I had rather high hopes for this film going into it as I still consider myself a Clive Barker fan (despite disliking every film based on his work except Hellraiser) and the trailer looked interesting. Unfortunately, however, The Midnight Meat Train does not capitalise on its interesting premise and is more damp squib than great horror. The main problem is definitely the plotting - in short, it just isn't interesting enough. The film is based on just a short story and clearly there wasn't enough material to stretch it out for one hundred minutes, meaning that the film feels drawn out and is not very exciting as a result. The plot focuses on a man named Leon, who is a photographer that specialises in pictures of the dirty city he lives in. He takes his work to some woman who sells photos and she tells him it needs to be better, which means Leon goes back out onto the streets to find something to take a picture of. He finds it in the form of a young girl being attacked. After convincing her attackers to leave, she gets on a train and is never seen again...leading Leon to investigate the disappearance.
The title suggests that the film will be gory, and it doesn't disappoint in that respect. The Midnight Meat Train features plenty of people getting butchered in a variety of nasty ways; but the violence is spoiled for two reasons. First of all, the CGI is awful. Real special effects, when bad, can still be appreciated; but that isn't the case with CGI and the effects are just poor. Secondly, since the story is not interesting, the gore packs less of a punch than it should do. Bradley Cooper is decent enough in the lead - providing a kind of 'everyman' performance that is easy to like. Vinnie Jones is the main standout in a role he was pretty much made for; shame the film wasted him. The story really starts to drag when we reach the middle of the film and each revelation becomes more tedious than the last. I was starting to worry that the film might not actually go anywhere at all and unfortunately my fears were confirmed by the ending; which while definitely the best part of the film, leaves far too many questions unanswered and left me feeling like there was a lack of imagination in the writing of this film. If you want modern subway related horror, see Creep instead. That film wasn't great, but it was better than this.
The title suggests that the film will be gory, and it doesn't disappoint in that respect. The Midnight Meat Train features plenty of people getting butchered in a variety of nasty ways; but the violence is spoiled for two reasons. First of all, the CGI is awful. Real special effects, when bad, can still be appreciated; but that isn't the case with CGI and the effects are just poor. Secondly, since the story is not interesting, the gore packs less of a punch than it should do. Bradley Cooper is decent enough in the lead - providing a kind of 'everyman' performance that is easy to like. Vinnie Jones is the main standout in a role he was pretty much made for; shame the film wasted him. The story really starts to drag when we reach the middle of the film and each revelation becomes more tedious than the last. I was starting to worry that the film might not actually go anywhere at all and unfortunately my fears were confirmed by the ending; which while definitely the best part of the film, leaves far too many questions unanswered and left me feeling like there was a lack of imagination in the writing of this film. If you want modern subway related horror, see Creep instead. That film wasn't great, but it was better than this.