The Ruins (DVD)

Available on DVD Tuesday, July 8th

Cast:

Jonathan Tucker as Jeff

Jena Malone as Amy

Shawn Ashmore as Eric

Laura Ramsey as Stacy

Joe Anderson as Mathias

Directed by Carter Smith

Movie:

Upon seeing the theatrical trailer for The Ruins, the likely question most viewers had was “Uh, so what’s this about?” Those who read Scott Smith’s harrowing 2006 novel already knew that this was the white-knuckle tale of four vacationing friends who find themselves unraveling in the face of sentient vines and gun-toting natives in a South American hot spot not found on any map. But for those unfamiliar with the book, the previews for The Ruins suggested it was potentially another Hostel rip-off, like the recently released Turistas. But besides the sight of beautiful young people fighting to survive in a foreign land, there was also something about plants or worm-like things that burrowed under the skin and, so, what was happening with that, exactly? The ad campaign did little to supply any answers and while the makers of The Ruins deserve credit for trying to bring something other than a slasher or a ghost story to the screen (or yet another remake), Dreamworks’ marketing department didn’t seem to have much confidence that the world was waiting for a movie about man-eating vines.

More compressed than the ordeal depicted in the novel, on screen the story of The Ruins is still more or less the same traumatic downward spiral. Four friends – Jeff (Jonathan Tucker), Amy (Jena Malone), Eric (Shawn Ashmore) and Stacy (Laura Ramsey) – are enjoying the last days of their south of the border vacation when a new friend they’ve met, a charming German tourist named Mathias (Joe Anderson), tips them off to a potentially intriguing site. Mathias’ archeologist brother has recently traveled to some off-the-map Mayan ruins from which he has not yet returned. Encouraged by the thought of seeing something memorable, the four journey with Mathias and another friend to the isolated ruins only to immediately realize that they’ve made a potentially fatal mistake.

What transpires as armed natives force the tourists up the steps of the ruins and stay posted around the perimeter to block any escape attempt is a series of grim revelations. Foremost of which is the fact that the vines engulfing the ruins are alive. This alone is a make-or-break proposition for many viewers. Either they’ll go with it (after all, is it any more outrageous than the threats found in other horror and sci-fi movies?) or regard it as being too silly to abide by. For those willing to believe that man-eating vines are choice nightmare material, the subsequent survival tactics put into play are gripping. Paranoia, desperation, and exhaustion cut down the group’s chances of getting off the ruins intact. Add on a few bad breaks (literally) and you’ve got a hopeless scenario for the ages.

But although Smith’s novel seems to be ideal material to translate to film with its small cast and limited locations, there are a few ways in which The Ruins (with a screenplay written by Smith himself) falls short of its source. For one, talking vines – mimicking their victim’s voices and other noises – isn’t as easy to make work in a movie the same way it came across in the novel. On film, it’s just as likely to provoke laughter as it is a case of the creeps. Another issue working against the film is that it’s tough to duplicate the same sense of time passing that the novel was able to do so well (although The Ruins conveys the passage of time much better than 30 Days of Night did – a film which somehow seemed to take place over the course of forty-eight hours). In the book the fact that these characters were running out of food and water came across much more vividly. And the personal disintegration of each of the characters was also far better portrayed in the novel as a natural result of the fact that their internal struggles could be given the proper attention.

But these faults aside, The Ruins is still a very tense ride. First time feature director Carter Smith (no relation to Scott Smith) clearly knows how to bring the horror. He’s able to make this into a strong ensemble piece, working with a talented cast, and yet he doesn’t flinch from faithfully reproducing the heavy bloodletting of the novel. At its goriest, this remains the year’s hardest R-rated movie to date along with Rambo (on that count, it trails very distantly behind Rambo but then again, what doesn’t?).

Overall, Smith’s screenplay offers a decent thumbnail version of his book and the cast is strong across the board. Some might see these characters as being too much in the Blair Witch tradition of unlikable characters too inept to ensure their own survival but I disagree. Although I should add that I never found Blair Witch‘s characters to be unappealing, so take that into consideration. Were they flawed? Sure. But unlikable? They simply seemed believable to me, and how they fell apart under overwhelming circumstances felt true to life. I’m not convinced that I’d be brave or capable in these same situations and so in that light, the characters of The Ruins fare as well as anyone. Hopeless scenarios like the one presented in The Ruins tend to rub some viewers the wrong way – if a premise is so can’t-win that its characters can’t MacGyver their way out of it, some audiences feel betrayed. As in, what was the point of the movie? Why did I need to watch this? And to that, I say it’s valuable to experience stories where characters sometimes don’t triumph and don’t beat the odds – even when they’ve done all they can to survive.

With its elements of invasive, infectious horror, and its isolated band of characters The Ruins has drawn comparisons to Carpenter’s The Thing and Cabin Fever but for me, it most strongly recalls the Stephen King short story “The Raft” (found in his Skeleton Crew collection) about four college aged kids stuck on a small wooden raft in the middle of an isolated lake who find themselves stalked by a perfectly round patch of oily blackness on the water which dissolves any living thing that comes in contact with it.

“The Raft” was adapted (not well) into a segment of Creepshow 2 (1987) and as with The Ruins, “The Raft” is primarily about two carefree couples out to enjoy themselves after taking a spontaneous detour. Like the characters in The Ruins, the characters of “The Raft” (in another similarity, the lead protagonists in both stories are medical students) find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere with little-or-no supplies (in both cases, thanks to spur of the moment planning), hoping that someone will come along to rescue them before they’re finished off by an implacable entity that they have no way of communicating with or comprehending, The beings that stalk their characters in both The Ruins and “The Raft” carry heavy Lovecraftian characteristics and these creatures each make their homes in locations of deceptively scenic beauty. In both stories, almost all of the scenes of horror take place in the middle of the day and ultimately, both stories show us that there are things in this world that once you’ve crossed their paths, you can’t uncross them. And once you’ve stepped into their world, you can never return to yours – even if you can still see it waiting for you.

The unrated DVD release of The Ruins includes a new ending but it isn’t much of a step-up from what audiences saw in theaters. It’s not quite the cop-out that the theatrical ending was yet it’s not as satisfying as that of the novel. With all the participants involved in The Ruins being so vocal in this disc’s behind-the-scenes special features about how much they admired the book, it seems like a baffling decision to ditch the original story’s very definitive conclusion (as the screenwriter, Scott Smith shoulders his own share of the blame for subverting his own story). The fact that none of the endings included on this disc – the unrated ending, the alternate ending, and the original theatrical ending – are quite what the story calls for is the biggest knock against an otherwise superior film.

Even though its theatrical run failed to strike a commercial blow for R-rated horror (something that would have to wait for the release of The Strangers), The Ruins is still an admirable attempt to stem the trend towards softer scares. Like Scott Smith’s novel, at its best, The Ruins gets to the root of what makes horror work. In giving its vicious vines the natural advantage, The Ruins may shock, surprise, and unsettle even those hardened fans who aren’t green to horror.

Extras:

Feature Length Audio Commentary: Director Carter Smith and editor Jeff Betancourt share commentary duties here and offer a relaxed but informative talk that covers every facet of the production. Besides supplying his own detailed recollections and observations, Betancourt serves as an excellent self-appointed moderator, continually asking the low-key Smith questions to spur discussion (at one point Smith references Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust as a film he said influenced his approach to The Ruins).

Making of the Ruins: This 13 min. featurette interviews behind the scenes personnel (including executive producer Ben Stiller, who notes that this isn’t the type of project he’s usually associated with) and cast. The importance of finding the right director to realize potentially difficult material is discussed. Also addressed are the changes from novel to film, the contributions of famed director of photography Darius Khondji (Se7en), and the task of finding the right location that could double for the novel’s South American locale (Australia, as it turns out). Everyone involved with the film seems earnest and energized by the challenges of the material and the fact that it’s a different type of genre piece.

Creeping Death: The efforts to create the death-dealing vines of The Ruins is spotlighted in this 15 min. featurette. Key contributors Gary Cameron (Head Vine Maker), Greg McMurray (Visual Effects Supervisor), and Jason Baird (Prosthetic Supervisor) all discuss what they were called upon to bring to the film. The whole range of FX is discussed, going past the vines to explore the array of grisly gags that had to be devised so characters could mutilate their own flesh and amputate limbs.

Building the Ruins: Production Designer Grant Major (previously responsible for the Lord of the Rings trilogy) and other members of the production staff speak about the challenges of bringing The Ruins to life. Some striking production artwork is revealed as are computer animatics used to pre-visualize some of the film’s action (such as one character’s plummet down the temple shaft).

Deleted Scenes: Proving that The Ruins was a lean affair from the get-go, only four deleted scenes are included here (accompanied by commentary from Carter Smith and Jeff Betancourt), with the original theatrical ending included as well (sans commentary). Two of the cut scenes – ‘Rain’ and ‘Celebration’ – depict a ray of hope for the stranded group as they enjoy a rain shower and collect fresh drinking water and later celebrate their (short-lived) burst of good fortune. A third scene – ‘Going Over the Escape Plan’ – was meant to take place before the climax but suggests a slightly less heroic reasoning behind one character’s last act of sacrifice. And the alternate ending is no improvement over either the theatrical conclusion or the unrated ending – although the commentary reveals an amusing observation from Jena Malone as to her character’s original fate. In all, the cut scenes were well chosen and the film is better for their absence.

The disc’s special features are rounded out by the theatrical trailer for The Ruins as well as previews of Drillbit Taylor, Cloverfield, Sweeney Todd, Disturbia, Tropic Thunder, Stop-Loss, and Iron Man