Midnight Meat Train

Ever since Hellraiser came out in 1987, I've been hooked on the writing of horror novelist Clive Barker.

I picked up his Books of Blood series when I was a sophomore in high school. Not counting Dr. Suess, choose-your-own-adventure books, comics or graphic novels, the Books of Blood were the first actual novels that I ever read. I shit you not. In an indirect way, I guess you could say that Barker's fiction started me on my own path to an eventual career in writing.

Barker creates some very heady horror that's definitely not your typical run-of-the-mill, monster-in-the-closet type stuff. I've always been a bit jealous of the imaginary and horrific worlds he's created in his books. Also, some of his writings are extremely sexual. I'm talking monster-on-human sex here. I think that was another reason I was drawn to his books. Not because I'm some perv (well, maybe), but because he's not afraid to take chances with his creations - even in a psycho-sexual way. The man has no inhibition when it comes to his writing. And I think that's great to see.

After the Books of Blood series, I picked up most of his other works. Some of my personal favorites include The Damnation Game, The Great and Secret Show and Imajica. Although I haven't visited Clive's realm in a while, I did re-read two of his children's novels - Abarat and The Thief of Always - in order to get some strategic writing tips on how to tackle my own children's book.

That said, I came across the above movie poster for Midnight Meat Train, one of the stories adapted from Clive's Books of Blood series.

Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura (whom I've never heard of or seen any of his films), the story/movie follows a NYC photographer who attempts to track down a serial killer dubbed the "Subway Butcher". In the end, he discovers more than he bargained for under the city streets. Much more.

I won't give away the ending, but it's a very good twist - a' la Se7en - that, if done well, will leave people with their mouths wide open when they leave the theater.

IMDB reports that Vinnie Jones (the retired soccer thug in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and Brooke Shields are in the flick, which has a tentative release date of 2008.

This could be a very good horror movie. If you're interested, I also suggest you pick up the Books of Blood series at Amazon.com.

That way, you can see, firsthand, what the hell I'm taking about