Revisiting The Ruins

The Ruins was on TV last night and while I own it on DVD, I still ended up watching the whole thing. And I loved it! Again!

In case you've never heard about this horror gem before, The Ruins is a 2008 film starring Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey and Joe Anderson. It's based on the novel bij Scott B. Smith, who also wrote the screenplay. It's about a group of friends vacationing in Mexico, who along with a fellow tourist (Anderson), end up trapped in (or on?) the ruins. Think survival horror, not slasher.

The film looks great. I love the use of color. Obviously, they're out in the sun a lot so the colors are bright, but not in an unnatural Resident Evil: Extinction kind of way. It's similar to the colors in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes remakes as well as All the Boys Love Mandy Lane.

Also, the cast bring their A-game. There isn't a weak link here and I'm usually not a fan of Jena Malone, so if she sucks, I would tell you. While her character, Amy, is very annoying, Malone plays her very well. My favorite is Laura Ramsey as Stacy.

SPOILER ALERT Stacy believes there are vines moving around inside of her and she plays her character's breakdown beautifully. END SPOILERS

This is a horror film, yes, but it's more psychological than it's horror in the sense that someone or something is out to get them. Sure of course that is the case, but that's also what's so great about this film. While it may be about monster plants, the film plays it straight. There's no nudge nudge, wink wink humor here. Just people trapped in a horrible situation. What would you do? A 4/5.

Picspam: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

It's no secret that I love The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. It's a visually stunning film. Really, my heart fills with joy just thinking about how beautiful it is, especially the beginning of the film. And how the blue blue sky gets darker once the shit hits the fan. It was instant love!

The cast is great too. You have the always solid Jonathan Tucker, the reliable Eric Balfour and Jessica Biel in a surprisingly strong role and yet it was newcomer Mike Vogel who really grabbed my attention with his heartbreaking performance. Typing this just makes me want to put the dvd in the player and watch it all over again.

In the meantime, here are a few screencaps from the first few minutes of the film.

Trailer Park: Untraceable

I don't watch a lot of trailers online, so this feature will mostly feature (hee!) trailers that were attached to movies I've recently seen. Keep in mind that I live in The Netherlands, and that the trailers attached wont necessarily be the same as the ones in your country. In this post I'll review the trailers that were attached to Untraceable.

Doomsday
At first I thought I was watching the trailer for a zombie movie. 28 Weeks Later popped in my head, but then I was like.. wasn't that released months ago? Then I saw Rhona Mitra (= stunning!) and then I remembered the existence of Doomsday. Only (my bad) I thought it was an Uwe Boll movie instead of Neil (The Descent) Marshall's latest effort. Whoops! While I really liked The Descent, I'm gonna take a pass on this one.
To be viewed: someday on TV

The Eye
Good lord, this trailer was attached to The Mist and that was ages ago! I thought The Eye was released already. *state of confusion*
To be viewed: if there's nothing better on TV

The Ruins
I got so excited seeing this trailer on the big screen, it was almost sad. Really. See, little horror movies like this one usually don't get theatrical releases here, but apparently The Ruins does. So yay! I'm really looking forward to this. Maybe because I'm so tired of all the J-horror of the past years. Gawd I miss the post-Scream slasher craze. I know a lot of people hated it, but I'll take Urban Legend any day over The Eye/Shutter/One Missed Call. But back to The Ruins (no sequel pun intended), it looks good. The concept seems original (but compared to J-horror, everything is!), looks visually pleasing and it stars Jonathan Tucker, who is also visually pleasing. Throw in Iceman.. er I mean, Shawn Ashmore and Laura Ramsey and you've got yourself a cast that will no doubt do a better job than the Turistas did (no offense Josh Duhamel and Melissa George - you're both awesome!). Jena Malone - I'm not so sure of. IMHO, she's always the weakest link in an ensemble.
To be viewed: opening weekend.

Vantage Point
Matthew Fox on the big screen. It surprises me everytime. What some prime time success will do for your big screen career, huh? After "Party of Five", I thought this guy had fallen of the face of the earth. But Foxy seems like a cool guy so I'm happy with more of him on the big screen. Vantage Point looks interesting, but it's not the type of movie I would go see in theatres. Definitely a rental though! IMDB tells me Leonardo Nam is on this. He's a talented kid who co-starred in The Perfect Score and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I wonder what he's been up to?
To be viewed: on DVD