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Rating: "Through me you go into the city of woe, through me you go into eternal pain, through me you go among the lost people... Abandon all hope, you who enter."
I know well that, in these days of impending Christmas festivities, evoking a passage from Dante's Inferno goes against the current, evoking gloomy thoughts when one seeks a minimum of serenity. But in terms of cinema, I have always preferred works that are possibly not at all sugary. And in this specific case, I was completely unaware of the work "Next Stop: Hell" (another example of a misleading Italian title compared to the original English one). Quite by chance, a week ago, while chatting with an old friend I hadn't seen in years, I found out that it was one of the most significant horror titles of the last few decades. Intrigued, I discovered that the film was quietly released in the USA in 2008, ending almost immediately in the realm of home video. It is, therefore, a niche title, if only because it is based on the short story "The Midnight Meat Train" by Clive Barker (the same who wrote and directed "Hellraiser," another title in the horror genre).
The plot follows in the footsteps of Leon Kaufmann, a young photographer in constant search of original shots to take in the American metropolis he lives in (specifically, New York). In order to propose something original to be exhibited in a modern art gallery, the protagonist begins to wander through the city's subway system and here notices a decidedly shady-looking guy. The subject in question is none other than a certain Mahogany, a butcher by profession inclined to actions of a perfect psychopath. Yes, because delighting in butchering even human flesh of poor, unfortunate passengers present on board the last midnight train of the subway is not at all normal. Leon tries to tail Mahogany, glimpsed in his vile actions and, after doing some research in journalistic archives, also discovers a series of mysterious disappearances over the last three years in the New York subway system. Although the police officers to whom he expresses his doubts do not give him credit (and after all, it seems that the law enforcers are complicit and silent), Leon cannot remotely imagine that that butcher is the intermediary of dark entities located in the bowels of the subway and linked to the supernatural founding reasons of the city itself. At the culminating point of a relentless and violent chase, the epilogue of the story cannot fail to be tragic and gruesome. Suffice to know that if you are in doubt about whether to continue a carnivorous diet or embark on a vegetarian diet, you will no longer hesitate to opt for the latter.
The Japanese director Kitamura offers a diligent version of a Barker story, although the film's limitations are not lacking. Meanwhile, the protagonist Leon is not rendered at best by the actor Bradley Cooper, with that somewhat astonished air of a good guy not at all convinced of what is happening to him. Much better, however, is the acting performance of Vinnie Jones, who stands out for the malicious expression of Mahogany and who holds well the entire gripping storyline (certainly a subject to avoid if you see him coming in your direction). Then the pace of action at times slows down, with certain elongations related to the amorous skirmishes between Leon and the girl he lives with.
But the real inherent limitation of the work relates to what is at the core of the plot, namely the hidden instigators of this massacre on the subway. In fact, Barker's story specifies the existence of a parallel reality to that in the daylight, which has nothing reassuring and refers to themes dear to a cursed author like Lovecraft, very attentive to remind us that there exists an unknown by its nature unnameable, dark, to avoid knowing. And on the other hand, the same Wittgenstein, a philosopher attentive to connecting language to the surrounding reality, considered that there is always an unspeakable that defies communication. It is something unrepresentable.
Indeed, director Kitamura, very meticulous in rendering scenes of disembowelment and butchering, does not linger on framing certain disturbing entities practicing cannibalism in the bowels of the New York subway, in accordance with a terrifying supernatural rite dating back to the night of times when the city was founded. It is all too terrible to show clearly in the daylight. We are, in short, in the realm of a metaphysical horror, even if more gory compared to the style of a great author like Stephen King (just think of the eerie atmosphere of "Shining" just to make an example).
Substantially, it remains a nonetheless distressing film, even if not completely successful in the narrative twists. However, after watching, I am left with a subtle unease about boarding sparsely populated subway cars after a certain hour. Could it be that a certain solitary passenger is the keeper of some terrible secret, the kind of violent hobby inflicted on unsuspecting and innocent passengers?
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