Here is the Midnight Meat Train explained. Why? After reading the short story by Clive Barker and watching the movie, I noticed that several aspects were left unexplained (in the film), making for a somewhat confusing story.
In this blog post, I will also go into the differences between the short story by the same name (The Midnight Meat Train) and the movie. Consider this a movie VS book post as well.
The Midnight Meat Train Explained (The Short Story)
Let’s start with the short story written by Clive Barker.
Well, for starters, it’s a short story. It is no longer than 40 pages. So it gets right to the point. There’s no room for unexplained things. Everything is explained. Every aspect of the story has a point.
Mohagany
Mohagany is the name of the bad guy, the butcher. Clive Barker allows you to get into his mind. You know what he’s thinking. You know why he does what he does. And you understand his choices.
In the short story, Mohagany realizes that he is getting too old for his “job” as a maniacal city butcher who brutally murders passengers on the train every night.
He considers the option of getting an apprentice, but how?
He never really speaks, but he has a lot of internal dialogue you read instead.
Kaufman
Kaufman is a resident of New York City who has become jaded. He hates New York City. To him, it’s a wasteland of death, diseases, and suffering.
The fact that there’s a news story of people disappearing on the train is just another reason why New York City is going down the drain.
It’s just a terrible city.
He has a girlfriend (who is briefly mentioned) and tries to make his life work, but the story is too short to delve into what he’s doing with his life. But we know he is generally unhappy.
One day, he falls asleep on the wrong train and wakes up to the sounds of meat being beaten on the train.
That’s when he first sees Mahogany doing his work.
First Kill
We find that there’s a curtain blocking the next train car. And good ol’ Kauffman decides to peak when he sees the butcher bludgeoning his victims to death.
He decides to hide under the seats, only to pass out in fear.
Mahogany’s disease in Midnight Meat Train (the short story)
In the short story, Mahogany’s only disease is “tiredness” and perhaps “oldness.” He explains that some men put up a strong fight, but he can no longer continue because he’s become too old and weak to fight on.
Therefore in the short story, Mahagony does not have a disease.
The Creatures in the Subway
As it turns out, Mahagony is feeding “creatures” in the subway, and that’s why he brings them corpses.
But what are they? They are the fathers of the city. Or, the first people, entities, creatures (whatever you want to call them) that inhabited New York City.
They are kept separate, but they allude to the fact that they run the city.
So in other words, they’re humanoid and they speak.
Why does Leon Kaufman Become The Butcher in Midnight Meat Train?
Theoretically, the Fathers of the city (aka the creatures) employ Mahogany and realize that he’s too old for his job.
When Kaufman sees the butcher in the next car, he’s confronted by him. They fight to the death. But not before the train stops at its final destination. Kaufman takes a cleaver and kills Mahogany.
When the creatures descend, they dub him the new Mahogany as someone has to feed them.
However, Kaufman puts up a fight and gets his tongue ripped out.
But realized his life now has purpose, as the next butcher.
The Midnight Meat Train Explained (The Movie)
I found it very interesting how they were able to take a 40-page story and extrapolate so much into it.
The movie incorporated many elements from the short story and converted them into a full-length scene. But they also took a lot of artistic discretion and created new elements that convoluted the storyline.
It was turned into torture porn, which I am not opposed to. However, with so many additional details, I feel they were unable to explain things correctly.
Mahogany (in the movie) – The Midnight Meat Train Explained
Mahogany is a butcher, or perhaps a line of butchers that have killed people on the subway for over a century.
He doesn’t speak. He is a cold-blooded killer.
We don’t really know why he kills. Other than he does.
Kaufman (in the movie) – The Midnight Meat Train Explained
Kaufman is in love with New York City, and he wants the world to see it. He’s a photographer and aims to capture the beauty and the grit of the city.
He’s in a happy relationship, and although he hasn’t had his big break yet, he hopes it will happen soon.
Kaufmans girlfriend
The movie invented the entire relationship from start to finish. And I have to say, it was terrible. They gave the girlfriend the personality of a whiny person who jumps from zero to sixty at the drop of a hat.
Their arguments were way too dramatic, and I found myself rolling my eyes most of the time.
They do this in movies often, where everything in relationships is drama. I find it too unrealistic and mostly made to add fluff between the action or kill scenes.
Mahogany’s disease in Midnight Meat Train (the movie)
Mahogany has odd growths on his chest that he cuts off and stores in his medicine cabinet. You know, like a good psycho would.
It was very gross and made for a good, scary movie scene. It gave me goosebumps for sure. But they never explained what he had. Other than it was for pure shock value.
It was an interesting choice to portray Mahogany as too unfit for the job by giving him growths. But the fact that it wasn’t explained made me question why it was included in the first place.
The creatures in the subway (in the movie)
The creatures in the subway are never explained. I mean, I guess maybe they were. The train conductor, who is in on the whole Midnight Meat Train (he’s in on it in the story too), says they must keep the creatures separate from the city. But that’s as far as the explanation goes.
Nothing about the Fathers of the city or anything.
The creatures don’t speak. They just grow and eat.
The train conductor
The train conductor has a very minimal role in both the movie and the short story. But he has a bigger role in the movie.
He seems to “explain” things in the end, but also kills Kaufman’s girlfriend and takes out her heart, which was weird and not in the story. I suppose it was simply to be gratuitous, which in horror movies doesn’t really need an explanation.
He also randomly rips out Kaufman’s tongue. It felt a little unnatural, considering there was no fight between them or anything. He just walks up to Kaufman, grabs him by the throat, and rips out his tongue.
Why does Leon Kaufman Become The Butcher in Midnight Meat Train, the movie?
In the movie, we are left to realize that now Kaufman must take over Mahogany’s role. But we don’t really understand why.
In the book, we understand that now, at least, his life has purpose. But in the movie, he’s shocked at the events, and now he’s the butcher?
The movie wasn’t terrible. But compared to the relatively compact and straightforward short story, the movie left a lot of questions that were never answered.
My Personal Interpretation of The Midnight Meat Train After Reading the Story
These are my opinions, so take them with a grain of salt. But ok, here we go.
I personally believe that Clive Barker lived in New York City when the city was overrun with corruption and crime.
How did he cope?
He wrote a disturbing short story about a killer who kills on the subway to feed the ugly New Yorkers who live underground.
Not only does he do this, but he must pass the baton for other killers to continue his work.
This is how artists express their emotions, and that’s what I felt he was doing.
I could be totally wrong, of course.
Art is left open to interpretation, so it could very well be a story with no meaning behind it whatsoever.
Perhaps it was a nightmare he had one night and decided to turn it into a short story.
But anyway, that’s what I think the story is really about. It’s about Clive’s utter dislike for the city of New York.
As always, leave your own star rating below and review. What did you think of the story or the movie? Did you like one more than the other? Were you just as confused by the movie as I was?
If I had to give the movie a rating, I would give it a 3. So there is The Midnight Meat Train Explained. Or my attempt to explain it. How would you explain it?
