While not the greatest horror movie ever made, “The Ruins” is quite a nice little thrill ride. I read the book in 2006 and really dug it. The movie holds up very well against the book even though some of the events and characters have been switched around somewhat. I don’t guess we can really complain since the author of the book (Scott Smith) also wrote the screenplay. My main complaint would be the new ending that was added for the movie. It just really didn’t work for me. Otherwise, we get to enjoy a fun roller coaster of traditional scares and some pretty intense gore sequences. I think that Carter Smith has done a fine job with his first time major motion picture. The cast is really solid as well. I really bought into the characters and actually cared what was happening to them. Plus … who would have guessed that Jonathan Tucker was so freakin’ hot?!?!~
I guess because 99.9% of what I write is character-driven, I always look, whether it’s on purpose or not, to see whether I Care…care about the character, even if I don’t always like them or whatever -if I care about what happens, if I’m curious, if I give a damn, then the story or movie will work for me on whatever levels of “works for me” it gets to…..if I don’t care, then I’m bored, or done, or disappointed or whatever….
I still need to watch Brokeback! I will do that this week so I can return it! now that i’m not going to rehearsals and shows and all.
Today on my howling blog, I started something – I think Clementine is going to become a story, or a novel – oh shit…now I’ve gone and started something….
RUINS Review Redux: ( hope you don’t mind Chas) I put this movie/book higher on my horror list because the story is just a few steps from real life. Most of the violence and horror is self-inflicted, the characters are our friends, we like them and they make reasonable real life choices (versus “of course I should park my car in a dark lonely place) except in this event those choices lead them collectively to a place of no return. How easy it is to create real shit in your life.
Ultimately, each character’s end fits their character, the most bold independent risk taker suffers the most, the impulsive risk taker does the most damage to themselves, the biggest enabler dies at the hands of their lover, the boyscout dies a nameless hero and the follower is left alone at the end. Pretty scary.