The Ruins (Theatre) - Jennie

Horror movies recently have lost their identity. The torture-core of the last couple of years is dying down as are the Japanese imports. Every once in a while we will get one or the other, but overall horror movies are a drift in a sea of PG-13 schlock. Take the future release Prom Date; it seems to be about a very nondescript stalker who terrifies a young girl on prom night. Nothing pulls me in – and it is rated PG-13, how can horror movie be rated PG-13? In a year or two there will be a movie that reignites the genre, but for now I feel we are to be satisfied with remakes and weak fair that will please the public at large with their low rating.
The Ruins feels like a simple attempt to do something – certainly not reignite the genre –but something. Much like Turistas (2006) this film starts with a semi-attractive group of college-aged kids who ventured to the southern Americas in search of spring break fun. They meet a German who informs them that his brother knows of a temple that is not marked on the maps and that they could join him in a hike to this temple if they wanted to see something special. They oblige him and make their way to the temple. The temple turns out to hide a secret… Man Eating Plants! This does sound silly, I know. In fact, if I had to stop and think about the film, while I was watching it, I might have had less fun, but that was the monster – a plant that ate humans. Luckily this film doesn’t really give you time to stop and think about the preposterous nature of this fact. It keeps a brisk pace and throws up distractions such as an amputation without anesthetic and a search for a cell phone that is hidden in the dark recesses of the temple. The plants also have the ability to mimic speech, which, at the time, seemed like a perfectly normal thing for a man-eating plant to do, but now that I am writing this I feel somewhat stupid to be ok with it. They even gave an explanation that satisfied me (something about the plant being able to vibrate its flowers to a pitch that sounded like a human’s voice). Now, don’t get all persnickety with me and judge my ability to loose myself in a movie. Though, I am doing that as I write this. I dare you to watch this and not believe that a plant can fool humans into thinking that a cell phone is ringing with its flowers. Curse, even my defense sounds bad. Well, let me get out of this with some dignity and say that though this film's premise was laughably impossible the writer and director do a good job at throwing diversions at the audience to keep them from thinking to much about the situation.

5 out of 10: successful on some level – in that, I was entertained, but if you can’t turn off your mind for an hour and a half don’t bother.