The Ruins: Page to Screen!

Being as we are in the midst of a remarkably bleak movie cycle, of course this past weekend happened to be the first opportunity in awhile for my wife and I to leave the rats at home and take in a show. Having actually both read and enjoyed the book by Scott Smith, we decided to ignore the tepid reviews and check out "The Ruins". You might think that the "plant as monster" genre is limited for a reason, and you're probably right. It seems challenging at best for a director to imbue plants with dread, although trees can be particularly terrifying. I remember when we were buying our condo and our inspector noticed an especially large tree outside of one of the bedroom windows:

Inspector: This isn't going to be the kids' room, is it?
Me: No, I don't think so. Why?
Inspector: When winter comes that tree could turn into a whole lot of things, none of them good.
Me: Good point. Should we check the water pressure? My wife is antsy about the water pressure.

It actually was a pretty funny and insightful point, and I almost forgive him for not noticing the roof damage that plagues us to this day.

Anyway, the book was enjoyable because Scott Smith is pretty awesome at building sustained and growing dread, as he did in "A Simple Plan". He writes very matter-of-factly, so that you can follow the poor choices that the characters make, and at least understand why and how they were made - even when you know that they will only lead to someone eventually murdering his best friend. It all seemed so logical at the time! So even with what most people would consider a pretty ridiculous premise, Smith makes it work by revealing things slowly and with impressive control. By the way, I love in horror novels or films where people start to put together plans to avoid disaster, especially if they are methodical and detailed. (These plans are especially awesome if they have to be completed by nightfall.)

Not surprisingly, the film doesn't quite get it right. The director, Carter Smith, has trouble keeping the film about the growing dread, rather than the violence and blood that the dread gives way to pretty quickly. That violence and blood is in the book, and it's pretty graphic, but it comes out as inevitable and necessary to prevent any further danger - at least in the characters' minds. The book also centers on the group dynamic and how a bunch of sorta friends react to a horrifying and impossible situation. Since the characters aren't very drawn out in the film, it's hard to get much of that across and the suspense suffers because of it.

All that being said, it was certainly a better horror film than most being released with twenty-something leads these days. It has some intelligence to it, it features a very much grown up Jena Malone from "Stepmom", most of the gore isn't too gratuitous, and it has a likable German character named Mathias. I would see it over "Turistas" any day of the week. Did I mention it has a killer plant?

Novel BaeRating: B
Film BaeRating: C+