Editor's Note: This review contains medium-level spoilers. Continuing on the theme of Nature Will Kill You films (and overlapping into the theme of Stupid First World Tourists Getting More Than They Bargained For in Third World Countries), The Ruins is at least somewhat plausible scientifically (I guess) and certainly psychologically tense; however, for my part, I thought the gore was a bit much.
Two young couples are on vacation at a resort in some Cancun-type place, and they meet this German guy who's brother is working on an archaeological dig way out in the middle of nowhere, not on any map (of course). They resolve to join the German guy so they can see some authentic Mayan temple stuff instead of getting drunk, which has apparetly gotten stale for them. They go out to the temple and immediately EVERYTHING GOES VERY VERY WRONG.
Apparently, this temple is just covered with this rare carnivorous vine. The locals know this, and try to stop the group from going near it. However, they don't speak English (or, conveniently, Spanish), so they just wave guns and bows and arrows and shout menacingly at the stupid American tourists, who of course think these crazy locals want money or their girlfriends or something. Chaos ensues, causing the kids to run up to the top of the temple, which is of course exactly what they shouldn't have done, and the locals stand guard at the base to make sure the kids never leave. The locals are smart. The kids, not so much.
I've gone on record previously about how I really don't care for these sort of torture porn horror films, and going in I didn't expect The Ruins to necessarily be one of these sort of films. I mean, the plot's pretty simple: a bunch of kids on vacation in Cancun go to a Mayan temple way off the beaten path and chaos ensues. I didn't count on all the ad hoc amputations and self-filleting. One of the characters gets the vine inside her and she freaks out and starts cutting herself up. It's kind of messed up. Not funny or anything, certainly not scary, just messed up. The worst part is that all this gore is voluntary on the part of the characters and in the interest of survival. He'll never make it out alive unless we break his legs, cut them off and cauterize the stumps with a hot frying pan. Great!
Much respect to the prosthetic effects guys who made all those fake limbs and stuff, it was very realistic!
The idea of the vines is probably the best part of the film. It acts like a vigorous carnivorous ivy, and the flowers seem to have auditory properties. Some people might not buy it, but scientifically I don't see it being too ridiculously far off from anything in reality. I mean, have you seen the stuff they find 10 miles down in the bottom of the ocean? At this point, I'd buy pretty much anything from nature.
Where these kids really lost me is when they made torches out of rags soaked in tequila and used them to go inside the temple instead of BURNING THE VINES. Priorities, guys. And once they think they have everything figured out, they still want to escape to civilization. I think if the locals want to keep you quarantined and are willing to take extreme measures to do so, maybe they have some knowledge about the situation that you maybe haven't put together yet? Also, there is, apparently, only one side to a Mayan pyramid. I guess?
The acting isn't bad. Jena Malone (Donnie Darko's girlfriend) and Shawn Ashmore (Bobby "Iceman" Drake) are two of the leads, and the cast does a pretty good job of encapsulating the insanity of being in a completely out of control situation. In these survival film situations, there is always the one who tries to take control of the situation, the one who questions that person, the one who can't handle things, etc., and The Ruins is no different. Except for the self-mutilation.
I think The Ruins might be okay for people who watch surgeries on the Discovery Health Channel all the time, or sado-masochists.
0 comments:
Post a Comment