The Midnight Meat Train

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Movie
German title The Midnight Meat Train
Original title The Midnight Meat Train
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2008
length 100 minutes /
Cut version: 92 minutes
Age rating FSK unchecked (indexed) / 18 (cut)
Rod
Director Ryuhei Kitamura
script Jeff Buhler ,
Clive Barker
production Clive Barker,
Gary Lucchesi ,
Eric Reid ,
Tom Rosenberg ,
Jorge Saralegui ,
Richard S. Wright
music Johannes Kobilke ,
Robb Williamson
camera Jonathan Sela
cut Toby Yates
occupation

The Midnight Meat Train is a horror film by the Japanese director Ryūhei Kitamura . The basis is the novella The Midnight Meat Train by Clive Barker . It is Kitamura's first Hollywood production . Barker himself was the responsible producer.

action

Leon Kauffman is an aspiring photographer who roams New York City at night taking photos of people and street scenes. Looking for suitable motifs for his own exhibition, he ends up in the New York subway and photographs a gang attacking a young woman. He speaks to the robbers and points to the surveillance camera hanging next to him in the subway station . The robbers let go of the girl and leave. The girl would like to thank Leon and disappears in the next oncoming subway - train . There she meets her murderer, the butcher Mahogany, who brutally massacres a number of people in the most unimaginable way in the course of the film. On a certain section of the route , the subway driver diverts the train to a section that is actually blocked so that the butcher can go about his work undisturbed. All corpses are gutted, teeth and fingernails removed, shaved and then hung upside down on meat hooks on the grab bars of the train.

Leon stumbles upon Mahogany by chance during his nightly forays and can soon establish a connection between the mysterious Mahogany and the disappearance of various people. When he was chasing Mahogany in the subway, he was discovered and knocked unconscious, but not killed. When he woke up again, he made a strange mark on his chest. At the police station, the officer taking the picture looks at Leon’s statement with skepticism and does not seem to believe him. The policewoman wears the same symbol on her necklace that Mahogany has on his signet ring : a stylized sun .

Leon is attracted more and more by his observations and the figure of Mahogany. Finally he goes to the slaughterhouse himself, dresses in a butcher's apron, equips himself with various knives and goes to the underground station. There he discovers his girlfriend Maya, who is also trying to track down the butcher. Leon jumps on the passing train and fights against Mahogany, where he can push him off the train. Leon and Maya drive on to the final stop , a scree field under the city. The subway driver comes up to her and asks her to step back from the meat. Now monstrous creatures come to the fore, imagined as those that existed on earth before mankind. It is the job of a chosen few to protect and nourish them.

Mahogany suddenly appears again, there is a final duel between Leon and Leon, in the course of which the butcher is stabbed by Leon. Thereupon the subway driver appears, beats up Leon, tears out his tongue and consumes it. Now the subway driver goes to the unconscious Maya and kills her. From now on, Leon is the new butcher on the New York subway.

Remarks

Vinnie Jones speaks only one word throughout the film: "Welcome".

The film premiered on July 19, 2008 in Canada at the Fantasia Film Festival .

The film was shown for the first time in Germany on August 14, 2008 as part of the Fantasy Film Festival .

On June 26, 2009, an “Extended Director's Cut” was released on DVD in Switzerland. Furthermore, an Extended Director's Cut was released on the NSM Records label, which was indexed on List B on February 28, 2017 . A court must now examine the criminal relevance according to § 131 StGB .

In Germany, on December 5, 2013, a shortened version of the film was released on DVD and Bluray, which is approved for ages 18+.

criticism

"The film adaptation of a short story by Clive Barker absolutely lives up to the original: Director Kitamura converted the gruesome story into brilliant images"

- TV movie

"Round, successful and bloody-brutal adaptation of Clive Barker's horror short story - a bit bumpy here and there, but excitingly prepared and with an impressive Vinnie Jones as butcher-killer."

- CINEfacts
  • On Rotten Tomatoes , the film was rated 71% on the tomatometer. (As of June 2, 2013)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of actors in the Imdb
  2. ↑ Release info from Imdb
  3. ↑ Info page from Fantasy Filmfest 2008 ( Memento from August 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed on August 24, 2015.
  4. ^ Film at Rotten Tomatoes