Meat Train Movie Preview
By: Crystal Lynn Cox |
Monday July 28, 2008 |
 |
From The Books of Blood! |
| The Midnight Meat Train, a horror movie based on the a short story from one of Clive Barker’s infamous short horror story collection of the 1980s, Books of Blood, has finally been made into a film. The story has been among horror story fans’ favorites for over 20 years. Barker himself created his own fame with the story when Steven King acknowledged him as “the future of horror.” The film, which is expected in theaters of August 1, had been a work in progress for a long time, beginning with its screenplay adaptation by Jeff Buhler and moving on to its film adaptation by critically acclaimed Japanese film director Ryuhei Kitamura. Together, they turned the psychological thriller into a visually artistic film.  The Midnight Meat Train is a story of a struggling documentary-style still photographer, Leon Kaufman (played by Bradley Cooper), who starts down his path of career success with a series of photos depicting the dark life of the city at night. He discovers the story of a serial subway killer Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) and begins to seek him out, at first for his own personal gains as a photographer and later, because his obsession with discovering the killer has proven even stronger than his fear. His girlfriend Maya (Leslie Bibb), terrified for Leon’s safety, is more than a fearful observer and gets sucked right into the terrifying circumstances along with him. The film, through visual adaptation from the original novel, has caught the eye of many critics already and is expected to be a different genre of horror altogether. The plot is unique and creative—the audience is actually given the opportunity to know and love the characters, and therefore to feel for their dire circumstances. While this film is Kitamura’s American debut, critics have already been long interested in what they call his “ultra-stylish thrillers” in Japan. Reportedly, many of his visual techniques and unique filming styles are intricately incorporated into his first American film. Kitamura himself explains that his goal, not just in this film but in all of his films, is to display character, and characters with depth, to his audience. This is one of the key features of this film and one that critics and audiences alike are excited about. The concept is very unique to recent American horror films.  The Midnight Meat Train, released through Lionsgate and is rated R for sequences of strong bloody gruesome violence, grisly images involving nudity, sexual content and language. The film’s final runtime is 100 minutes and will be playing nationwide on August 1. Be sure to check out Kitamura’s American debut with the adaptation of one of America’s—and Kitamura’s own—favorite horror story. |
