| Director | Ryuhei Kitamura |
|---|---|
| Genre | fantasy film, film based on literature, horror film, mystery film, slasher film, thriller film |
| Runtime | 100 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $3.5 million |
City-based photographer Leon Kaufman wants to capture unique, gritty shots of life on the streets. He is crushed when, instead of giving him his big break, the gallery owner, Susan Hoff, criticizes Leon for not taking enough risks. Emboldened, Leon heads into the city's subway system at night, where he takes pictures of an impending sexual assault before saving the woman, who kisses Leon before running to catch the subway. The next day, Leon discovers that the same woman he encountered has gone missing. Intrigued, he investigates reports of similar disappearances. Leon's investigation leads him to a butcher named Mahogany, whom he suspects has been killing subway passengers for the past three years.
Leon presents his photos to the police, who dismiss his claims. Leon's involvement quickly turns into a dark obsession, straining his relationship with his girlfriend, Maya. Leon follows Mahogany onto the last subway train of the night, only to witness him killing several passengers and hanging their bodies on meat hooks. After a brief scuffle with Mahogany, Leon passes out on the train, awakening the next morning in a slaughterhouse with strange markings carved into his chest.
Concerned about Leon's behavior, Maya and her friend Jurgis examine his photos of Mahogany, leading them to the killer's apartment. After breaking in, Jurgis is captured, though Maya escapes with timetables that record over 100 years of murders on the subway. She goes to the police, who are still skeptical about the murders. When police detective Lynn Hadley presses Maya to return the timetables, she furiously demands answers. Hadley reluctantly directs her to take the midnight train to find Jurgis. At the same time, Leon heads to a hidden subway entrance in the slaughterhouse, arming himself with several knives.
Leon boards the train right before Mahogany completes his latest killing and corners a defenseless Maya. He attacks Mahogany with a knife, and the two fight in between the swinging human flesh. Human body parts are ripped, thrown, and used as weapons. Jurgis, hung from a meat hook, dies when he is gutted. The train reaches its final stop, a cavernous abandoned station filled with skulls and decomposing bodies. A conductor soon appears and asks Leon and Maya to "step away from the meat." The true purpose of the abandoned station is revealed as reptilian creatures enter the car and start eating the bodies of the murdered passengers. Leon and Maya flee into the cavern. Mahogany, battered, reappears and fights Leon, who stabs a broken femur through Mahogany's throat, killing him.
The same conductor tells Leon the creatures had lived beneath the city long before the subway was constructed, and the butcher's job is to feed them each night to keep them from attacking subway riders during the day. He picks up a weakened Leon and, with the same supernatural strength as Mahogany, rips out Leon's tongue and eats it. The conductor brings Leon's attention to Maya, who has been knocked unconscious and is lying on a pile of bones. The conductor forces Leon to watch as he cuts Maya's chest open and removes her heart. He says that, having killed the butcher, Leon must take his place.
Sometime later, Hadley hands a train schedule to the new "butcher", who wears a ring with the symbol of the group that feeds the creatures. The butcher is revealed to be Leon as he boards the midnight train.