Quoted from Grandma Bear Last thing… I don’t think a plant can ever be a successful convincing villain! But that’s just me…

See 'Dr. Terror's House of Horrors'

I thought The Ruins was one the better horrors to come out this year (that might not be saying much) but I did enjoy it. I thought it was more about the characters and what they were going through than the actual vines (which may seem pretty ridiculous). I thought the acting was pretty good, especially coming from Laura Ramsay.
I see this more as a Drama with gore because it really didn't focus on the killer vines much but rather the characters and their plight. I found it very intriguing but I absolutely hate all of the endings.

My mom and I watched this one night and I have to say it was a lot better than I expected. For once in my life (maybe that's an exaggeration) I felt bad for the characters, especially the chick who was trying to cut all the worm vine thingys out of her. I didn't expect the problem to be plants though. I was wondering why they didn't just light the plants on fire along with their clothes since the stuff was growing on them? Unless since these plants are never what we've seen before, they might have a covering that's a flame retardant.

But any way, I thought the acting started to get good as more trouble came their ways, and this moving wasn't scary and there was plenty of gore, so I have to say, I thought it was a good movie.

Sean

I liked The Ruins.

For me, it wasn't really about the vines, it was more of a dramatic character study. The book delves more into the character's backgrounds and it's slow pace works as you watch the characters slowly unravel. The transition to movie certainly works, but you do sacrifice a lot of backstory that define who the characters are. The movie also combines some characters and switches some roles.

It's definitely a tragedy; dealing with fear, hope and desperation. Definitely a refreshing horror movie and one of the better ones this year.

I also thought this was better than I expected. They've never done a "dark" or "serious" horror movie about killer plants. The closest thing to this would be Little Shop of Horrors. With that said, I thought the plot was pretty original. Even the plants were more than just killer plants.

Still, it wasn't the greatest movie. My biggest problem with it was it had a lot of great psychological elements that were just downplayed to death and sometimes came out of nowhere. I don't think the actors or filmmakers had the best grasp of the stuff. Also, some of the characters were just worthless and tossed aside really quickly. The only reason the German guy was there was for the gore. That's it.

Still, I thought it was better than most of the garbage they try to pass off as horror nowadays.

Oh, and did anyone know Ben Stiller's production company produced this? Weird...

Quoted from James McClung They've never done a "dark" or "serious" horror movie about killer plants. The closest thing to this would be Little Shop of Horrors.

The Day of the Triffids is a 1962 movie based on a novel by John Wyndham. It’s even referenced on the opening song of The Rocky Horror Picture Show with the line, “I really got hot when I saw Janette Scott fight a triffid that spits poison and kills.”

There was also a British miniseries about the story that I thought was terrific.

Also at one time there was talk of a Hollywood remake of The Day of the Triffids but it apparently died somewhere in the process.


Breanne

Quoted from James McClung I also thought this was better than I expected. They've never done a "dark" or "serious" horror movie about killer plants. The closest thing to this would be Little Shop of Horrors. With that said, I thought the plot was pretty original. Even the plants were more than just killer plants.

Dr. Terror

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=KZRvu8ixQcY

I stand corrected.

I read this book about a year ago and couldn't get it out of my mind. I actually started a movie script of it just for fun and then saw an advertisement soon after so I abandoned it. I haven't seen the film or read the script, but now I have to just to see what it's like. My review will follow soon.

haven't seen the film but i read the book last month. absolutely brilliant! read it in two days. the pace of the writing is spot on. i will check out the script to compare but i recommend the book.

I was very disappointed with this movie.  It was just weak, dull, and full of stupid people doing stupid things.

I read about this way back when Ben Stiller was raving about the book, after he "bought" the rights to it.  I think there was some discussion about the auther being able to write the script, but I guess they went through with using him.

The film suffered because of lack of settings, and the cheapass set pieces they used used (the ruins).  There just wasn't anywhere for the story to go, and that was its biggest problem for me.  Also, the plants weren't scary at all, but I could imagine them being much more frightening on paper.

Although I was disappointed, I do agree that it wasn't horrible like most horror these days.

Again, I think the biggest issue with the film in regards to the book is that the book focused on the relationships of the victims and how they fell apart as hope moved to dispair. The crutch of the book is not really the plants, but the characters and how they react to each other and the things they do in their final hours.

To relate that to a movie is very hard and we'd be looking at a 3+ hour movie, which would turn out to be a bore.

I loved the book and enjoyed the movie, knowing that it could not replicate the reading experience.