Leon Kauffman (Bradley Cooper) is an aspiring photographer. His live-in girlfriend, Maya (Leslie Bibb), has arranged for a meeting between Leon and Susan Hoff (Brooke Shields), an art dealer who could take his career to the next level. After seeing his work, however, Susan advises Leon to become more daring with his shoots of New York City. To find more interesting subject matter, Leon decides to travel into the subway system at night.
On his first night in the subway, he sees a woman about to be attacked by a gang. After taking some photos of the incident, he confronts the gang and points out that they’re being filmed by surveillance cameras. They leave the woman unharmed and, after thanking Leon with a kiss, she boards the late subway train. The next morning, Leon sees a story in the newspaper about the woman. Her name is Erika and she’s a well-known model. It seems that she’s disappeared without a trace. Leon takes his photos of the missing model to the police so they can investigate, but the detective he speaks to seems strangely disinterested in his evidence.
Leon returns to the subway the next night to see if he can get some more visceral images of the city. He comes across a man (Vinnie Jones) dressed in a suit and tie and carrying a large medical bag. Leon becomes inexplicably intrigued and follows him. After taking some photos of the man, Leon becomes convinced that he is somehow connected to the disappearance of the model.
What Leon doesn’t know is that this man is more than just connected. He actually stalks the subway system at night; bludgeoning fellow passengers with a large steel hammer. Erika was just one of many to meet him and die in the tunnels below the city.
Director Ryuhei Kitamura (Godzilla: Final Wars) brings a wicked visual style to The Midnight Meat Train that almost propels it above typical slasher fare. Unfortunately, unnecessary CGI enhancements to the gore effects nearly succeed in turning the brutal proceedings into a cartoon. The film is based on a short story by Clive Barker, who’s best known to horror film fans as the creator of the Hellraiser and Candyman series. However, the screenplay was penned by Jeff Buhler, who fleshes out (pun intended) the story into the equivalent of a “Saturday Night Live” skit that doesn’t seem to know how to end.
Kitamura has been quoted as saying he was trying to create a new horror movie icon with Mahogany, the subway butcher, and to his credit, Vinnie Jones is spectacularly evil and menacing in the role. It’s just a shame that the movie lets him down by collapsing in the third act. Gorehounds and extreme horror fans will certainly enjoy The Midnight Meat Train more than the average film-goer and I respect that. I just wanted more from a movie that looked as if it might break free of some of the typical genre trappings.
2.5 out of 5.0 stars
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