Midnight Meat Train

[jkwest]

I just watched this horror movie on Friday...one of the best horror films to come out of Lionsgate since the original Saw.

I was blown away at its greatness....solid original storyline as well...

9.5/10

[jw]

I love this movies title, sounds so much like a porno title

[jkwest]

Originally Posted by jwbbud

I love this movies title, sounds so much like a porno title

tell me about it!!!

I tried telling a co-worker about it and he was like, "wait....what!? Midnight MEAT Train!?"

[deadhatetheliving]

Ok the good: Love to see more of Clive Barkers work on the screen.
The bad: Couldn't get past the horrible ass CGI blood. Hey Hollywood CGI and horror movies=crap. Horror movies need practical effects.

[bradley4846]

not sure if this has been talked about. but what the heck happened at the end of this movie, and what were those boil things on his neck

[SlipcoverLover]

Originally Posted by jcarugati

I keep hearing that MMT has an extremely grainy picture. Can anyone help me out with this? I know bluray.com said the PQ was fine, but another reviewer said it has the most grain he's ever seen in a film on Blu.

I don't want to buy it on Blu if it's really distracting. But I do love this movie.

Any help would be welcome...

I'm watching it now for the first time on blu-ray and ughhhh the grain is so noticeable.

[fermochi]

Gloomy atmosphere.

[bryantburnette]

Finally getting around to seeing this. Not much of a movie, in my opinion, but I've seen worse. I thought the picture quality was terrible, but I don't know if that's a transfer thing or a problem with the look of the movie itself. My hunch is the latter. Was it shot digitally?

[LanceL]

Originally Posted by blu-mood

Just watched this last night. Good movie, not great, but better than a lot of the horror dreck that was released last year. As reported before, a lot of the CGI effects were obvious and terrible. Worth a rental, but I'm glad I didn't buy it.

Would have been so much better if they used practical effects. I can't watch it again because of the CGI.

[TripleHBK]

Over the last few years I've slowly been picking up Clive Barker Novels here and there. About a month ago I finally finished off the Books of Blood Series by picking up a hardbound edition of Volumes 1-3 and have been slowly working my way through that book. It was during this reading that I finally read "The Midnight Meat Train" and found it to be far more interesting than what I had thought it was about and so I decided that I of course needed to track down a copy of the Blu Ray now as well which arrived today.

For years I slept on this film because I thought it was going to be a straight up low budget slasher that had really bad cgi effects... I had no idea of the more "interesting" aspects found in the 3rd act as told in the book and was curious if the film followed that general plot line or not. Low and behold I was very pleased tonight by the film and feel bad that I've slept on this film for so long. There are a handful of bad CGI effects in this film which really do hurt it, however overall this a truly a fantastic film and it's a shame that it never made it's way to theaters as I feel it would have helped ensure it had a bit of a better cult following that it currently does.

I highly recommend giving this one a look if you haven't seen it before and in turn would also recommend buying the Books of Blood books as well.

[sandman slim]

The Midnight Meat Train did get a theatrical release; I saw it twice here in Memphis. What happened was, there was some sort of behind the scenes studio politics that derailed it, then they realized that they were actually contracted for a nationwide theatrical release. Had to play on a minimum of 100 screens for two weeks... so Lionsgate went after bookings at second run, "dollar" theaters. Damn good horror film, could've been a moderate hit, but the suits decided to bury it. And this was Ryuhei Kitamura's first US production. Welcome to Hollywood, Kitamura-san.

[TheZatch]

Originally Posted by sandman slim

The Midnight Meat Train did get a theatrical release; I saw it twice here in Memphis. What happened was, there was some sort of behind the scenes studio politics that derailed it, then they realized that they were actually contracted for a nationwide theatrical release. Had to play on a minimum of 100 screens for two weeks... so Lionsgate went after bookings at second run, "dollar" theaters. Damn good horror film, could've been a moderate hit, but the suits decided to bury it. And this was Ryuhei Kitamura's first US production. Welcome to Hollywood, Kitamura-san.

I too caught it during its brief theatrical run at a second run theatre in Youngstown, Ohio. I was the only person in the auditorium unfortunately, but really enjoyed the film nonetheless. I should probably give my BD a rewatch during spooky season this year.

[Vixen of the Night]

Originally Posted by sandman slim

The Midnight Meat Train did get a theatrical release; I saw it twice here in Memphis. What happened was, there was some sort of behind the scenes studio politics that derailed it, then they realized that they were actually contracted for a nationwide theatrical release. Had to play on a minimum of 100 screens for two weeks... so Lionsgate went after bookings at second run, "dollar" theaters. Damn good horror film, could've been a moderate hit, but the suits decided to bury it. And this was Ryuhei Kitamura's first US production. Welcome to Hollywood, Kitamura-san.

Yep! I saw it in a second run theater myself here in MN. It was out in the burbs. The theater had a decent sized crowd of obvious horror/heavy metal fans who were aware of the movie.

I remember seeing the trailer in theaters when it was originally planned for an actual wide theatrical release, then it disappeared and suddenly showed up in a second run theater later in the year.

[nathanashby]

Originally Posted by sandman slim

The Midnight Meat Train did get a theatrical release; I saw it twice here in Memphis.

Fellow Memphis resident here.

[snipemonkey]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

Over the last few years I've slowly been picking up Clive Barker Novels here and there. About a month ago I finally finished off the Books of Blood Series by picking up a hardbound edition of Volumes 1-3 and have been slowly working my way through that book. It was during this reading that I finally read "The Midnight Meat Train" and found it to be far more interesting than what I had thought it was about and so I decided that I of course needed to track down a copy of the Blu Ray now as well which arrived today.

For years I slept on this film because I thought it was going to be a straight up low budget slasher that had really bad cgi effects... I had no idea of the more "interesting" aspects found in the 3rd act as told in the book and was curious if the film followed that general plot line or not. Low and behold I was very pleased tonight by the film and feel bad that I've slept on this film for so long. There are a handful of bad CGI effects in this film which really do hurt it, however overall this a truly a fantastic film and it's a shame that it never made it's way to theaters as I feel it would have helped ensure it had a bit of a better cult following that it currently does.

I highly recommend giving this one a look if you haven't seen it before and in turn would also recommend buying the Books of Blood books as well.

Yep. Agree. It's a good one. Some of the CG blood looks a little fakey but it's not that bad and doesn't detract much IMO.

P.S. -- If you haven't already you should definitely read Barker's The Great and Secret Show (still my favorite of his books) and Imajica. The sheer, mind-blowing imagination of those books still floors me. Too bad he seems to have largely abandoned writing at this point. His last major novel, The Scarlet Gospels was just embarrassingly bad. Like online fan-fiction bad. If I hadn't known better I would have sworn it was someone doing a bad parody of Barker rather than the man himself.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by snipemonkey

Yep. Agree. It's a good one. Some of the CG blood looks a little fakey but it's not that bad and doesn't detract much IMO.

P.S. -- If you haven't already you should definitely read Barker's The Great and Secret Show (still my favorite of his books) and Imajica. The sheer, mind-blowing imagination of those books still floors me. Too bad he seems to have largely abandoned writing at this point. His last major novel, The Scarlet Gospels was just embarrassingly bad. Like online fan-fiction bad. If I hadn't known better I would have sworn it was someone doing a bad parody of Barker rather than the man himself.

What I found interesting about MMT during my viewing is how much it looked like the standard Lionsgate release from that time. It's a bit hard to explain as I'm not convinced it was the director or the way the film was actually shot... but more so almost in the way it was transferred to disc. It had a presentation that just screamed 2005-2010 in the way the disc was presented. I don't want to say it looked like SAW, but... it looked like those first initial Lionsgate discs of which SAW was a part of. As for the CGI... it's unfortunately quite obvious when it occurs and for the life of me I'm not even sure why they used it as nearly every effect could have been done practically for no real additional cost (outside of the eyeballs popping out moment).

In regards to Barker's other works... My copy of Mister B. Gone arrived today and with it's arrival I believe I now own all of Barker's horror inspired works. I really like Barker as a writer and so I may eventually check out his other fantasy works but thus far have been a bit apprehensive as fantasy isn't something I've had much interest in reading thus far. Coincidentally I did actually look to see what, if anything, else is still on the horizon for him and it appears that he has a horror novel offering in "Deep Hill" ready to go as well as another Short fiction collection in "Fear Eternal" which will collect both older out of print stories as well as newer shorts into a new collection and so hopefully before long we'll have more to read directly from him. I also saw that there is another book regarding all of his works and influence in the industry in the form of "Dark Worlds" which he was directly involved with, but isn't a work of fiction which I'm interested in as well.

[snipemonkey]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

What I found interesting about MMT during my viewing is how much it looked like the standard Lionsgate release from that time. It's a bit hard to explain as I'm not convinced it was the director or the way the film was actually shot... but more so almost in the way it was transferred to disc. It had a presentation that just screamed 2005-2010 in the way the disc was presented. I don't want to say it looked like SAW, but... it looked like those first initial Lionsgate discs of which SAW was a part of. As for the CGI... it's unfortunately quite obvious when it occurs and for the life of me I'm not even sure why they used it as nearly every effect could have been done practically for no real additional cost (outside of the eyeballs popping out moment).

In regards to Barker's other works... My copy of Mister B. Gone arrived today and with it's arrival I believe I now own all of Barker's horror inspired works. I really like Barker as a writer and so I may eventually check out his other fantasy works but thus far have been a bit apprehensive as fantasy isn't something I've had much interest in reading thus far. Coincidentally I did actually look to see what, if anything, else is still on the horizon for him and it appears that he has a horror novel offering in "Deep Hill" ready to go as well as another Short fiction collection in "Fear Eternal" which will collect both older out of print stories as well as newer shorts into a new collection and so hopefully before long we'll have more to read directly from him. I also saw that there is another book regarding all of his works and influence in the industry in the form of "Dark Worlds" which he was directly involved with, but isn't a work of fiction which I'm interested in as well.

I know what you mean about that "early to mid-2000s" aesthetic. It's funny how that kind of thing isn't obvious at the time but a decade later you can see a movie and guess within a pretty good margin the year it was made just by the "look" and the stylistic tics on display.

As for Barker's more "fantasy" stuff -- fear not. It's definitely more fantastical but in an extremely dark/Hellraiser kind of way. He doesn't hold back on the horror even in something like Imajica where he's also doing some serious world-building. I actually think he's better at this than the straight-forward capital-H Horror stuff he started out with. But then "genre" is a bit of a myth anyway, or at the very least extremely fungible. I didn't read The Great and Secret Show for years because I thought it sounded like straight fantasy (of which I am not a fan either) but it really bowled me over once I overcame my reluctance. Such a fantastic story. I really need to read it again (it's been more than a decade now, at least).

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by snipemonkey

I know what you mean about that "early to mid-2000s" aesthetic. It's funny how that kind of thing isn't obvious at the time but a decade later you can see a movie and guess within a pretty good margin the year it was made just by the "look" and the stylistic tics on display.

As for Barker's more "fantasy" stuff -- fear not. It's definitely more fantastical but in an extremely dark/Hellraiser kind of way. He doesn't hold back on the horror even in something like Imajica where he's also doing some serious world-building. I actually think he's better at this than the straight-forward capital-H Horror stuff he started out with. But then "genre" is a bit of a myth anyway, or at the very least extremely fungible. I didn't read The Great and Secret Show for years because I thought it sounded like straight fantasy (of which I am not a fan either) but it really bowled me over once I overcame my reluctance. Such a fantastic story. I really need to read it again (it's been more than a decade now, at least).

Haha, I think you've sold me on it. I've got a bit of other reading to do for the moment but January and February always seem to be the time when I dive back into books the most thanks to the cold dark nights and not much else going on and so I'd wager the odds are good I'll be looking to pick up those works come winter and experience them for myself as well. I appreciate the recommendations as without them I'm not sure I would have ever given Imajica or The Great and Secret Show a serious look otherwise.

[Michael24]

Watched this for the first time last night when I saw it was on Tubi. I remembered seeing the trailer in theaters years ago and was always curious about it. Wow, what a flick! Starts out as kind of a standard amateur detective mystery, then becomes something completely different (and for me, unexpected) by the end. As others have said a handful of CGI moments are pretty bad, but they're relatively quick, and otherwise I loved it. Great performances by Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb and especially Vinnie Jones.

While reading up on the movie afterwards I found out there's a theatrical and unrated cut. I'm not sure which version I saw on Tubi. Can someone point out any major differences between the two cuts? While the movie is still fresh in my mind I would probably be able to tell which one I saw. Thanks.

[ksc2303]

Originally Posted by Michael24

While reading up on the movie afterwards I found out there's a theatrical and unrated cut. I'm not sure which version I saw on Tubi. Can someone point out any major differences between the two cuts? While the movie is still fresh in my mind I would probably be able to tell which one I saw. Thanks.

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