Midnight Meat Train Writer Weighs in on Rumors of Sequel Plans

Author Clive Barker's stories have regularly been adapted into feature films, thanks to his endless imagination conjuring up disturbing horrors. Back in 2008, director Ryuhei Kitamura delivered audiences The Midnight Meat Train, based on a 1984 short story of the same name. Unfortunately, the film was only given a limited theatrical release, preventing it from being appreciated initially by horror fans, though the film has gained a passionate following over the last decade. Support of the film has grown enough that rumors have emerged about a sequel and potentially a trilogy could emerge to finish the narrative, yet writer Jeff Buhler claims to be unaware of any talks about a new film being developed.

"I have not had direct conversations about Midnight Meat Train, although I love that world," Buhler revealed to ComicBook.com. "And I think we never really got a good dose of what the fathers were all about, the way it ends in the film with the train conductor explaining the world of the fathers doesn't get all the way into the mythology in the story, with the fathers and the maker and the history of this society under New York City, and how important it is to keeping the ecosystem of New York City healthy. The symbiotic relationship that these monsters have with the city itself."

One big difference between the movie landscape now as compared to 2008 is that Video on Demand services are becoming a more popular avenue for independent films, in addition to streaming services delivering audiences a variety of different projects, ranging from arthouse cinema to big-budget spectacles. Whatever the filmmakers had in mind, a Midnight Meat Train sequel would be found by horror fans more easily.

"So I think there's always opportunities, but that's a world that I would love to spend more time in," Buhler noted. "It didn't get a great release, it didn't get a release at all basically, because there were changes at the studio at the time. But that movie really, over the years, has found its audience, which is also really gratifying when people discover it. It's made a lot of lists, it's been recommended, it's done really good business on Netflix and Video on Demand, and people find it. That's really cool."

He added, "It's a beautiful film too, the photography and the choreography of some of those horror sequences are absolutely stunning."

In the time since the release of the film, Buhler also detailed his experience of trying to bring another Barker story to life.

"I developed another Clive Barker project that never moved forward, which was also based on one of the Books of Blood stories, a very short story, it's maybe five or six pages, called Down, Satan!" the filmmaker recalled. "Which was developed as an R-rated animated film, and we have a script and everything."

Stay tuned for details on the potential future of the Midnight Meat Train sequel and Down, Satan!

Would you like to see the film get a sequel? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

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