The Midnight Meat Train

The Midnight Meat Train (2008): First, let me say there is no similarity between the fine thriller “The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3” and this similarly underground themed movie that also takes place in subway land. While this is also a thriller, the amount of gore depicted in “Midnight” exceeds what is shown in both versions of Pelham 1-2-3 combined by about 100 to 1. This is a movie that rally makes your local transit system look very safe. The unlikely and in some cases impossible events depicted are at least somewhat logically (if you can call anything logical in a horror movie) explained by the end of the flick. When Mr. Meatman attacks a victim, he isn’t neat about it and the subway car is seriously covered in red garnish by the time he is through. I couldn’t figure out how someone in the transit authority wouldn’t have found a bit of excess goo once in a while but at least they do come up with an explanation and to be fair, he does exhibit some of the behavior of a neatness freak after the bludgeoning is finished with.

Most of the action takes place in the subway system of a large generic city where people seem to have a habit of disappearing without a trace. The police don’t seem too concerned since people disappear all the time in this city. Well, that was another bit that was a little hard to swallow but if you can give them a pass on that one you will still enjoy the flow of the plot as well as the flow of the bodily fluids that follow.

A photographer looking for his big break by taking photos of the grit and underbelly of the city stumbles upon a fellow who he thinks may be a serial killer. The movie seems to borrow a lot from the old Antonioni film “Blow Up” where searching for details in a photo may provide clues to the crimes and help prove that a crime actually occurred. Rather than going to the police who didn’t appear very interested in his first attempt at communication, he decides to investigate for himself and gets into really big trouble. The movie escalates into appalling cast mortality and massive blood flinging as the photographer gets closer and closer to the truth which eventually bites him. The ending was a bit unexpected but did help to clear up the many seeming improbabilities with just one big improbable explanation. Overall, “Meat” is a pretty good thriller which contains enough splatter to keep fans of that genre satisfied. The movie was unrated but would probably bleed an R for: massive blunt trauma, hammer to the head, hammer to the knee, hammer to the nose, knife to the same areas, eyeball hitting the camera, lots of hanging around in a subway car, red subway cars, warts in the chest, warts in the cabinet, tongue eating, and for the very hungry group found in the tunnels.