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Massawyrm Locks Arms With Capone And Agrees That THE RUINS Is Actually Pretty Damned Good!!
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
Well this was unexpected. It’s rare that a film that looks like this, sounds like this and ultimately gets its only Austin screening at 10 O’ Clock the night before release actually turns out to be as good as this. But this was good. Quite good. Much like many a horror surprise, the premise sounds at first tired, then weak. A couple of twenty-somethings are vacationing in Mexico when they hear about an archeological dig at a previously uncharted Mayan ruin. “Hey gang! Let’s go!” One of them prods and the next thing you know five good-looking kids are traipsing through the jungle. Guess what? It doesn’t turn out so great for the Mystery Gang.
But much like many a cool ass horror flick before it, The Ruins takes trite well trodden material and freshens it up with some clever ideas, new angles and a story that I dare say contains shades of Carpenter. Because once we get the set-up out of the way, the rest of the film is 5 very realistic, far from incompetent folks caught atop ancient Mayan ruins – with a posse of pissed off natives refusing to let them leave and a supernatural something or other keeping them from wanting to stay. What follows is a tensegame of how far would you go to survive as the story gets more and more fucked up every step of the way.
This film takes what should be a very immature concept and instead makes an incredibly mature horror film out of it that revolves around developing an idea, a new creature of horror - like some distant cousin of The Thing - and takes the story to its rough, painful and inevitable conclusion. These kids aren’t stupid – but they are kids. They don’t always make the right choices, but they’re not exactly bubble-headed Voorhees victims either. And when they begin to fall apart, the film makes the very best of it, ratcheting up the tension and delivering 100%.
What seems to edge this one above the common horror fare - especially the typical studio schlock we’ve been getting lately – is the acting. This is a supernatural standoff movie, and for those to work you have to have a group of actors with real chemistry and the chops to spend a bulk of the movie stuck in the same room (or in this case on the same 30’ piece of stone) together. Jena Malone (Into the Wild, Contact) is great as always – and Jonathan Tucker (The Black Donnelley’s) turns in a blistering performance as her boyfriend and the stoic leader. Shawn Ashmore (Iceman, freaking Iceman) is almost completely unrecognizable beneath his scruffy man-beard and assuming the not-nearly-as-sharp member of the foursome – but does a really great job with it. All butch and manly, he really kind of casts off the whole aw shucks boy next door thing and is allowed to cut loose a bit. Why I haven’t seen this kid in a dozen other things by now is still eluding me.
But what really blew my mind was how good Laura Ramsey was. Here’s a girl I should probably loath by now. Being one of the few people alive to have suffered through pretty much the entirety of her filmography, most notably the incredibly unreal The Real Cancun; my favorite beer-drinking-bad-movie in recent memory The Covenant; and of course Venom, the horror film like me and three other people in the world actually suffered through. I should hate this chick at this point. And yet, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Not in that creepy I’m gonna drive home quick as to not lose and spoil the erection sort of way – but rather I finally saw the charisma and talent that has been getting her all these roles for all these years. Surprisingly, when given solid material, she kinda rocks.
Together, these four really sell the premise – which is tough. At first the ideas this movie is playing around with seem pretty damned silly. But once the cast reels you into the tension of the film, the ideas are allowed to develop and become pretty fucking cool. A real monster with a fantastic story and something of a scary, implied history.
Newcomer director Carter Smith really does his job here. He manages to choose all the right angles to keep the same characters in the confines of the same 30 or so feet interesting at all times. He tempers just the right amount of blood and sound work with off screen injuries and death to keep it both brutal but never over the top. And he never gets gratuitous with anything. Everything is in just the right amount to feel natural. Hell, Laura Ramsey spends a good portion of the film running around in her panties and Smith manages to make that more a part of the horror than Hey look, I got a hot actress to wander around the whole movie in her panties. Here, let ’s switch to cameltoecam for all the thirteen year old boys in the audience.
And on top of all that there are some pretty good scares in this thing. I wish every studio film could be made with the same kind of attention and care that this was made with. It’s a good old fashioned scary ass monster movie. And it works. The Ruins Comes Recommended for horror fans or anyone looking for a good, mature, scary flick.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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Can't wait to see this.
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Yes!
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If you know what happens to the kids...
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I dont think so, try watching The Orphanage and not be scared shitless.
Am looking forward to The Ruins though. -
ummm The Mist and probably some others (although NOT many)
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now THAT'S a horror
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I hated the ending of the book. I hear the movie reflects the novel's unsatisfying conclusion.
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Nothing wrong with that.
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The book's ending was unavoidable! The point of the whole story is how these people deal with the pressure and their last hours. I can only hope the movie stays true to it.
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It was a very appropriate ending considering what the story was trying to do.
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I wanted a more upbeat ending. Reading the novel was a waste of time.
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Everyone wakes up in Bob Newhart's bed!
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You are the reason that hollywood changes all the good endings into shitty crowd pleaser endings. Way to spoil everything, shmuck.
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Apr 04, 2008 3:38:14 PM CDT
biffy - The Orphanage was good, but not remotely scary
by bass bastardson
What was there to be scared of in that movie? It was good and creepy and a well told story but I was never really in fear for anyone.
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It's good to see that a trailer is not the be-all end-all that the marketing folk claim it to be.I was watching the trailer thinking about how tired the premise is these days, then Capone, Harry, and the 'Wyrm say it's pretty good. Hmmm...I hope it's a wider release. We don't seem to get some of these films around here, if it's not.
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It felt like an ABC TV King adaptation. I did, however, like the ending. That at least had balls. I love Darabont, but I felt like The Mist was way beneath him. As for this talking vines shit, we'll see...
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No, not the one hiding the camel toe. The one with the inner-elbow tattoo (kinda skanky, but still hot) wearing the Sandusky, OH Auto Parts shirt. I'd make out with her on the Cedar Point Ferris Wheel!
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There are only like 4 reviews online. One of them is Harry, who is a bad reviewer. Another is Massawyrm, if you can call it a review. One is the Chicago Tribune. And the Hollywood Reporter gave it 1.5/4.
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The Mist was not the fog that came in with the creatures. The Mist is actually the fog that clouds peoples minds in states of panic. Eloquently noted in the script that everyone is fine and dandy until they pick up the phone and 911 doesn't answer. The grocery store is a microcasm of America. It was an effective thriller that made me feel very tense. It was a nice slow tense-builder with a great payoff. I never would've seen the end coming. It was good. The Mist didn't suck or look like ABC TV Stephen King. Compare the Mist to Rose Red that appeared on ABC. Rose Red was utter crap. The Mist was infinitely better.
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I was tricked by AICN again. 30% on rottentomatoes at the moment which it deserves, but reviews werent up when I went.
SPOILERS!- (But not really)
1. Kids on vacation.
2. Follow relative stranger to strange place
3. Become trapped.
4. No real scares, just gross out scenes involving cutting, like impromptu surgery and self cutting.
5. Plan for escape.
If this crap appeals to you, by all means waste your hard earned money. Its not scarey, just several "EWW!" scenes of people getting cut. -
Uhhhhh....can you elaborate on this line? Which scares?
SPOILERS!-(But not really)
1. Uh, not when they are on the beach.
2. When they reach the temple and some start going down the hole? Um, when was that scary?
3. The surgery and cutting? Its very gross, but scary? Uh, no.
4. When the plants start to reveal themselves more? Lame, and not scary.
Please point out the "scares"....I watched the thing and i cant find them. -
...but go look at The Fourth Movement over at Amazon.com. Now that's a thriller!
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The backstory implied, that this has happened many times before, and that the actions of the Mayan made absolute sense -- for the whole world, was great. And like the review, that the kids weren't stupid -- though tequila will warp judgement -- and that they made appropiate choices given what they had -- was believable. And the "monster" got creepier and more disturbing as each hour when by -- give Scott Smith the credit he deserves.
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(sorry just reading the posts..) That was the point, having a realistic ending. Of course I'm talking about the book -- don't know movie. It wasn't a prime cut, but you can't always eat great steak and drink good wine -- sometimes a lttle junk food is healthy..
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The book,after a good start,was a complete waste of time.Not once do the characters try to destroy the vines even though they have enough alcohol and fire to burn a portion of the damn things.At least they could have maintained a ring of fire around the camp between rains to keep the creepers out.Instead a few of them act like it's Fort Lauderdale and get drunk.Wooo,here's the message about how things break down when people are scared again.And I guess soon to be college graduates can't vote or make other informed decisions because they're "still kids."
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