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Trailer here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/theruins/trailer1a/)
Release Date: April 4th, 2008 (wide)
Starring: Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore
Directed by: Carter Smith
Premise: Four American friends on vacation in Cancún, Mexico, meet a German tourist that persuades them to join his hunt for his younger brother, who was last seen with his girlfriend near some mysterious ruins.
I read the book about a year or so ago (by the same guy who wrote A Simple Plan). So far as the story goes, it tests you until about half way through, then gets well, shitter and shitter. After seeing the trailer I would say this looks best avoided.
Quote from: Sleepless on March 06, 2008, 09:21:26 PM
I read the book about a year or so ago (by the same guy who wrote A Simple Plan). So far as the story goes, it tests you until about half way through, then gets well, shitter and shitter. After seeing the trailer I would say this looks best avoided.
I read it too, and I later read in an interview with the author that they got rid of the parts when the plants mimic their voices.
This was really, really good, believe it or not. I was a bit skeptical during the uninspired and derivative opening (drunk nubile teen females and their frat boyfriends on vacation in an exotic foreign land), but then the shit hit the fan and this turned into an inspired mini-masterpiece of tension and suspense. It had a decidedly John Carpenter-esque vibe, mainly in the scenario of a desperate group of individuals confined to a small space, fending off encroaching evil and increasingly susceptible to panic and chaotic infighting. It was also very bleak and brutal in a 70s sort of way, and the acting and direction were good all around. One of the best horror films of the past several years, and a welcome departure from the torture-themed films such as Hostel and Saw.
The book has been sitting on my shelf for well over a year now and I've still yet to read it.
But I did go see this film begrudgingly. Assuming, from the trailer, that this was just another deviation on the group of young people being slaughtered by mutated people in the dark - and then finding out it wasn't that at all - I was pleasantly surprised.
The gore that was on display was well earned, not forced or gratuitous, and the whole affair is really only marred by an ending both forced and abrupt (though, the latter I can't imagine being able to do much about.)
Actually, this is a bit of a thematic spoiler in regards to the end...
It was like the producers saw the audience reaction to The Mist, and it's middling box office returns, and freaked out... demanding some sort of feel-good conclusion. This might not be the case, maybe it's the same in the book, but it was the only moment that lost me.
Reminded me a bit of Creepshow and how, if this was a shorter film in an anthology, it would probably have blown my mind.
***SPOILERS***
Quote from: john on April 14, 2008, 03:38:45 PMIt was like the producers saw the audience reaction to The Mist, and it's middling box office returns, and freaked out... demanding some sort of feel-good conclusion. This might not be the case, maybe it's the same in the book, but it was the only moment that lost me.
Not having seen the film yet, but going by your relation to The Mist, a feel-good ending is not the same ending in the book.
This was better than I was expecting, but it still missed what the book had in spades - tension. A great deal of elements went missing that helped build that. A shorter opening might have helped. But what the film does take from the book in terms of the gore works well, however, it would have been in the film's best interest to let the plants play a greater role in truly testing the group because the characters here aren't so fully fleshed (pun intended). Far superior to Turistas.
Wow, this is a great little horror film. Didn't scare me that much but had some nice little surprises throughout the entire length of it and it was nice to see some youngsters dying slowly and without prejudice. It made me smile. Some of the actors overdid their terror and were really theatrical about it but I guess thats what needs to be seen in a film like this. The natives seemed purposely aggressive towards the kids at first and that frightened me a bit. Overall a fun little horror flick.