FAQ for
The Midnight Meat Train (2008) More at IMDb Pro »

The Midnight Meat Train is based on a 1984 short story by English horror writer Clive Barker. It can be found in Volume One (of Six) of Barker's collection Books of Blood (1984-1985).

A new manager of Lionsgate took over the company and due to internal politics is dumping the ex's films. Midnight Meat Train is one of the unfortunate films to suffer over immature and selfish management. Thus, taking away the films chances of making a success out of itself.

Most of the unanswered questions are explained in the short story this movie is based on. The following is an explanation in the words of user Mr_White87 as posted in the forum:

The things that ate people are called the fathers. In the short story, they're a secret society that run the world. They're weakened and need human flesh to live, and the leaders of modern society need them to live, thus their agreement to deliver them human flesh every night. In the short story there are also cleaners who clean up the blood in the train.

The mark on the chest was to signify that Leon was chosen by the fathers to become the new butcher.

Mahogany was dying of a disease, which was hinted at by him coughing up blood and him cutting of the nasty warts. It's not clear whether it serves another function besides showing he's very sick.

Mahogany was getting old and sick, as evidenced by him coughing up blood and nearly losing to Rampage Jackson's character (the black guy in the subway). Thus the fathers chose Leon to become the new butcher (the mark on his chest). They knew Leon was obsessed with the killings and the final confrontation between Leon and Mahogany was in fact pretty much a training exercise to see if Leon had it in him to kill. Then they killed Maya so Leon had nobody to fall back on and had nothing else to live for.