| abstract | - A well-dressed, barrel-chested man enters the New York City subway at midnight and stalks the late-night passengers of a subway train. He assaults and kills several people with a meat hammer and a butcher's hook. He dispatches his prey wordlessly, and with an unnatural strength. He wears a ring on his finger, adorned with an eight pointed star. Leon is a vegan amateur photographer who wants to find unique spots of the NYC landscape to shoot, and at the advice of his contractor heads into the city's subway system at night. He is criticized constantly by other photographers for fleeing danger before shooting a full reel. One night, in a decision to break this trend, he saves a woman from a gang that is abusing her. The next day, he discovers this girl has gone missing. Leon is intrigued by the mystery, and begins to investigate newsreels about similar disappearances. His investigation leads him to a butcher named Mahogany, whom he suspects has been killing subway passengers for the past three years. Leon attempts to turn some of the photos he has taken of Mahogany in to the police, but they refuse to believe him, and instead cast suspicion on his own motives in photographing the victims. Leon's involvement quickly turns into a dark obsession, upsetting his waitress girlfriend Maya, who is as disbelieving of his story as the police chief. Leon takes matters into his own hands, entering the subway train at midnight, only to witness a shocking bloodbath, as the butcher kills several passengers, then hangs them on meat hooks. Passing out on the subway floor, he awakes the next morning in a slaughterhouse with strange markings carved into his chest. A concerned Maya and her friend Jurgis begin to examine the photos Leon has been taking of Mahogany, leading them to the killer's apartment. After breaking into the butcher's home, Jurgis is captured, and brutally killed. Maya goes to the police, but finds that they are as unwilling to consider her story as they were of Leon's. A police official then directs Maya to a trip on the midnight train. Leon, unaware of Maya's involvement, finally decides to put an end to the butcher's crimes. Leon heads to the hidden subway entrance in the slaughterhouse, arming himself with several slaughterhouse knives, and wearing a butcher's apron. Leon enters the train as Mahogany has completed his nightly massacre, and has cornered a helpless Maya. Leon attacks the murderer with a knife, beginning a climactic battle between the photographer and the butcher. They fight in between the swinging human flesh—Leon's knives against Mahogany's meat hammer—and human body parts are ripped, thrown, and used as weapons. Finally, Mahogany is thrown out of the train by Leon, but not long before it hits its final stop. The train has entered an underground cavern, filled with skulls and decomposing bodies. The conductor of the train enters the car, advising Leon and Maya to "Please step away from the meat." With these words, the true purpose of the underground station is revealed, as horrible reptilian creatures enter the car, consuming the meat. Leon and Maya leave the carriage into the cavern. Mahogany, in a battered and bleeding state, returns, barely alive, and engages in a death struggle with Leon, who finishes the job at last by impaling the psychotic butcher's skull on a blade. Mahogany grins in his dying throes, speaking the single word "Welcome!" The conductor appears and explains to Leon that the creatures have always existed below the city, and that the butcher's job was to keep them satisfied by feeding them every night. He picks up Leon, and with the same supernatural strength as the deceased butcher, rips out Leon's tongue, throwing him to the ground and eating the tongue. The conductor brings Leon's attention to Maya, who has been knocked unconscious and is lying on a pile of bones - presumably this took place some time during Leon's fight with the butcher. The conductor then forces Leon to watch as he kills Maya with one of the butcher's knives. When he is done, he tells Leon that, having killed the butcher, Leon must take his place. Finally, the police chief hands the train schedule to the new butcher, who wears a ring with the eight pointed star on it, a symbol for the group that feeds the creatures. The killer walks onto the midnight train, and turns his head to reveal that the new butcher is Leon.
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