I’m Glad My Vacation in Cancun Wasn’t Like This!!

Posted by Movie_Maven

July 9, 2008 |

As the horror flick lovers my husband and I are, we (despite being informed by our local Hollywood Video store employees that it was “crap”) rented “The Ruins” - a film which was to Cancun like “Hostel” was to Slovakia and ”Turistas” was to Brazil.

I am a big fan of Jena Malone, and am wondering what on Earth made her take this role. Such a talented actress giving fabulous performances in “Bastard out of Carolina”, “Stepmom”, and “Life as a House” being relegated to a B-rate horror film with a severely one-dimensional character was, in fact, out of character. The rest of the cast was just O.K. Not a heck of a lot of character development and certainly nothing that made me wish they would experience a more positive climax and denouement to the story.

The best part of this movie were the DVD extras; particularly watching the special effects crew speak with such animated pride about their wonderful prosthetics and props.

Gaping plot holes (which, really, in my mind, do not matter in horror films) and substandard acting, even for a gore flick, were compensated by bucketfuls of blood and mangled flesh (so much, in fact, that the chips and salsa we were enjoying at the start of the film quickly lost their appeal.)

So, all in all, not entirely crap - definitely entertaining enough to make me cover my eyes, go “ewwwwww” a few times, and have mild nightmares about flesh-eating pumpkin vines.

By the way, I recently ordered the book, and may amend this review later to reflect any literary-induced comments worth mentioning.