The Ruins Looks like it may be a corker!
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A couple of my pals have read the book - I hav'nt started it yet - and say that the book is real good, which means that the movie will most likely suck - I know that on the cover Steven King recommends it - of course if paid enough he'd say that 'I have seen the future of horror - and that future is...the phone book' or some such rot
The Ruins Looks like it may be a corker!
I saw this tonight. It was ok, not particularly great. Over all it suffered from pacing: the movie doesn't start off that interesting and never picks up the momentum it needs to overcome that fact. All in all, it's got your basic American horror elements: College kids, vacation, creepy natives, some evil in a backwoods place. The concept of the 'bad thing' was honestly creepy. Walking home after the movie at 2 in the morning was a bit unsettling with all the leaves rustling. The execution, however, was sub-par.
Did I hate it? No, it's what I expected. I don't feel cheated, though at the same time I'm not going to rush out and buy it on dvd either.
Now did I totally get the movie wrong or isn't it mostly a killer vine movie? I mean, assassin vines seem like a perfectly fine monster to have in a movie, but I can't imagine them being THE monster.
I just can't imagine sitting through a whole movie where the badguy is a plant. Maybe I'm just missing something.
Your not, Grimcleaver.
I've almost finished the book and it's excellent. At first, the vine is not the villian. Starving to death, dealing with the natives, and dealing with injured friend move the plot along nicely. Then the plants start to do weird things....It's really creeped me out, especially when I was walking my dog the other night and the wind rustled the leaves of the trees.
The movie is subpar. Suspense doesn't translate well to a mainstream movie.
Isn't Jimmy Olson in this movie? (The guy that plays Jimmy Olson in Smallville?)
So at the least, you could make Superman jokes during the movie...
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Your not, Grimcleaver.
I've almost finished the book and it's excellent. At first, the vine is not the villian. Starving to death, dealing with the natives, and dealing with injured friend move the plot along nicely. Then the plants start to do weird things....It's really creeped me out, especially when I was walking my dog the other night and the wind rustled the leaves of the trees.
The movie is subpar. Suspense doesn't translate well to a mainstream movie.
Wow, I loved it. Excellent gore effects (at least 2 cringe-worthy moments for this jaded old gorehound). Suspense. Gratuitous nudity. Jimmy Olsen from Smallville. The chick from The Covenant (her acting was excellent). The guy that got cut in half in The Texas Chainsaw remake. And the cutie from Stepmom finally grew up!
Now did I totally get the movie wrong or isn't it mostly a killer vine movie? I mean, assassin vines seem like a perfectly fine monster to have in a movie, but I can't imagine them being THE monster.
I just can't imagine sitting through a whole movie where the badguy is a plant. Maybe I'm just missing something.
I will say this Grimcleaver, I do want to base an adventure off of this concept, only... make it way more interesting that it actually was.
Wow, I loved it. Excellent gore effects (at least 2 cringe-worthy moments for this jaded old gorehound). Suspense. Gratuitous nudity. Jimmy Olsen from Smallville. The chick from The Covenant (her acting was excellent). The guy that got cut in half in The Texas Chainsaw remake. And the cutie from Stepmom finally grew up!Your not, Grimcleaver.
I've almost finished the book and it's excellent. At first, the vine is not the villian. Starving to death, dealing with the natives, and dealing with injured friend move the plot along nicely. Then the plants start to do weird things....It's really creeped me out, especially when I was walking my dog the other night and the wind rustled the leaves of the trees.
The movie is subpar. Suspense doesn't translate well to a mainstream movie.
I think if I had seen the movie before reading the book, I would have liked it more.
I forgot about the gore! I'm an eyecoverer and had to look away at some key moments. The gore was, to quote a Yahoo! review, "flipping sick son." Hee hee.
Wow, I loved it. Excellent gore effects (at least 2 cringe-worthy moments for this jaded old gorehound). Suspense. Gratuitous nudity. Jimmy Olsen from Smallville. The chick from The Covenant (her acting was excellent). The guy that got cut in half in The Texas Chainsaw remake. And the cutie from Stepmom finally grew up!Your not, Grimcleaver.
I've almost finished the book and it's excellent. At first, the vine is not the villian. Starving to death, dealing with the natives, and dealing with injured friend move the plot along nicely. Then the plants start to do weird things....It's really creeped me out, especially when I was walking my dog the other night and the wind rustled the leaves of the trees.
The movie is subpar. Suspense doesn't translate well to a mainstream movie.
The gore was great! I will say that. In fact that's the one thing i did like about the movie. It caused several couples to get up and leave.
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I haven't seen the movie, but the book was absolutely amazing! Simply written (rather Hemingway, actually), intensely visual, and never too much or too little. I'm telling you this book is excellent in every way--it's been years since I read a 500 page novel so quickly (a day and a half!). I will say, I feel like the last 200 words were tacked on, but all-in-all the most effective and smashingly brilliant horror novel I've read in years.
I did wonder--The Mayans keep a vigil every time someone happens upon the hill/mine site. The hill is surrounded by a razed clearing, so the vine cannot spread, birds and insects and animals instinctively steer clear, so there's no reasonable vectors to spread the vine's seedlings or spores--except for weather, wind and water runoff. A slight problem in the story, but really just not important, since we don't know that the Mayans guard the hill and keep everyone from leaving because the vine can follow (though the damned thing growing inside of Eric is a pretty good indicator!).
They had four bottles of Tequila the whole time, but no-one ever once used them for sterilization purposes until Stacy killed herself at the end! All they did was drink them! For all Jeff's knowledge and skills, and he continuously built fires to sterilize the knife, and never doused a single wound in alcohol.
Again, they had three bottles of Tequila (four, if you count the one they turned into a Molotov cocktail), and they had the ability to start fires, but they never once tried to deliberately set fire to the vine! They could have scorched the entire hill!
The whole story covers a span of less than four full days, but I found myself truly buying into the characters' terror and gradual downward spiral. Eric essentially started losing it on day one, but it was very well-crafted; very, very believable.
I will say, as a group they made many, many survival mistakes, and Jeff's skills coupled with Matheis' military experience should have made for a better four days, but the mistakes they made, given the circumstances, seemed so g&*%#+ned believable! An excellent writing! I just wish the book had ended with Stacy's suicide and not the extra 200 words bringing the six Greeks and Brazilians to the Hill--too sequel-promising for such a wonderfully nihilistic, make-Lovecraft-proud story. Oh, well. Very, very highly recommended.