Ryuhei Kitamura's adaptation of Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train continues to rumbling down the tracks, bringing the Versus director's stated goal of being a Hollywood director ever closer to reality, and materials from the film are starting to trickle out. What we've got for you here is what I believe to be the first still from the film itself, a simple shot of star Vinnie Jones on a train platform, lifted from the Liongate sales booklet. The visual is a nice, striking image but then we've come to expect that from Kitamura. The question is whether he'll be able to rein his excesses in and tell a lean, compelling story ...
Well, it needs to be gory if it aims to be a faithful adaptation of the short story it's based on. But no, it certainly shouldn't fall into the torture porn genre; rather it should start out as a slasher/giallo and then turn into a batshit insane borderline Lovecraftian monster flick. I really want this to be the first watchable Barker-based movie since Bernard Rose's sublime CANDYMAN more than 10 years ago.
That shot of Vinnie Jones looks odd. When I saw it I thought it was from the remake of TAXI DRIVER. Crap, am I going to give some Hollywood suit an idea with this?
Thanks Caterpillar, nice to hear it's more Argento than Roth. I'll give it a read now that's it's back on my radar.
And that still isn't helped by Vinnie's Forest Gump haircut.