The Midnight Meat Train

The Midnight Meat Train is a 2008 horror film based on Clive Barker's 1984 short story of the same name, which can be found in Volume One of Barker's collection Books of Blood. The film follows a photographer who attempts to track down a serial killer dubbed the "Subway Butcher", and discovers more than he bargained for under the city streets.

The film was directed by Ryuhei Kitamura and stars Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Brooke Shields, Roger Bart, Ted Raimi, and Vinnie Jones. Its script was adapted by Jeff Buhler, the producer was Tom Rosenberg of Lakeshore Entertainment, and it was released on August 1, 2008. Producer Joe Daley, a long-time friend of Buhler's, brought the two writers together and helped develop the script, along with producers Anthony Diblasi and Jorge Saralegui, for their and Clive Barker's production company Midnight Picture Show, which was responsible for Book of Blood, the next film adaptation from the anthology of short stories that spawned The Midnight Meat Train. The film appears in a scene of the film 2012 Silver Linings Playbook, likewise starring Cooper, and is shown playing at a drive-in theater in the opening of 2013's Out of the Furnace.

The film opens with a bald man with a briefcase sitting in a moving subway car. As the lights flicker he hears a noise, causing him to stand up. As he walks towards the source of the sound, the next subway car, he slips and falls in a large pool of blood. He then peers through the window to the next car and sees a figure chopping up a bloody corpse. Leon (Bradley Cooper) is a vegan amateur photographer who wants to capture unique, gritty shots of the city and the people who live in it, and at the advice of gallery owner Susan (Brooke Shields), he heads into the city's subway system at night. He is criticized constantly by other photographers for fleeing danger before shooting a full roll. One night, in a decision to break this trend, he saves a woman on the subway from two thugs threatening her with a knife. The next day, he discovers that the woman has gone missing. Leon is intrigued by the mystery, and begins to investigate reports of similar disappearances. His investigation leads him to a butcher named Mahogany (Vinnie Jones), whom he suspects has been killing subway passengers for the past three years. Leon attempts to turn some of his photos of Mahogany in to the police, but they refuse to believe him and, instead, cast suspicion on his own motives in photographing the victims. Leon's involvement quickly turns into a dark obsession, upsetting his waitress girlfriend Maya (Leslie Bibb), who is as disbelieving of his story as the police chief. Leon takes matters into his own hands, boarding the last subway train of the night, only to witness a shocking bloodbath, as the butcher kills several passengers, then hangs their bodies on meat hooks. After a brief scuffle with Mahogany, Leon passes out on the train's floor, he awakes the next morning in a slaughterhouse with strange markings carved into his chest. A concerned Maya and her friend Jurgis (Roger Bart) begin to examine the photos Leon has been taking of Mahogany, leading them to the killer's apartment. After breaking into the butcher's home, Jurgis is captured and brutally killed. Maya goes to the police, but finds that they are as skeptical of her story as they were of Leon's. A police officer then directs Maya to take the midnight train. Leon, unaware of Maya's involvement, finally decides to put an end to the butcher's crimes. Leon heads to a hidden subway entrance in the slaughterhouse, arming himself with several slaughterhouse knives, and wearing a butcher's apron. Leon enters the train as Mahogany has completed his nightly massacre, and has cornered a helpless Maya. Leon attacks the murderer with a knife, beginning a climactic battle between the photographer and the butcher. They fight in between the swinging human flesh—Leon's knives against Mahogany's meat hammer—and human body parts are ripped, thrown, and used as weapons. Finally, Mahogany is thrown out of the train by Leon, but not long before it reaches its final stop, a cavernous abandoned station filled with skulls and decomposing bodies. The conductor steps into the car, advising Leon and Maya to "please step away from the meat." With these words, the true purpose of the abandoned station is revealed, as horrible reptilian creatures enter the car and consume the bodies of the murdered passengers. Leon and Maya flee the carriage and go into the cavern. Mahogany - in a battered and bleeding state - returns, barely alive, and engages in a death struggle with Leon, who finishes the job at last by impaling the psychotic butcher's skull on a blade. Mahogany grins in his dying throes, speaking the single word "Welcome!" The conductor appears and explains to Leon that the creatures have lived beneath the city since long before the subway was constructed, and that the butcher's job is to feed them each night to keep them from attacking subway riders during the day. He picks up Leon, and with the same supernatural strength as the deceased butcher, rips out Leon's tongue, throwing him to the ground and eating the tongue.

The conductor brings Leon's attention to Maya, who has been knocked unconscious and is lying on a pile of bones (presumably this took place some time during Leon's fight with the butcher). The conductor then forces Leon to watch as he cuts Maya's chest open to remove her heart. When he is done, he tells Leon that, having killed the butcher, Leon must take his place. Finally, the police chief hands the train schedule to the new butcher, who wears a ring with the eight pointed star on it, a symbol for the group that feeds the creatures. The killer walks onto the midnight train, and turns his head to reveal that the new butcher is Leon.