I’m not really a big fan of horror movies. I can appreciate being scared, or even straight up terrified. The reason I’m not really into them in general is because they are often way too predictable for me.  The ones that do appeal to me offer something new in terms of presentation, storyline, or both. Clive Barker’s films have always held great potential for me. He comes up with unique characters and plot lines that are unlike anything in horror films.  Some of his movies are brilliant, while others have a lot of promise that never winds up fully realized. Midnight Meat Train is a relatively low key release based on a short story by Barker.  After first watching the trailer it was clear that there were tons of great ideas in this film, but whether they would develop into a great movie was another question.

Midnight Meat Train is the story of a young photographer named Leon (Bradley Cooper) who wants to capture the heart of the city on film. He winds up photographing people on the subway, and inadvertently stumbles onto a serial killing butcher (Vinnie Jones) who slaughters and carves up his victims on the late night trains.  Leon becomes more and more obsessed with the butcher and continues to follow him until his life becomes suddenly connected to the butcher.

The premise of the movie starts out fairly interesting and grows more and more intense as the movie progresses. Although I didn’t get his casting at first, Vinnie Jones gives an excellent performance. He is naturally a pretty physically imposing figure, however, his role in this film makes him seem even more sinister than before.

Interestingly, this is achieved without a single line of dialogue from Vinnie. Towards the end of the movie it becomes clear why Vinnie is mute, but he is even more menacing without having to speak.  If there is one highlight of this film, it is how terrorizing Jones’ character is. I haven’t felt that much tension and uncertainty from a character since Arnold’s portrayal of the T800 in the first Terminator film. That lingering and unrelenting question of ‘how the hell do you stop him?’ is just as prevalent in this movie.

Bradley Cooper is decent in this film. He isn’t great and he isn’t horrible. I didn’t feel a whole lot was required from his role, and in that respect he delivers. The same can be said about Leslie Bibb, who plays his love interest in the film. She wasn’t overly impressive either. If anything, the two of them served as fodder for Jones, who dominates the entire film.

This brings us to the film’s plot. About 3/4s of the way into the movie, it takes a drastic turn and reveals what is actually going on. Without spoiling anything, this definitely changes the entire scope of the movie, and in my opinion somewhat serves to water down the entire story.  I’m still on the fence as to whether the “twist” towards the end is a bit of genius or whether it is simply a cheap way of tying up the loose ends. One thing is for sure, it definitely trivializes Jones’ character a bit, which I didn’t like since I felt he was definitely the driving force of the entire movie.  One thing for sure is that the presentation and ideas in the movie are definitely unique, and they do well to bring something different to the horror genre. Having never read the short story on which the film is based, I can’t really tell which elements were stretched to make a film length script, but overall the story seems to hold up fairly well as a full length feature.

The film is a great horror movie that definitely has something new to offer. The direction is excellent and some of the first person viewpoint victim deaths are truly disturbing. This one is worth checking out if you’re looking for a movie that will send chills down your spine and keep the tension meter ratcheted up way past 10. Those with weak hearts or stomachs should definitely steer clear of this movie though.