i liked it but it was kind of an abrupt ending. it was quite to par as saw as hostel. if you like slasher flicks you should defintely watch it. if you have comcast on demand you can watchit free. thats how i saw it. did the story end the way the movie did? i know i read the whole book before but i can’t remember.

Don’t get me wrong. The Midnight Meat Train is a decent film on the whole, and it’s a lot better than most standard slasher flicks that are released to theaters every other month or so. There was a lot going for it up until the very end of the film (no spoilers here), which made me re-evaluate the entire story and ultimately changed my opinion of it. Let’s just say that it probably wasn’t the best way to go about it. Sorry, Mr. Barker, if I didn’t like your ending.

Stylistically, Meat Train looks perfect. The settings are dark and gritty, giving off a genuinely creepy vibe that suits the film. While the gore effects sometimes seem a bit overblown at times there’s plenty of it, with some gut-wrenching sound effects to boot. Definitely not something to watch if you’re squeamish.

To add to that, the cinematography and editing are done quite nicely, unlike most typical horror films these days. Considering the large number of train shots (confined spaces) they managed to make shots look not-so-boring. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that they brought in Ryuhei Kitamura? Who knows.

My biggest problems were with the acting and the story, which are usually two of the key areas for me when it comes to movies. There was just a certain amateur feel to Meat Train’s actors. I don’t really know most of them all that well (except maybe Peter Jacobson of House, M.D. fame), but they didn’t really give a sense of seriousness that I’d want given the situation. It was a little distracting, and – truth be told – was something I found troublesomely typical of a contemporary horror film. And it only got worse when they threw that curve ball to the story. (again, I won’t spoil it).

Overall, Meat Train was an okay movie, not something I’d really want to go out of my way to see, but interesting enough so that I wouldn’t turn the channel if it happened to come on. Technically I saw it on Comcast’s On-Demand for free, which is probably how I would’ve watched it anyway, even if it had gotten a wider distribution. Still, if you like gorey movies ala Saw and Hostel, you might check this one out.