Midnight Meat Train

[Chevstriss]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:19am

this flic is coming to our dollar house this weekend and I've never even heard any mention before. Was it an art house film? a direct to DVD bomb? Its rated R

at last our dollar house is getting off their "kid-friendly only" kick they've been on for a coupla yrs.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:22am

It's a hardcore horror pic based on a novella by Clive Barker.

I'm jealous that we're not getting it here.
Midnight Meat Train

[sally1112]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:27am

sounds like last call at a bar I go to...

[Chevstriss]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:38am

Interesting - "limited release Aug 1" at a $1 house? then straight to DVD. looks like something I can take the husband to.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 12:00pm

The trailer looks good!
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2259812633/

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 12:04pm

Bradley Cooper could ride the caboose of my midnight meat train any day.

[KrissySim]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:25pm

Looks like trash to me. (Lions Gate has gotten so commercial, or something like a new Roger Corman). I wouldn't call this one an "art house film".

I'd watch it if I was in the right mood, with the right people, etc, but $1. sounds about the right price.

* don't get me wrong, Roger Coreman has been associated with some very interesting projects aside from commercial stuff and has helped many break into the film world

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:29pm

Good old Clive Barker, before he went all CA New Age. Loved those BOOKS OF BLOOD.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:31pm

And before he gained all that weight. Oy!

[tazber]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:35pm

He gained weight? Wow, he used to be skeletal.

Favorite book: Weaveworld. What a trip that was.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:40pm

Agree about WEAVEWORLD, easily his best book. I remember going to a signing of his at A Different Light, before he had really come out. He was really charming, and extremely cute.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:48pm

I don't know if he got fat, but age caught up with him quickly. I remember thinking he was such a dreamboat in the mid-nineties and then I saw him in a documentary and I thought "Oh that isn't him...they made a mistake!" Nope, just age.

I also thought his film NIGHT BREED was really underrated and was perplexed at the absence of a sequel.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:54pm

Borstal, seen NIGHTBREED recently? It hasn't aged well either.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:57pm

I met him at a hotel I was working at NY when I was in college. He was nice as can be. I forget what he was promoting.
And yea, Nightbreed hasn't aged well, but I still love it.
Craig Scheffer and really fake looking monsters - what's not to love?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:58pm

I just remembered that I liked it better than HELLRAISER or that thing with Scott Bakula and the magician.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:00pm

Yeah, HELLRAISER was pretty lame, but with some cool things, and that detective thing was worth it only to see Scott Bakula at the height of his beauty.

I don't think Barker's stuff translates onto film well. The magic never quite makes it onto the screen.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:00pm

I really liked Hellraiser.
The only thing I didn't like was that the cenobites didn't come in until the very end.

What is the Scott Bakula movie you're talking about?

[tazber]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:01pm

Just checked imdb. It was Lord Of Illusions.

Never saw it.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:02pm

Its called LORD OF ILLUSIONS, based on a story called, I think, THE LAST ILLUSION or something like that.

Scott's got his shirt off a lot in it. Tasty.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 3:36pm

Article from Nerve.com:

Last fall, I wrote up a Trailer Review for a movie called The Midnight Meat Train, based on a short story by horror maestro Clive Barker. At the time, I had some misgivings about the movie- largely due to director Ryuhei Kitamura- I was intrigued enough by the premise and the Barker name that I filed it away in my mind as one to watch for. Now, nearly nine months later, the movie has arrived in a limited number of theatres, courtesy of its distributor, Lionsgate. According to the horror site Shock Till You Drop, the movie was caught in the middle of a regime change at the studio, with new chief Joe Drake dumping the remaining projects left behind by his predecessor, Peter Block, aside from sure things like the unkillable Saw franchise. Due to the niceties of studio politics, the movie has been quietly opened in roughly 100 theatres, mostly of the discount variety, in order to fulfill a contractual obligation with production company Lakeshore Entertainment. The movie was scheduled to play for a week on its way to a fall DVD release.

With the marketing and distribution costs at an all-time high, and DVD and on-demand supplanting theatrical viewing as the moviegoing experience of choice for the majority of Americans, it’s becoming more and more common to see movies getting this treatment. It can happen for a number of reasons: the films might be difficult to market, there might be the aforementioned studio infighting, or maybe one of the executives simply doesn’t like the movie. Sometimes, the movie just isn’t very good. These factors and others can come into play when it comes to which movies get the shaft from studios.

But how’s the movie, you ask? Is it the horror equivalent of Idiocracy- a cult-y oddball that didn’t get the studio love it deserved? Or was Lionsgate right in dumping The Midnight Meat Train into mostly-empty theatres to be quickly forgotten? Actually, it’s somewhere between these two extremes. Neither a genre masterpiece nor a travesty, it’s a fairly effective, hard-R horror movie. If it’s guts and gore you want, The Midnight Meat Train should satisfy your cravings.

One aspect I liked about the movie was that it belongs less to the tradition of slasher movies than it does to the old-school “meat movie” and, as such, feels less beholden to formula and cliché. Unlike slasher movies- which devote an inordinate amount of attention to the killing and mutilation of women- Kitamura and Barker are pretty equal-opportunity in portraying their victims, which I appreciated. In addition, the movie plays in parts like the straight-horror flipside to David Fincher’s Se7en, as our protagonist (played by Bradley Cooper) finds himself unable to look away from the violent heart of the city. It’s not until he’s spurred on to really probe this hear that he finds much more darkness and horror than he could have imagined. I haven’t read the Barker story upon which it’s based, but I would imagine that this theme is present there as well.

Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t work as well as it could, due in large part to director Ryuhei Kitamura. Kitamura is a favorite of Asian cinema fans, but I found his previous films consistently underwhelming. Versus’ zombies-versus-yakuza premise cemented the movie’s rep in the hearts of fanboys, but it was too slipshod and unevenly paced to work for me. Likewise, Godzilla: Final Wars succeeded in the giant-monster scenes but failed when the director tried to inject human storylines into the mix. But most of all, Kitamura’s tendency toward show-offy camera work and needless CGI have been consistently problematic, and it’s these same issues that keep The Midnight Meat Train from being as good as it could’ve been. During the most potentially frightening scenes, Kitamura’s use of computer generated gore and camera trickery took me right out of the movie, making me think of how he pulled off the shot rather than being scared.

Yet I would still recommend The Midnight Meat Train to anyone who’s into horror. Bradley Cooper makes a sympathetic protagonist in his early scenes, and is convincingly crazy later on. I also liked Vinnie Jones as the silent killer, his imposing frame used to good effect here. And in spite of Kitamura’s look-at-me! direction, the movie contains a number of effective sequences, including a final-reel revelation that left me quite pleasantly surprised. So if you like horror, give The Midnight Meat Train a look when it comes to DVD. After all, it’s not like Lionsgate is giving you many other options.

[Chevstriss]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 6:58pm

well perhaps it IS worth the $1, or rather $2, one for me, one for the hubby. Looks like we better hurry, 1 week only?

oh and don't forget the $8 for popcorn.

[Kasie]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 7:44pm

Aww, taz. First The Mother of Tears, and now this? You never get any good movies where you are. *hugs*

Anyway, can't WAIT to see this movie. I just love Clive Barker.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 8:43pm

I did however just see a hilarious gore fest called Botched.
Stephen Dorf (yum), Ivan the Terrible, and lots of dismemberment all wrapped up in a farcical series of events.

[Kasie]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 9:02pm

I'm jealous.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 9:04pm

don't be, just go rent it. It's really good.