Review of The Ruins (2008) by Andrew C — 15 Dec 2009

The original novel of The Ruins by Scott Smith incorporates many elements of modern horror movies and somehow makes them work in a literary context. It's a lean, fast-paced tale that makes even the most absurd plot points somehow excusable in the rush to get to the next scene of suspense or gore (or both).

Scott Smith's own film adaptation of his novel is, on the other hand, witless and laborious rubbish. Apart from belatedly adding one element that should have been in the novel, Smith reduces all of the originality of his book down to mainstream fodder, then tops it off with an absurdly incongruous happy ending that isn't. The most annoying aspect of all is that Smith swaps the two female leads' character traits around, and then changes the plots and deaths of almost every other character - it's as if he believes he's wrong-footing the audience whom he believes must have already read the book. Massively egocentric.

It looks pretty good, though, but the director displays little visual flair, and the cast aren't as bad as you'd usually get in this sort of movie.