Last Fall I saw a trailer for this weird looking horror movie. I saw Bradley Cooper, Vinnie Jones, and even Brooke Shields. The trailer made this movie look uber-creepy, dark, and violent. Then the title appeared: The Midnight Meat Train, complete with that spooky trailer voice.
The title made me chuckle, but in a good way. I did not see the trailer again until January, with Rambo I believe. I have to say that I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. Considering when I was seeing the trailer, it appeared that it was heading towards a wide release. Now, it doesn't look like that is going to happen. I will just have to wait for a DVD release, and imagine what it will look like while listening to this score.
The movie has more going for it than just a cool trailer and Brooke Shields (has she done horror before?). The biggest thing is the fact it is based on a short story (from Books of Blood) by Clive Barker. If there is one thing we know, it's that Barker can write horror. It is also the English language debut for Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura, director of such films as Versus, Azumi, Alive, Sky High and Godzilla: Final Wars. The guy has a distinct look to his films and I am looking forward to seeing what he does here. However, it seems Lionsgate has not seen the strengths, pretty much killed the promotion, and dumped it into budget theaters. Why? Who knows, but from what little I have seen, it is easy to see it deserves better.
Now, if I had known who the composers were, I would possibly have mentioned them among the things that the movie has going for it. I couldn't because I have never heard of Robert Williamson or Johannes Kobilke. After doing a little looking into their filmographies, I could not find anything I had seen before. Well, nothing except for Crank, which Williamson worked on, contributing "additional score programming." I did find The Midnight Meat Train is not the first time these two have worked together. They previously scored the horror/thriller Pathology (another film that was dumped into theaters for a terribly brief run).
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