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Midnight Meat Train

posted Aug 6, 2008, 6:26 PM by Vu Nguyen
I do love Clive Barker, let me tell you.  Ever since I seduced by Hellraiser 2, I went and bought many of his books. I love his trilogy The Books of Blood which I have bought twice over after my first set was lost in a house move.  One of the story from the Books of Blood is "Midnight Meat Train", which this film is based on.

 Nowhere on the main credits do you see Barker's name (ala Clive Barker's Nightbreed or Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions), so you go in the film not knowing that this is a Clive Barker story.  In his early stories, Barker concentrated on demons and the supernatural (he seems to have gone sci-fi in his later books if you ask me), so Midnight Meat Train has a bit of the supernatural flair - which doesn't translate well on film.

I think if they had (shock) change the story to focus more on the serial killer elements (about a butcher who kills people on the midnight train), it would've been cool.  Once you get to this point of weirdness, that's when the film fails for me.  So basically three acts of the movie is pretty good, it's the last part, the ending, that I wasn't that keen on.  Also, maybe "bullet-tooth" Vinnie Jones' character didn't scream scary for me :/

Oh also, Ted Raimi makes a surprisingly eye-popping cameo.

I will go on to say that if you're interested in a thriller, this would be great movie for you.  It's currently not out on DVD, yet, but well worth a rental.
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