If you are a horror movie or Clive Barker fan then you will love Midnight Meat Train (now available on DVD). Read on:

Video and Presentation

The presentation of Midnight Meat Train features what one can only imagine is a purposefully ridiculous amount of grain. There really can be no other logical explanation for it, seeing as how the theatrical presentation was especially clean-looking. And while the excessive grain provides the cold, metallic, train-car murders with a raw sense of tension and atmosphere, it has the negative effect of making the rest of the movie appear especially noisy. Every sequence is alive with the buzz and hum of constant, hugely obvious gain, despite an exceptional contrast and overall nice coloration. It’s a shame really that the transfer wasn’t more successful, but the promise of the image and the rich play between the colors and the deep, deep black levels is just so awfully minimized by the most intrusive grain we’ve seen in a Blu-ray transfer to date.

Score: 6 out of 10

Languages and Audio

The sound, however, truly excels where the visuals falter. Featuring a 7.1 DTS HD transfer, the audio is unrelenting across the channels. Whether it’s the slick, wet sound of bloodletting, the base-filled pounding of hammer against bone or the shrill, metallic rattle of a subway car at midnight, the soundscape is dynamic, unrelenting and loud. Kitamura employs a number of instances of wonderfully directional audio and knows how to use sound to create honest suspense and illicit a handful of frightful jumps. This is the way you want your horror to sound.

Score: 9 out of 10Packaging and Extras

Midnight Meat Train features only three extras and a commentary, but each of these provide some incredible value for the experience:

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Midnight Meat Train is sure to satisfy fans of the slasher genre. It won’t disappoint! Read on:

Chances are good that if you’ve heard of The Midnight Meat Train, you’ve heard that Lionsgate – for whatever horrific reasons – has decided to essentially derail the film by releasing it anonymously on only 100 theatres. And, if the recent reports are to be believed, those venues will consist largely of the smaller, out-of-the-way, dollar-theatres still scattered across the country. Certainly, this is a rude damnation for any film with such an iconic pedigree as Clive Barker behind it, but the upside (if indeed there is one) is that with minimal effort audiences will only have to pay a scant few dollars for what may be one of the best horror films to hit the big-screen in the last few years.

The conceit of Midnight Meat Train is relatively simple: Photographer Leon Kauffman (Bradley Cooper) is on a mission to capture the city. Not just the winding streets and brick and facades, but the spirit of the place, offered up in stark black-and-white. One evening, Kauffman photographs a woman on the subway who turns up missing the following morning. Returning to the scene, Kauffman eventually encounters Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) – an imposing figure in a charcoal suit and tie – who, as it soon turns out, is butchering his victims on the late-train and unloading their meat in what Kauffman presumes is the meat-packing plant where Mahogany works. The actual explanation is revealed in a bizarre third-act twist that readers of Barker’s original short story will certainly see coming and by which less informed audiences will likely be polarized.

But make no mistake, Midnight Meat Train is hardcore, bloody, red-raw horror. Director Ryuhei Kitamura – best known for action-packed foreign fare – brings an incredible level of polish and visual sophistication to what is essentially a mid-range script. Not only does the film look incredible through its dark-room red’s and dull, lifeless fluorescents, but it’s also creatively directed. There are shots in this movie – particularly one involving a decapitation from a rather unique point-of-view – that are equal parts brutal, playful and intensely original. Kitamura proves adept at offering not only visceral, violent gore, but at effectively sustaining tension until the opportunity for style and fast-paced action presents itself. There’s an energy to the film’s final 10 minutes that’s unmatched in recent horror films, and Kitamura’s penchant for hard-hitting action, while suitably controlled, is always just below the surface.

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Synopsis:
A photographer propelled to explore his dark side begins tracking a subway serial killer whose brutal butchery makes for the most nightmarish images ever captured on camera in director Ryuhei Kitamura’s adaptation of a short story by horror heavyweight Clive Barker. Leon Kaufman (Bradley Cooper) is just another struggling photographer in search of the perfect subject. Encouraged to explore the sinister side of humanity by a prominent art gallery proprietor (Brooke Shields) who is set to display his upcoming debut, Leon goes against the wishes of his girlfriend Maya (Leslie Bibb) and begins stalking notorious serial killer Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) – whose sadistic murder spree has been making headlines all across the country. As Leon’s fascination with Mahogany gradually grows into obsession, his descent into the killer’s putrid world of murder begins to corrupt his soul while simultaneously dragging his concerned girlfriend down a perverse path of darkness from which there is no return. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Vinnie Jones, Leslie Bibb, Brooke Shields; Directed by: Ryuhei Kitamura

In Theaters: 2008

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