Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) is big bad butcher, whose weapon of choice is a mallet and an ice hook. Day after day, night after night he takes the 2 am train to hell, where unsuspecting passengers are massacred and then hung up like dead meat.

Leon (Bradley Cooper) is an up and coming photograph, who is trying to make it critically, but so far his work has been unable to break it. His biggest fan and believer is his beautiful fiancée Maya (Leslie Bibb). One chance session in the subway changes the direction of his life. First he photographs a model being harassed by some thugs and after saving her from them takes a picture of her entering the 2 am train...

Clive Barker has really been prolific with all the horror he has caused come to life on the big screen. It is enough to mention that his stories was the backbone of such classics as Hellraiser or Candyman. That said he has also been raped as a horror writer with atrocities such as Rawhead Rex.

This movie doesn't hit the highs or the lows, but I must say it was pretty decent and definitely one of the best genre movies I have seen lately. No matter has essentially idiotic the plot I have to say it did cut loose of the copycat phase in horror cinema we are currently at. It had a certain freshness to it not only in the way it was told, but also in subject matter itself. I won't go as far as to say it was breakthrough original, but it was darn intriguing all the way through.

I normally rate a good horror movie based on gut feeling. The moment you can't wait to know what will happen at the end of the movie or in the next scene for that matter and at the same time you have to fight with yourself to continue watching - that lets you know this horror flick is actually pretty good.

Definitely full of flaws and the graphic gore isn't my kind of horror meal. Acting was great and tech credits all round were superb. Ryûhei Kitamura deserves accolades for this horror movie. Maybe not a classic, but given the far fetched material he had to work with it is a triumph.

Hop on board and hold on tight, 'cos The Midnight Meat Train is a wild ride through the twisted world of Clive Barker, and with splatterific Japanese horror/action director Ryûhei Kitamura at the controls it can only get messy.

Based on a short story in Barker's Books of Blood, The Midnight Meat Train stars Bradley Cooper as NY photographer Leon, who stumbles upon the existence of a brutal killer called Mahogany (Vinnie jones) who roams the subway butchering those passengers unfortunate enough to ride the first train after 2.00am. Leon tracks and photographs the murderous brute as he goes about his grisly work; in doing so he not only starts to lose his sanity, but exposes those he loves to mortal danger.

I'll be the first to admit that The Midnight Meat Train isn't without its flaws: as far as the script goes it's a case of 'mind the gaps' with lapses in logic and loose plot threads galore, and Cooper is far from memorable in the lead. However, there are several factors that prevent this train from derailing and winding up a total wreck....

First, we have Kitamura's creative direction which uses audacious camera trickery and awesome CGI effects to stunning effect. A POV shot from a severed head is delightfully nasty, but the most breathtaking moment comes as Cooper fights Jones aboard a speeding train, the camera constantly revolving around the action, even leaving the confines of the carriage.

Next, we have the spectacular gore, which is absolutely eye-popping (quite literally, in one particularly memorable scene featuring Ted Raimi): Mahogany brutally bludgeons his victims with a massive metal hammer, which results in some really nasty injuries (including one total decapitation), after which he prepares the body (shaves the hair, plucks out the eyeballs, removes teeth) and hoists it up using hooks through the ankles. All of this is presented with amazing visual flair and a keen eye for disgusting detail.

Finally, and perhaps most surprisingly, we have Vinnie Jones putting in an impressive turn as Mahognay. If anyone was born to play this role, it's Jones: he might not be the most accomplished actor ever to grace the silver screen, but he effortly exudes the menace and mental instability required to make the character a truly convincing figure of fear.

As the film approaches its conclusion, The Midnight Meat Train switches track to travel down a more supernatural branch; this change in direction might prove too much for those who thought they were watching a straightforward serial killer flick, but I relished every weird and wonderful development (I haven't read the short story, but it was kinda what I expected from Barker).

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.