Interesting news coming in after a test screening of Lionsgate's The Midnight Meat Train, which happened tonight in Los Angeles. Apparently the film has been retitled to Midnight Train, something that has been in question in the past - and rumored to be changing in the past few weeks. We put in calls to Lionsgate and Lakeshore for confirmation, but neither party will have an official answer for us until tomorrow. Earlier this morning something else that caught our attention. This morning Lionsgate removed the film off of their upcoming film slate. Our initial reaction was that a title change was on the horizon, but have yet to receive confirmation. We'll update you tomorrow.
I think it's just plain stupid to change 'Midnight Meat train' to 'midnight train'. I mean it loses the purpose of the film. Midnight train has no spirit to the title and doesn't sound like a horror.
Despite how great looking the trailer was, whenever I saw it screened in the theaters the title was treated by the audience like the punchline of a joke.
It makes sense to change it, though I'd hope they'd come up with a better title than 'Midnight Train' which is still too vague. Maybe if they attach "Clive Barker's" to the title, it'll help its chances in the theaters.
I saw this last night at a test screening. The film for the most part was finished and the title that burned across the screen was Midnight Train. I loved this flick. It had a few moments that were irritating but for the most part, it was original and the scares and gore were top notch...I was so relieved to finally see a true horror film. Come on douche bags, grow some and release this thing as Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train!!!
I always loved how Barker came up with the title while under the influence of pot cookies. Now, after all these years, a film adaptation is set to be released, and they're gonna alter that classic title? WTF?
i agree, i thought midnight meat train sounded pretty original and gritty, and the new title is another example of the studio's BS involvement to try to adhere to marketing, blah
Mostly every single movie that was made from his stories was changed from the original title.
I know it is easier to sell Candyman over The Forbidden or Nightbreed over Cabal, Lord Of Illusions over The Last Illusion or even Hellreaiser over The Hellbound heart.
I seriously thought it would be cool to finally see a film adaptation from him that would match up title wise until I saw the trailer run before Cloverfield and the people I was with started making fun of the title.
I forgave Lionsgate for pussing out on the original ending of The Descent, but this is fucking ridiculous. To respond to 'miser42': Yes - Blade Runner probably wouldn't have been as big of success if it was called by the book title which is "Do Androids Dream of Electic Sheep". But what the fuck is so awful about the word 'meat'. It doesn't even sound like a horror movie anymore. So I guess those people at Lionsgate can collectively suck my Midnight Train.
They changed the name because of the amount of people laughing at the title every time it was used in the trailer, and it took people away from actually liking what they saw, they just spend time referring it to porn.
Yeah, Midnight Meat Train got a huge laugh out of the audience when we saw the trailer. There's something wrong with you if you can't understand why they'd change it to something less comical.
totally understand why they are changing it. The title works well within the book it was written for but outside of that it loses its shock value and is just a cheap joke.
But on the other hand I find it funny that the UK is release a horror film called Donkey Punch... now THAT screams porn ;)
ALmost all of Barker's tales have seen their title changed when adapted to the screen. The difference is that most of the new titles were good (HELLRAISER, CANDYMAN, NIGHTBREED, etc.). MIDNIGHT TRAIN is probably the dullest title for a film I've heard in a long time; maybe even duller than the TERROR TRAIN "remake" TRAIN. It doesn't matter how good the film turns out to be, because Lionsgate is taking major steps to ensure that it is released to indifference and apathy, and that it will not stand out from the rest of the year's horror crop. Bad, bad move!
How about Midnight Death Train or something like that. Midnight Train just ain't cutting it for me. I think the folks at Lionsgate have lost their perscriptions for Viagra recently and have also turned vegan. A good weekend of screwing and eating steaks will have them back on track and we'll have our fucking MEAT back in the title where it belongs.
See, I don't think Midnight Meat Train sounds funny, I think it sounds fucking gross, awesome, and cool. It's what originally attracted me to the movie, so I think it's a huge mistake.
But yeah, catering to retards works.
next thing you know it'll be pg13... taking the meat out is just pandering to the crowd that's not allowed into an R movie!
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The Midnight Meat Train (Books of Blood) (limited)
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