The Ruins : Blu-ray Review

The Movie Itself is directed by Carter Smith. Penned by novelist and screenwriter, Scott Smith (“A Simple Plan”), the story centers on a group of teens that happen upon an ancient, dilapidated ruins. Tourism quickly gives way to survival horror, and startling sequences of gore as the secrets of the ruins come to light.

I had every intention of seeing “The Ruins” in theaters when it debuted earlier this summer. Up until that point I had heard nothing but good things about the novel, and being a fan of Scott Smith’s previous script/novel “A Simple Plan”, I had every reason to expect that this film would be a compelling, horrifying, twisted mess for the principal characters.

Twisted mess? Absolutely. Compelling… not so much. As for the horror elements, I found that the film was more disturbing than horrifying, and that the film’s gore sequences often teetered on the edge of becoming “torture porn.”

The inherent flaw in the film is that everything moves along far too quickly. The obvious downside to this pacing error is that we never really get attached to, or get to know, the characters before they are thrust into their terrible predicament. As a result, once people start dying, or getting gravely injured, we can’t empathize with them whatsoever. It merely becomes a spectacle film, one that hinges on your tolerance for blood, gore, and makeshift amputations. If any of that sounds terrifying to you, chances are that you’ll enjoy the film more than I did.

To the filmmaker’s credit though, it is a beautifully shot film, and since I’ve never read the novel, I have no frame of reference, and no concept of how the adaptation differs. All I know is that it was far less memorable, or compelling than Scott Smith’s previous (Oscar nominated) work.