This was my first time viewing "The Ruins." I have to admit, though, that when I first started watching the film, I thought to myself, "Great, another bunch of typical, hormonal 20-somethings who are going to get killed by the end of the movie.” While I was right and they were certainly hormonal, I began to think to myself that there might be some hope for Jeff to make it out of this predicament alive.
I enjoyed how this film wasn't the typical stabby-stabby, “let's blatantly have sex so the killer can kill us in the middle of intercourse” type of film. I liked how the film took a more unique route to horror and used nature, of all things, to be the killer.
The premise itself is very cool. When was the last time you looked at a vine and went “Holy crap that thing could kill me”? I think it took a stroke of brilliance upon the author of the book to come up with such an idea for a killer as a simple vine. You could probably read into this and say that the film was conveying the message that man tries to control nature, yet nature is a powerful force to be reckoned with.
There was a subtle moment in the film about an hour and 22 minutes in, where Jeff was embracing Amy after rubbing blood on her face. Looking closely, you can see that the blood stain kind of resembles a heart. It took heart for Jeff to sacrifice himself to save Amy, and it showed how much he loved her.
Overall, it was a fun flick. Thanks for the unique horror recommendation, Jess. I know that I'll regard this film as one of the most original horror movies I've seen.
i think some of the symbolism you're pointing towards (blood stain in shape of heart, etc.) is mere wishful thinking.. - unfortunately, i don't think the filmmakers were that clever.. - also, i'm not sure we can concretely take this as an example of "man vs. nature".. - it's more supernatural than that.. - perhaps a better example of a film that fits that description would be unjustly maligned "The Happening"..
ReplyDeleteUnjustly maligned is the word for "The Happening." I watched it and thought it was pretty damn good.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty much reaching for anything. Ha.
ReplyDeleteI liked where you're going with your thinking, the book was a pure exercise in man's survival against ourselves and all the things the vines prey upon, anger, hate, jealousy, there were some really poetic, nasty scenes in the book, one in particular with a death that would have added so much grief, but I don't know if the movie reached it in the end.
ReplyDeleteJessie, I definitely did not get that the vines preyed on their more sinister emotions. Just blood. I really didn't like the vines as a villain because it was pretty straight forward, I think the book version sounds infinitely more compelling.
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