Meat Train Now Boarding

The Midnight Meat Train is a movie by Clive Barker, one of the great masters of horror. It was originally a short story he wrote long ago. That seems to be a trend now days, like Stephen King's The Mist, an old story of his becoming a movie. In this story there are some very gruesome parts as this madman kills people mercilessly and mechanically. He solely lives for death, but why? One man tries to get down to the bottom of this sick man's obsession and finds more than he bargained for. I love the surprise ending to this one.

The sense of impending doom is written all over this one. From the start we get a creepy setting with the subway. I always liked horror movies that took place in subways. It's kind of a genre of its own. Clive Barker did more fantastical work when he was younger and this story does have a big twist, one that would not be seen in his later works. Stephen King also delved in fantasy earlier in life. You can tell this is a Clive Barker story though with all the drenching amounts of gore in it. In fact the gruesomeness of the killer acts to deride you and make your mind take a particular direction while the storyteller crafts a unique story in the other direction. Misdirection is a great foreshadowing tool that such a master writer can use to his benefit. The fact that the killer is so inhumane makes you wonder what his allegiance is to this dark force that controls him, not supernaturally, but mentally. Does he just love killing? Does he really feel the need to be a tool for something else?  The whole film takes place in this dark setting. You feel trapped in it with the killer.