FrightFest

...which, strangely, is the first train after 2am.

Pretty good... the usual "don't let him speak" performance from Vinnie, but that didn't get in the way.

It felt like something was missing, though... jonbly would have preferred it with something like "if we don't feed them, they'll break into your world and kill everything" as motive for our hero taking on the job. Some explanation for Vinnie's skin complaint. Some reason why our heroine was killed off.

Eh.

jonbly wrote:...which, strangely, is the first train after 2am.

Yeah, that occurred to me to.

I liked it a lot, it felt properly Clive Barkery.

it also reminded me of Argento in Susperia/Inferno mode. Not so much the style or look of the film, but the strange dream logic, the sense of vast supernatural forces just under the surface of the city, and the very bizarre way that the characters acted (You think he killed her, who know who he is, you have a photo of him and you know where he lives. At this point most people would go back to the police not start chasing Vinnie Jones around a meat packing plant).

Really liked the OTT gore with the hammer but I had some issues with the ending.

The explanation of why it was all being done was so rushed and muddled that it kind of spoiled it.

One of the big budget films, it was exciting and enjoyable, but it never threatened to be brilliant.

Vinnie Jones was perfect for the role here - moody psycho who doesn't talk! I particularly liked the way the train looked - really stark, cold and metallic, like a factory or a butchers.

Thought that scene with the demons at the end was a bit OTT though, and overall it was never really anything more than mildly interesting.

7/10

Tricky one this.

At the time of watching I felt there was something missing but the next day I had quite fond feelings for the film.

Still didn't quite hit the mark though and maybe built up expectations slightly with the very good three people hammer scene (despite a very CGI eye pop)

So, slighty disappointing but not a complete failure.

In many ways it was better than I expected, and it did "feel" reasonably faithful to the original story even though much had been changed.

It wasn't at all scary or suspenseful though, apart from the one scene where they went to snoop around Vinnie's apartment.

It's ages since I last read the story, but I was glad that the ending reflected that even if some of the changes in story damaged the tension.

It had an unengaging lead and I did not really get the idea that he might be paranoid which the story needed. However when his building obsession moved on to the stalking it seemed better.

If you'd told me that Vinnie Jones would make it out of the bottom ten performances of the festival, let alone get in my top ten ...

The revelation seemed to fit the inspiration, ie Lovecraftian madness versus cosmic plot only revealed at the end.

Well, I really, really liked this one: a medium-budget cinema film (rather than DVD) with some outrageous violence in the fight scenes and Vinnie Jones on his best territory. Personally I'd rather have had Ted Raimi go out prosthetically and animatronically rather than via CG, though. But it's one of my favourites of the fest, and the rationale behind it all came as a nice surprise to me, as I'm not familiar with the Barker story (yes, I know, the man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them).

Oh wait .. TED RAIMI's EYEBALL !

one word for me Perfect superb style,the right person with the right amount of menace,excellent direction and a nasty blood soaked film that satisfies completely,i just want more and more of this,it was worth missing chili parlour for some much needed rest to give this the due concentration it deserved.

LOVED IT!! It's just upsetting to think that what's happening to this in the US could be the same that happens to it over 'ere

What's gonna happen to Book Of Blood when that hits screens? Will that be buried too?!?!

Give Barker a chance Midnight Meat Train is a fabulous film!!

Another really strong film from Saturday. I was dubious about the insertion of additional characters in order to pad the story out but it actually worked. The gore was fantastic and I liked the way that the girlfriend was relentlessly killed at the end as I was worried about a slightly drippy conclusion. I really loved this.

fantastic, I would have liked there to be more of the story ending

If you havent read the story you HAVE to

I had hoped for more violence and gore but this was still really enjoyable

Excellent, one of my faves of the festival.

I am a massive Barker fan though, and I am so excited his books of blood are making it on screen.

The 10 min footage of Books of Blood excited me too! can't wait...