Poster art for "The Midnight Meat Train."

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 58 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 not for kids
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    Premiere |

    It's equal parts shivery and silly -- eyeball popping in slo-mo! Read full review

  • 70
    L.A. Weekly |

    Director Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus) is a bit weak when it comes to storytelling, but there are few who could so enthusiastically stage a butcher fight amid hanging human carcasses in a subway car. Read full review

  • 50
    Austin Chronicle | Marjorie Baumgarten

    May not be grade-A prime, but it ain't chopped liver either. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety |

    Film isn't scary, per se, but it's mostly effective nonetheless, with Cooper capably steering his character from charming young artist to nervous wreck, evoking Ralph Fiennes' more unhinged turns along the way. Read full review

View more reviews for The Midnight Meat Train on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says not for kids Public-transit terror tale is beyond bloody. Pass.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that horror-loving teens may want to see this movie based on a short story by Clive Barker, but there's enough here to test even the strongest stomachs. The movie is literally drenched in blood from the opening moments to the finale. It's also loaded with gruesome special-effects violence -- decapitations, eyes popped from sockets, hearts ripped from chests, and more. A sequence in which viewers witness a female character's death from her point of view is deliberately, deeply disturbing. The film's food-and-flesh subtext also involves multiple images of human and animal corpses hung in preparation for the butcher's art; there's also graphic and explicit surgical and medical imagery, some nudity, and strong language.
  • Families can talk about the nature and character of bloody horror films -- why does Hollywood make them, and what purpose do they serve?
  • Do violent horror films release negative emotional energy or create it?
  • Can violent, graphic images in films like this desensitize viewers?
  • Does it matter whether the goriness seems "over the top"?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Any possibly positive message is washed away in the crimson tide of bloodletting that it unleashes in the name of extreme "thrills."
  • rolemodels true0 Positive role models: The main character, a photographer, takes pictures of a group of youths threatening a young woman before he acts to stop them. Another character, researching a city's history of crime, contrasts her work with the popular perception of the past as a kinder, gentler time by noting "it turns out there never were any good old days." A security guard checks a character's bag in the subway, noting that "Condition Orange means I can search whatever I want."
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Constant, brutal, and explicit violence, including endless buckets of blood. Brutal murders are portrayed in graphic fashion, with weapons including a butcher's hook, a hammer, knives, guns, and bare hands; other weapons include severed limbs, bones, and skulls. Multiple scenes of intense fighting, with characters punched, head-butted, slammed into windows, walls, the floor, and more. Deep and bloody wounds are created and shown. Throats are slit; multiple stabbings; a character's head is impaled with a long knife; a character's tongue is ripped out of their mouth and then eaten. A man is struck with a hammer so hard that his eye dislocates from its socket; a female character's demise is shown from her point of view, beginning with a hammer blow so fierce it severs her head -- viewers see her headless body from a distance through her eyes as she dies. Human beings are hung like meat, dangling upside down by hooks rammed through their flesh; their teeth, fingernails, and eyes are shown being removed post-mortem. A character removes (and then keeps) bizarre growths from his flesh by slashing at them with a knife. A heart ripped from a human chest is held aloft while still beating. Piles of dead bodies are seen; animal and human corpses are hung as raw material for butchers.
  • sex false5 Sex: Some kissing; discussions of sex in the context of a committed relationship; some nudity, including a nude female murder victim. It's suggested that a supporting character is promiscuously bisexual. Brief phallic imagery. A young woman, threatened by a group of thugs, is told "You gotta pay on your knees, baby." Characters have rough sex, with the clear implication that this isn't the norm for them.
  • language false3 Language: Some, including "f--k," "motherf---er," "s--t," "ass," "bitch," and "s--t."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false2 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Friends drink hard liquor in celebration; beer and wine are enjoyed at an art reception.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

The Midnight Meat Train Movie Ratings + Reviews

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