Scott Smith's The Ruins (naked gaping spoilers contained herein)

[Eric P]

I have had this book on my shelf for a while untouched.  It was THE horror book last summer, but I have not been in the mood to read it.

until i saw the trailer for the movie adaptation.

http://www.imdb.com/video/trailer/me709247451

has anyone read the book?  the trailer looks pretty bad ass.  should i take the day to tear through it?

[Eric P]

It's good, in the way early drug laced Steven King is good.  It tries for little in the way of importance and just goes for scares, which it delivers.  If this sounds like a book jacket review, it's because that's as deep as you think about it.  Plus the reading time can be measured in hours.

yeah, a simple plan is the same way.  one evening's read.  i think i'll try to knock it out this weekend then.

thanks

[Eric P]

for what it's worth what really hooked me in the trailer was the "why won't you look at me?" sequence.

[Van Cruncheon]

i thought it was pretty meh

total spoiler

spoiler (click to show/hide)

sorry, evil plant doesn't do it for me. i need creepy occult shit.

[close]

BONES >>>>>>>>> The Ruins

[Van Cruncheon]

yeah, the bit where

spoiler (click to show/hide)

the one dude hacks all his skin off to get the plant growing underneath it

[close]

was yikes

[Eric P]

i thought it was pretty meh

total spoiler

spoiler (click to show/hide)

sorry, evil plant doesn't do it for me. i need creepy occult shit.

[close]

BONES >>>>>>>>> The Ruins

i have a fondness for nature thrillers/ eco horror so long as they're outside the whole "killer animal" genre.  a killer plant really is kind of neat the problem is that the subdermal imagery looks so similar to stuff like slither.

[Van Cruncheon]

dude! spoiler!

[Howard Alan Treesong]

then you should love M Night Shamalayanadingdong's The Happening

[Van Cruncheon]

o

[Howard Alan Treesong]

"Elliot begins to realize that the deaths aren’t the result of a terrorist attack, but are being caused by the release of a toxin by the surrounding plant life in an evolutionary last-ditch attempt to protect themselves from the predator that endangers them the most--man."

wow M Night Shamalayan that is a deep metaphor you got there

[Van Cruncheon]

is m. night directing this?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

yes, The Happening is MOTHER NATURE STRIKES BACK the movie

[Howard Alan Treesong]

haha I'm reading a script review

http://mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/2007/11/script-review-happening.html

MAJOR third act spoilers

spoiler (click to show/hide)

the toxins can be neutralized through the power of LOVE bwahaha

[close]

[Howard Alan Treesong]

M Night Shamalayanananan will take all of the toxins into himself

(and then poop out his next movie script)

[Eric P]

probably the best eco thrillers are The Earth Abides and The Sheep Look Up.

for the sci-fi tip of things, Lucifer's Hammer is good as is When World's Collide (though it's from a simpler time so you don't get a lot of the grittiness, but there's a nice bit in the movie when the people who realize they're going to die essentially riot).

[Eric P]

i'm about 85 pages in now.  it's good and i like a lot of the little mundane details which make up the characterizations.  i like the way "the isolation", "the warning", and "the keepers" tropes are all handled.  the bad place stuff isn't really handled that well though, i don't think.  we're focusing mostly on the keepers instead of getting a good sense of where we're going to spend most of this section of the book (if not all of it).

so far things are not going well for our vacationers and i'm certain in a hundred pages or so, they'll look back on this portion of the book and laugh with simple nostalgia.

[Eric P]

135 in.

well things aren't going well at all

my issues with sense of place have been met keenly with an exploration which imparts knowledge to both the reader and to the main character.

the characters are well and truly fucked.

i can't see this having an ending other than that of hamlet.

[TVC15]

haha I'm reading a script review

http://mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/2007/11/script-review-happening.html

MAJOR third act spoilers

spoiler (click to show/hide)

the toxins can be neutralized through the power of LOVE bwahaha

[close]

haha, sounds like this will reignite PD's love affair with M. Night.

[Eric P]

200 pages in.

the sentience of this goddamn plant is pissing me off.

there are little things about the narrative which annoy me.

the plant laying traps for our people?  the plant is pulling down warning signs?  the plant is uncharacteristically leaving behind a hemp rope while devouring all other organic matter?

the rope thing really pissed me off because it could have been alleviated by just making the damn thing nylon.  but no.  this is a sentient, malicious plant.  it can't just be a kudzu like plant.  no.  it thinks and plans.

i find this bit to be quite frustrating because i think it would be much better if it was the people vs the situation instead of the people vs the situation and biollante.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

rawr!  i'm a monstar

[close]

[Eric P]

pg 255

goddamn this plant is pissing me off

mimicking voices was annoying enough

but now it's mimicking scents?

not long to go.  i almost considered not even picking it back up, such was the loss of good will around page 180 or so.

[T-Short]

"Elliot begins to realize that the deaths aren’t the result of a terrorist attack, but are being caused by the release of a toxin by the surrounding plant life in an evolutionary last-ditch attempt to protect themselves from the predator that endangers them the most--man."

wow M Night Shamalayan that is a deep metaphor you got there

[Eric P]

just finished

the book was good but bits of it were frustrating

the good parts were the pure survival bits, but towards the end the plant's sentience and mocking just got annoying.

if the plant is so sentient, so dexterous, then why does it just not rise up and kill them sooner?

it seems less an inevitability than a planned event. 

the ending is good though.  as down an ending as you can get.

i watched the trailer again and i dunno how accurate it will be.

but it should be worth watching, on dvd if nothing else.

[Eric P]

but the thing is that the "ending" is 5 pages

five GOOD pages, but it makes the preceding 70 seem kind of pointless.

like the writer said "well, i've got brunch in a half hour, let's kill some people"