoilers** when he (Mahogany) took & cut off pieces of fleshy lumps from his chest, & placed them in a small jar. They only focused on that for that exact scene, & was never brought back up again. Why were those growing on his chest? Or in fact, what was he? Then there is the concept of the ending where Leon was explained about he would be the next Midnight butcher of the trains. It didn't make much sense, & still was extremely confusing.

As for the ending, yeah, like I said, it was weird & confusing. Not only that, but it was painfully sad. It's almost too painful to continue watching it once the ending comes. I'm not joking you when I say this is one of the most painful endings I have ever watched. It's almost as painfully sad to watch as the ending from "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride".

Directing: The directing is done greatly, & has some great editing. It is also dark, very dark, not only in tone & theme, but also in lighting. I think the director to this movie has a thing for dark-looking eyes especially; because many scenes of the characters had them looking with very dark sockets.

Effects: I seriously asked myself if it was necessary to use a heavy amount of CGI blood for this rather than the more realistic fake blood they would normally use. And I also asked myself why don't we get movies like THIS ONE in 3D? Because blood, guts, eyeballs & more are flying out towards the screen that would have been totally worth seeing in 3D (not none of that Smurfs 3D or Yogi Bear 3D bullshit). No, for the gore & blood spattering fans, this is your kind of movie to watch. But if you're squeamish, &/or even afraid of blood, avoid this movie at all costs. And lemme tell you that most of the scenes involving killings are just painful to look at, heck you might even feel attacked yourself.

Music/Score: This movie apparently has a soundtrack to it, when all I honestly recall is a lovely score. The score to this movie is eerie, dark, & even a times chilling. But the score gets much better towards the end of the movie. Movie score fans may adore it, because I sure know I did.

Dialogue: Quite possibly the most questionable thing of the movie. Most of the dialogue was ok, but as for the rest of it, it's pretty questionable.

Chemistry: The chemistry between Cooper & Bibb is both hot & wonderful. They make a believable couple, & a hot one to make it better.

Camera: The camera use in those movie is spectacular, & especially much better than most other horror movie camera movements. From other, the camera movements either shake too much when characters run or are being attacked, & give very boring angles. This movie gives some amazing dynamic angles, greatly coordinated movements, & rarely, to never shake during battles.

So overall, this is a genius horror movie, & is almost everything a horror movie should be, dark, eerie, creepy, grim, great characters, a great story, & a wonderful score. This is definitely a cult classic, but with a weird ending.