DVD Review: Midnight Meat Train

Rated R for graphic violence, gore, brief nudity and some language

Starring Bradley Cooper, Vinnie Jones, Leslie Bibb

The movie opens with a well dressed man sitting on a late night subway car along with a few other passengers. Out of nowhere, he slaughters them with a combo meat cleaver/pounder tool.

Next we are introduced to Leon, a photographer trying to get his work noticed by a well-known art dealer in hopes that his work will make it into her show and gallery and start to sell. She tells him that she doesn't feel his images are strong enough for her shows and gallery yet and so he decides to go out and shoot some stuff late at night. He ventures into the subway with his camera and after taking several shots of a gang harassing and about to mug an attractive woman who's alone, he points out to them the security camera capturing everything and they scram. The woman thanks him and quickly enters the last subway car to come through that night; Leon, amazed by her beauty, continues to snap photos before she's gone. His girlfriend spies his work as he develops it in their apartment and comments that it seems to be his best yet. He also learns that the woman he saved last night was a well-known model, however she appears to be suddenly missing. Believing he may be the last person to have seen her, he quickly goes to the police station, but they blow him off!

The next night Leon goes out again for more shots and spies a mysterious, well-dressed man, in a hurry to catch the subway, however he gets a little too close and the man scares him off. Leon notices that the man is wearing a ring that can be seen in one of the photos where the model from the previous night had gotten on the subway train, holding the door open for her... Leon goes again to the police station to point out the similarities, but they don't give him much thought.

Looking into it himself, Leon learns about the Subway Butcher whom he believes is the man he saw the previous night. He decides to spend the next day following him, from a hotel to a butchering plant to the subway again before backing off for the night. Leon gets ballsy one night and decides to follow him onto the subway train, where he sees him butcher, slaughter and then pick apart his victims. He soon catches Leon though, but instead of killing him, he wakes up the next day at the butchering plant with carvings in his skin. His girlfriend tries to figure out what's wrong, and eventually sees the strange marking carved into his chest and insists on taking him to the hospital, but all he wants to do is sleep. Having seen his photographs, she decides to head to the hotel with her friend and do a little digging, as Leon's camera has gone missing and he claims he has shots that prove that the mysterious man is the Subway Butcher.

Both her and Leon end up on the train later, attempting to save her friend and put a stop to the Butcher, but will they make it off the train alive?


Brought to us by legendary horror writer/director Clive Barker, Midnight Meat Train is based on a short story of the same name that Barker included in his Books of Blood collection he wrote in 1984. It's clear that Barker's a bit of a visual artist as he uses some interesting, artsy techniques in this gorefest, however some of the effects come off a bit comical and over the top.

It's an interesting premise - a man is killing people on the subway every night and no one seems to care, including the police and subway conductor. What exactly is going on and why? Through Leon's curiosity we learn the truth which is quite the twist as it definitely isn't what you would expect!

If you enjoy horror movies with strange twists and don't mind the gore, be sure to check out Midnight Meat Train.