Humanity Reviews
SplatterPunks Comes To The Big Screen
Midnight Meat Train
directed by
Ryûhei Kitamura
posted by Ezekiel
I remember when a freind of mine asked me if I liked horror, and sure who here doesn't. What came next I didn't expect, that same friend asked if I had like horror literature. Instantly my mind went to one of my favorite authors, Stephen King and losely followed by some "horror" books I had read as an adolescent. My friend only smirked and said "Then you've not really read horror", and introduced me to SplatterPunks. A collection of short stories that bordered just on this side of depraved. I was hooked. I had never experienced this level of fright in any form of media. One of these stories always stood out in my mind. Midnight Meat Train, written by Clive Barker.
Years later, as I'm waiting to be entertained with a DVD that I've never seen, the usuall opening trailers start. You know the kind, the ones that the films have been out for a while or might even be at the box office right then. That's when I see a teaser trailer for a film adapted by a short story written by Clive Barker. My heart leapt to my throat, in hope that it was that story I hadn't forgotten, from that book I'd lost possesion of years before. The stars had aligned for me that day because I got my wish...
This film stars Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Brook Sheilds and Vinne Jones. Both the story and the film is a journy through obession, darkness, blood and death as a photographer digs to the heart of the city he lives in, searching for it's core.
Normally in the past I would readily recommend any of the films I review, and I do so again, but with caution. This is NOT for the faint of heart.
<<< ALERT! >>> Spoilers Ahead! <<< ALERT! >>>
This is one of those films that began at the end. It opens to a guy waking up on the subway, who in turn spies a man blugeoning a person to death. Repeatedly. That's when the story starts.
The main character of the film, Leon (Cooper) is a photographer doing what all photographers do, taking pictures. After his girlfriend, Maya (Bibb) tells him that she's gotten him a meeting with a local art gallery director Susan Hoff (Sheilds), Leon packs up his portfollio and visits Hoff. She tells him that while not bad, his work is also not that great. She wants more. Darker. Harsher. The heart of the city. It's this that draws him into the circle of darkness.
While searching the that perfect picture, eventually we get to meet Mahogany (Jones), who is responsible for various killings on the subway, you could even say that he's a butcher. Actually, no you should say that when it's revealed that's his day job, if he's not killing people on the subway. Leon mentions to Maya that there's something off with him, something that doesn't seem right.
As the film continues, Leon becomes obsessed and disturbed by dreams of the train and the horrors that Mahogany commits on it, drawing him closer and closer into the circle.
Finally, as the climax of the movie is upon us, it's reveled that Mahogany isn't the only one in on the killings. Apparently choice people throughout the city make sure that no one pokes where they shouldn't. Leon confronts Mahogany on the train which leads to a battle of epic proportions, twice.
After the epic fight, you the veiwer are exposed to something odd. Creatures. Creatures that for some reason this secret circle, strives to keep secret, by any means necessary. These creature feed upon the meat that Mahogany had served up for them, fullfilling a butcher's role entirely. Now that he's dead, the creatures still must feed. A task that now falls upon Leon.
I had mentioned that I first read this in SplatterPunks. Before the 22 page story begin there was an authors note, by Clive Barker. In it, he flat admits to this story being an omage to H.P Lovecraft's Cuthulu mythos. I feel the need to mention this due to the fact the movie doesn't. It actually leaves you wondering what the fuck these creatures are, and why they're below a city.
The film ends with Leon, the new butcher, surveying his next kill. A man sleeping on the subway.
nWoD Inspirations:
The Cuthulu mythos. I've not read much of H.P.Lovecraft, mostly out of laziness. Though what's been described to me of Cuthulu, or "old ones" is that they are ancient and dark gods that, the closer you are to them the more insane you get. Also that they've been around since before there was creation. This alone lends to images of outworlders like fae or just classic demons. Personally were I to incorporate this into a game, they would have to go beyond what the ordinary or extraordinary can understand. This in itself is their appeal.
