Originally posted by moviewizguy By now, I've seen both movies and I still have to say The Ruins was the better movie, by far. I think this movie does it better by showing the group breaking down psychologically by the end of the film, which is the reason why I love this movie so much. It's depressing, bleak, and tragic, and I don't like to see a lot of films like this because it's so damn depressing but The Ruins is good at what it does and does it exceptionally fantastic.

Okay, if you say, so, even though this thread is over a year old and it's rather pointless to bring it up again. But in my opinion, a horror movies doesn't need to over the top bleak, depressing, and tragic to be good. In the end, character development and plot matter more, and that's what "Spliter" had to offer.

Yeah, I know. Too bad it was only in limited release. Wait. Actually, the stupid studio decided to release it for a day, and make it watchable on demand on cable. Damn them! Guess I'll be adding this with Midnight Meat Train and Repo!

But back to the topic, I love movies that just mess up your mind, although that doesn't sound like a pleasant thing. Movies like The Mist and 1408 do that for me. 

Originally posted by Michaels Well, I must admit this, if there's one thing that creeps me out more than anything, it's the thought of some kind of parasite working its way inside your body and messing around with your DNA as you're helpless just to watch it happen. However, "Splinter" came out a few months ago and it was about the same thing, so perhaps you should see that and compare the two.

I always say that, especially for [Rec] and The Mist. Now it's time for me to say "one of the best movies ever created" because I do truly think so. You think I'm kidding but please, I urge you to see the movie first. But I think it's even better if you go out and read the novel first.

This film is like being punched in the stomach and kicked around so many times until you're left for dead in the end. That's how my experience was. It was all psychological and that's what makes this movie so great. One critic summed it perfectly for me:

These are the beautiful people, and by the end of The Ruins we'll have spent a lot of time watching them go downhill.

Oh, how I wish this movie would be screened to the critics...76 reviews in RT...so unfair. Maybe I could email Roger Ebert and tell him to see it?

Yo, moviewizguy -- I just think instead of saying stuff like "one of the best movies ever created," you could say stuff like "one of the better horror (or other genre) movies made in recent memory." Just a thought.

Please, get back on topic....

Originally posted by moviewizguy I think it's one of the best movies ever created.

But you say that about every movie we post here in the forum.

I just finished the movie (wow. What a fast two days of reading and one day of watching): 9/10:

A group of friends whose leisurely Mexican holiday takes a turn for the worse when they, along with a fellow tourist embark on a remote archaeological dig in the jungle, where something evil lives among the ruins.

Yes, I have read the book and it was one of the few books that I read that were actually really good. Amazingly, this movie have pulled it off: It's better than the book. Probably because the book is nothing like the movie, yet the movie has some similar elements and gist of the book. Judging from the trailer, you might think it's another dumb, teen horror flick. This is where you're wrong. In fact, this movie is much more of a psychological thriller than a horror flick.

For those who have read the book, you may feel upset that they changed it up so much, but I think otherwise: The movie changed up some flaws that were in the book: The characters are much smarter, things that I wanted to happen in the book, like the characters doing something differently, happened in the movie, and there's an alternate ending, which I think is so much better than the book so it really doesn't matter if you read the book first and then saw the movie, or vice versa.

But, of course, this is my opinion. Unlike many horror movies, even as an R rated horror movie, The Ruins relies much more on tension and suspense than blood and gore, even though there is blood and gore in the film. This is one of the best movies created this year and one of the best horror film ever.

However, I do think the characters in the book are much more sympathetic and lovable than in the movie. The movie is like 85 minutes and the book is 510 pages. Of course, the book added much more character development and other stuff than the fast paced movie. Still, I don't mind, because I still felt the characters were sympathetic and lovable. They're given great dialog and much more than 2-dimensional characters you see in most horror movies these days.

Whether you have read the book or not, you'll be surprised at what is to happen in the movie. Some might call the ending a cop out, after what just happened, but I liked that ending much better than the one from the book. This messes with your head. This movie will not satisfy everyone, but it surely did for me. I just found the movie unfairly picked on because people, I assume, expected violence, gore, and nudity. The movie is better than that and it is.

...just finished it. It's really depressing. Gosh, I hope the movie is good! 

I thought that this movie looked a little bit like Bug and The Descent.  I could be wrong, but when I saw the trailer, those were the first two movies that came to mind.

There aren't really enough reviews up at RT so far to spot a trend as of this writing, but this actually may not even be the worst horror flick of the week, bad as it may be. There is another candidate called Grizzly Park which is being described as something the SciFi channel would probably reject.

Geez, Hollywood is putting out so much garbage these days we can't even hope to keep up.

Incidentally, moviewizguy, I'd be quick to point out that the number of decent/good/great books that have translated into absolutely awful movies is almost endless. In my entire experience as an avid reader/moviegoer, I can only think of one movie that was actually better than the book from which it was adapted. That was Field of Dreams. It was, of course, an outstanding movie adapted from a book that wasn't all that great, called Shoeless Joe.

Actually, so many people are looking forward to this. Early screenings had garnered great reviews and people said the book was really scary, so I have high hopes for this... 

Response from head RAZZberry: Quick, moviewizguy, name a movie (any movie!) for which you DIDN'T have "high hopes."

Bottom line, I picked THE RUINS as Worst of the Weak because it was obvious that whether it turned out to be scary or silly, it was bound to be entertaining... 

If Ben Stiller's parents hadn't been well-connected (although grossly overrated) entertainers in their own right, the most frequently delivered, scripted lines he'd be reciting these days would be:

"Would you like fries with that?"

and 

"May I Supersize that for you today?"

He is awful as an actor...and I expect we'll soon see that his skills as a producer are equally pathetic! 

Since "Ben Stiller" isn't all that uncommon a name, I thought I'd check at IMDb if this film's producer is the Ben Stiller. Sure enough, it's the same Stiller who was a 2004 Worst Actor nominee for 5 titles, including "Dodgeball" and "Starsky & Hutch" -- both of which he also produced. So in my mind, the odds of "Ruins" being a clunker just got a little higher...

This film's title is off by only ONE LETTER from one of the true horrors of tourism South of the border: THE RUNS... 

BUZZ on THIS STEPHEN-KING-ENDORSED / BEN-STILLER-PRODUCED LITTLE HORROR FLICK SUGGESTS THE RUINS COULD BE a MONSTER BOX OFFICE HIT...OR JUST ANOTHER PIECE of sh*t from HOLLYWOOD's HORROR-MOVIE-MEAT-GRINDER...

SINCE IT WASN'T SCREENED BEFORE IT OPENED, WE'LL GO with the LIKELIER SCENARIO: IT'LL BE a BLAST to WATCH, BUT LARGELY BECAUSE the AUDIENCE WILL BE LAUGHING -- and NOT ALWAZE in the RIGHT PLACES.

GOOD, BAD or INDIFFERENT, IT'LL STILL PROBABLY BE ONE of the MORE ENTERTAINING MOVIES of 2008 ...WHICH, THESE DAZE, ISN'T REALLY SAYING BERRY MUCH...

"Whatever it is, I hope it brought some graham crackers for our 'Smores!!"