Here's an understatement for you to chew on - Clive Barker has had a mixed history when it comes to film adaptations of his work. There have been hits (his own 'Hellraiser', 'Candyman'), honorable failures (his own 'Lord of Illusions' and 'Nightbreed'), projects stymied by studio disinterest and mismanagement (same as previous brackets, arguably) and outright duds (later 'Hellraiser' movies, 'Razorback'). 'Midnight Meat Train' falls into the 'buggered about by the studio' category, largely bypassing cinemas in spite of being far more interesting than the slasher nonsense that gets a wide release.

'Midnight Meat Train' is adapted from one of Barker's early stories, collected in his 'Books of Blood', and is the American movie debut of director Ryuhei Kitamura, the man behind such oddities as zombie martial arts reincarnation movie 'Versus'. The film is a clash of three cultures - the American urban setting and characters, the Liverpudlian author with his interest in matters fetishistic, and the Asian horror maestro director with his keen eye for alienating and inventive camera set-ups.

The result feels pleasingly queasy, entirely appropriate considering the story is one of voyeurism and immersion: photographer Bradley Cooper is told by a gallery owner that he needs to get under the skin of his subject matter more, to get close and involved. To this end, he goes out on to the subway looking for trouble, and finds it in the form of Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) a very big man with very old dress sense who butchers late-train commuters. And by butcher, I mean butcher - not just killing but stripping, stringing up, filleting and bleeding. As the photographer gets closer to his subject, he is as fascinated as he is disgusted, his behaviour and appetites changing from mild-mannered vegetarian to something more aggresive.

Cooper's good (his character here is not a million miles from the snotty journo he played in 'Alias', another quirky paranoiac), and Jones is well-suited to the role of enigmatic, well-tailored hulk, but the real star here is the modern cityscape, as viewed through Barker's fascinations and Kitamura's talent for gleeful nastiness. These two have an outsiders view of urban America, slyly commenting on the way expansive, dehumanising modernity can flatten the past with a sprawl of polished skyscrapers but can't fully erase darker, pre-civilsed impulses with concrete and chrome.

'Midnight Meat Train' isn't perfect. It's ending veers from jarring fantasy to predictable outcome in a way that may well have worked in a short prose story but is less effective in a movie, where narrative and worldbuilding need greater consistency. Nonetheless this is an intelligent, inventive adaptation of the work of one of our most distinct voices in contemporary fantasy, and as such is very much worth a look if you like horror that aims for something more than Saturday night splatterdom.

Mark Clapham's first comic strip, 'Nomads', is published in the 'Zombies' anthology from Accent UK .