Brian Hammons' thoughts on The Ruins

I first saw this movie when it originally was released on DVD a few years ago and at the time found it to be an amusing ride. I liked the premise, sort of Twilight Zone-esque, not an everyday, average story, something you could ponder about and the more time you spent unraveling it in your head the more insane it all seemed. I need to state right off the bat, though, watching it for a second time I was much less caught up in the story and found myself more finding flaws and things I disliked about it. That being said, as a whole, I think it's still worth an initial watch, but I don't know that it's a film that'll get quantitatively better on repeat viewings.

I'm going to recall all the stuff that my brain grasped onto, both good and bad, and just share it all in a stream of consciousness way. The opening: who was that girl screaming alone within the ruins? I assume that it was the once living woman who reappeared later as any number of corpses we saw rotted within its walls. I'd forgotten Jena Malone was in it, I've liked her since The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) but this isn't her finest hour (or hour and thirty-three minutes if you've got the unrated cut). Woah -- here comes a guy with a beard, he must be bad! Then there was that beach party, now Jessie is the club member who's read the novel, so I imagine he can shed some light here, but I can imagine the book's development of the story here was less crass and on the nose than a drunken beach party with requisite Tiki lights.

When the group seeks for a ride to what inevitably ends up being the ruins we get a real goofy moment with the guy and his truck. First, there's a dog and we get that cliched "jump" moment made popular in teen fare like Scream (1996). Then, the man plays up the trope all too well, with his, "No, no, this place no good" line of foreboding. Ugh.

To the ruins and I came up with this little rhyme: Arrow through the heart? A good way to start! I won't go through all the plot development at the ruins itself, save for saying, that what transpired was much more effective when I initially saw this with no prior knowledge of its proceedings. Its established early we have at least one rational member with a functioning brain, worried about logistics like water supply, etc. and he also goes on to be a sacrificial savior of sorts later. The plant can replicate sounds, from the cell phone, to confusing Stacy, deluding her into thinking her boyfriend Eric and best friend Amy were fucking. Where can I buy one of these plants? The possibilities are endless.

You know when the natives shoot their own kid that things are pretty much screwed up beyond repair. Stacy waking up with the plant in her open leg wound was a good visual moment, only outdone later when they find her alone, covered in blood, pleading, "It's okay! I just had to get a little more out." Another visual I quite liked, albeit much more of a smaller note, was the one shot (around 73 min. into the film) of them all four, dirty, sleeping beside each other in the tent. My favorite scene, in so far as something relatable to the human condition and myself as a viewer, was Amy and Eric's late night chat sitting atop the ruins. Amy: "Do you think they're going to find us?" Eric: "Honestly, I think making a run for it is our only chance." Amy: "I know."

There's lots of goofball errors and just bad filmmaking noticeable. The continuity errors are abundant, including Amy's sunglasses, in proceeding scenes becoming glasses, then mysteriously going back to being sunglasses; and Jeff's scar on his chin, going from a fresh wound to old scar in varying degrees in no direct correlation to the frame of time existing within the film.

In conclusion, a fun, fairly innocuous watch if you're game for some bizarre horror, but on repeat viewings doesn't hold up as much more than a film with a fairly intriguing gimmick but riddled with bad, heavy handed and solemn direction and uneven performances.