Fright Flashback: Vacations Gone Awry

Welcome back to Fright Flashback, where every week until the end of summer we will visit an older horror film that is in some way a spiritual precursor to an upcoming new release. This week we are anticipating Jurassic World, in which a dino-themed amusement park experiences yet another deadly malfunction. In celebration, we'll be revisiting The Ruins, which depicts death and carnage on an idyllic Mexican vacation.

Year: 2008

Director: Carter Smith

Cast: Shawn Ashmore, Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone

Run Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

MPAA Ratng: R

The Ruins is my favorite book. It's a bleak, unforgiving horror novel populated with likable, believable, three-dimensional characters who it puts through the freaking wringer. I try to read it every summer and every time I question why I do this to myself. That's why I love The Ruins. It's a delicately-paced horror story that pushes its characters to the breaking point, a transfixing campfire yarn that chills you to the marrow.

The Ruins is not my favorite movie. Although the screenplay was written by Scott Smith (who also wrote the novel) and it stars my perennial favorite Shawn Ashmore, it transforms a pitch black humanistic terror tale into a generic post-Saw gory vacation flick à la Wrong Turn or Rest Stop.

Luckily, I still like generic gory horror starring Shawn Ashmore, but it's just not the same experience as reading the book, which is like being tethered to a wild boar wearing a coat made of electric eels. So. If you haven't read the book and especially if you know nothing about it, I urge you to ignore the rest of this review and pick up a copy. Don't read a synopsis. Don't even look at your Netflix queue until you're finished. Experience the magic of having your endocrine system ripped out by a paperback. Then you can feel free to watch this movie and/or finish this review.

Welcome back! And I'm sorry.

The Ruins tells the story of a group of college graduates ready for one last adventure before their lives spread them apart. Emphasis on last. Jeff (Jonathan Tucker) is a self-righteous young man, an eagle scout type pre-med student who is bored with lounging by the pool; Amy (Jena Malone) is his girlfriend, a wet blanket piece of work whose favorite activity is complaining and/or attempting to make out with other dudes - she's real fun, this one; Stacy (Laura Ramsey) is her best friend, a smart, capable girl; Eric (Shawn Ashmore), Stacy's boyfriend, is more the fratty type but he's smart and confident, a good match for Stacy.

At their beach resort hotel, they meet a beleaguered German tourist named Mathias (Joe Anderson). His brother Henrich went off to meet a hot archaeologist at a dig site in the jungle and hasn't returned. Dun dun DUN! Along with their Greek friend Dimitri (Dimitri Baveas), they agree to head out to the site and see if they can find Henrich. When they arrive, they find a massive flat pyramid with a mine shaft at the top. It's completely empty, but the second they set foot on the rock, the nearby Mayan forces arrive and threaten them, forcing them up the hill and shooting Dimitri when he tries to leave.

Knowing they're trapped, the friends settle in and ration their provisions, waiting until Dimitri's friends come looking for them or they can come up with a plan of escape. However, a malevolent force on the ruin doesn't want them to leave. [SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT, PEOPLE IN THE DARK PLEASE GO HOME IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU] The vines covering the pyramid are sentient and very hungry. They can imitate human speech, dissolve flesh with their acidic sap, and are generally cleverer than you expect your garden variety weed to be.

This sounds dumb. Believe me, I know. But stick with me here.

Do it for the vine.

True, the vines are certainly more showy than in the book, which renders them a terrifying, unknowable menace, but if we were to list every aspect of the film at which the book is superior, we would be here   until Scott Smith releases another book*. So yes, the vines in this incarnation of the story reveal their true nature far too soon, and are a little too active to be insidious and creepy, occupying the spotlight instead of the festering shadows.

*That joke is funny, because Scott Smith has only written four things in his life. Two novels (A Simple Plan in 1993, The Ruins in 2006) and the screenplay adaptations for both those novels. God, I'm clever.

But! Through a heady concoction of seamless special effects work and a truly stunning bit of audio design which layers the rustling of the vines into an indelibly unnerving soundscape, the vines are nevertheless believable as a real menace instead of yet another cheesy horror movie villain attempting to push the envelope but cutting themselves on the flap.

This decently impressive work on the vines in spite of a script too overeager to show them off somewhat balances out the deficiencies of the paper thin characters. Moment by moment ticks by, leaning on the book far too heavily for any suitable emotional substance. It's almost like watching a Cliff's Notes version of the book, peppered with wooden, obvious dialogue and brutal narrative shortcuts.

Amy has not yet learned to lower her expectations when watching modern horror movies.

Unfortunateiy, the acting is about on the same rough-hewn level of the character work. Jonathan Tucker has always had trouble with his enunciation, and his speech - which sounds like he forgot to take out his retainer in the morning - becomes a liability as the stakes get higher. When he gets flustered he sounds rather like Daffy Duck instead of a large and in charge wilderness man. 

Malone and Ramsey are likewise on and off, though Malone more so. The only unmarred performer is Ashmore, who isn't exactly dazzling, but turns in a committed performances that holds the rest of the ensemble together like glue. Or rather, something adhesive but not quite that strong. He holds them together like high grade molasses.

But these flaws are no worse than the majority of contemporary horror, and it is with great pleasure that I can say that The Ruins is still a largely enjoyable experience. There are several downright pretty shots (especially when the cinematographer gets it in his mind to do something with the vast expanse of bright blue sky the setting has afforded), the characters are shallow but they get the job done, there is a heavy focus on shirtless men (which I can appreciate for gender equality reasons as well as... personal ones), and the gore is terrific and hard to watch. 

I see this as a badge of honor, considering that The Ruins came out the same year as Saw IV. It's not quite fun, but as a gory adventure flick for the bloodthirsty Saw crowd, it certainly avoids most of the grimness and despair that that implies. It's not a flick I'd jump to throw on at parties, but in the future I can see myself re-approaching The Ruins without an ounce of regret and some measure of enjoyment. Come on. This was 2008. That's Oscar-worthy praise right there.

TL;DR: The Ruins is a feeble literary adaptation, but a pretty decent post-Saw gore flick.

Rating: 6/10

Word Count: 1238

In District 12, Fire Catch You

Year: 2013

Director: Francis Lawrence

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth

Run Time: 2 hours 26 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Let me tell you something, once Mockingjay - Part 2 comes out (Of course they're splitting it into two parts. Studios always save that trick for the final book with the least plot.) they'd better be ready with that new Harry Potter film otherwise the vacuum of YA cinema will devour us all.

Traditionally the previews before a big hitter film like the second installment of the Hunger Games franchise are gonna be for the superstar blockbuster films. Studios know everyone and their kitchen sink is lining up to see Katniss' further exploits so what better opportunity to get the word out?

Unfortunately the trailers for the upcoming bland YA adaptation Divergent and the Aaron Eckhart vehicle where sexy Frankenstein fights CGI gargoyles (Mary Shelley is currently reanimating herself so she can spin in her grave) would indicate that dark times are ahead of us. But that is the future. For now we have Katniss. We have Peeta and Gale and Finnick and that is not a bad place to be.

No, not at all.

Before we begin let me just say that if you're gonna properly adapt a young adult adventure love triangle novel, you might as well throw in some pretty guys. You know, for the children. It's the least you could do. And the clumsily titled The Hunger Games: Catching Fire certainly delivers with newcomers Sam Claflin and Alan Ritchson as Finnick, the sprightly seafaring Tribute and Gloss, the hard-edged Career Tribute respectively.

I like a man who knows what he's doing with a hunting knife.

And returning cast members Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth (as Peeta, the baker's boy who's in love with Katniss and Gale, best friend and coal miner who is also in love with Katniss because just dealing with the tyrannical dystopian government isn't enough for one girl) are sporting new jawlines and beefed up frames. Apparently the bull hormones I spiked the Craft Services beverage table with have been doing their job.

Only Liam could make being dragged away by the Thought Police look like a modeling shoot.

Catching Fire begins, as it should, with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) alone. The events of the previous Hunger Games have left her shaken, and she is haunted by her memories. She and Peeta, who used a star-crossed lover angle to win last year's games haven't spoken to each other in months. Although they act happy and in love for the cameras, Katniss' developing feelings for her friend Gale stand between them.

When Katniss and Peeta embark on a Victor's Tour of Panem (the dessicated husk of America, divided into 12 districts ruled by the iron fist of The Capitol), President Snow (Donald Sutherland) warns Katniss that she has become a beacon of Hope for the districts. If she does anything to agitate the revolters, she will be summarily punished.

She predictably doesn't do a great job at this, but who cares, Effie Trinkett (Elizabeth Banks) and Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) have been brought onscreen within twelve seconds of each other and the resulting explosion of color and joy blocked out any other memories of the first half of the film.

I could make a Lady Gaga joke here, but that wouldn't deserve any Applause.

The second half of the film (much like the one before) takes place in the arena of the Hunger Games. For the 75th Annual Games (known as the third Quarter Quell), the contestants will all be chosen from the pool of surviving Victors of past games. That sounds awfully convenient, President Snow... I see what you did there.

So Katniss and Peeta prepare to fight for their lives yet again in an even more dangerous arena with trained and lethal opponents. It is in this segment that Catching Fire begins to cycle through plot points like a Rolodex, but they amazingly retain most of their power even while flying by like leaves in a tornado. The only scene that feels rushed to the point of oblivion is a moment with the elderly Tribute Mags (Lynn Cohen) that leans on the book a little too hard to find its emotional impact.

But all in all, Catching Fire is a definite improvement on the original film. The action sequences in the arena are exhilarating and, thankfully, visible. The ubiquitous shaky cam that haunts The Hunger Games is all but eradicated (save for a few scenes that needed to hide some even shakier CGI), and it doesn't hurt that the contestants are all teenagers and older, so the filmmakers didn't feel the need to obscure the more unsavory elements like killing children behind a wall of blur.

So the cinematography is a marked improvement although it isn't particularly adventurous and the colors in the Capitol training center are afflicted with a bad case of Teal and Orange Disease. The costuming is, as always, top notch, especially regarding the garish frivolity of Capitol attire.

I could spend my entire life posting and reposting pictures of Effie Trinkett.

Then there's the one thing that makes everything worth it. Despite the weird CGI patches, the rushed scenes that try to hit plot point from the book like a pinball, and some truly laughable acid makeup, the sterling foundation that keeps Catching Fire afloat is the impeccable cast.

Jennifer Lawrence is ever reliable as Katniss Everdeen and Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson embody their puppy love characters believably, but the standouts here are veterans of the craft. Stanley Tucci shines yet again as trashy TV host Caesar Flickerman, a one man embodiment of the entire TMZ staff and the shining light of the film is Elizabeth Banks' Effie Trinkett.

Whereas in the first film she was merely a delightful embodiment of the vapid Capitol lack of self awareness, here she is the emotional lynchpin of the film as the cracks begin to show. Watching her break down at the Reaping as she calls Katniss' name while dressed like a swarm of butterflies is absolutely captivating. Who knew Elizabeth Banks could do drama? The casting director of Hunger Games did, apparently, and she steals the show every time she's onscreen.

Public speaking is the worst.

All these ingredients add up to a rather enjoyable popcorn movie for the 99 Percent. It explores the ideas of class disparity and the artificialities of reality TV in an interesting way, as viewed through the lens of a teenager who really didn't mean to get herself into this mess. And although it feels very much like an in-between movie setting up a Grand Finale, it leaves a sweet taste on the tongue and flies by despite its expansive book adaptation run time.

I would also like to mention that there is a shoutout to the That Is Mahogany meme, and the fact that any script writers could be so in touch with their online fan base is refreshing after years of tortuous disappointments. 

Enjoy the film, everyone and may the odds be ever in your favor.

TL;DR: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is on the whole better than its predecessor and an entertaining successor to the Harry Potter dynasty.

Rating: 8/10

Word Count: 1211

Reviews In This Series

Catching Fire (Lawrence, 2013)

Mockingjay - Part 1 (Lawrence, 2014)

Mockingjay - Part 2 (Lawrence, 2015)