The Tattooed Man's pick for the biggest wasteland of a film genre?  Depending on the week that'd be a toss up between the romantic comedy and the teen oriented horror film, with the latter winning out most weeks thanks to Hollywood's apparent belief - well borne out at the box office, alas - that the kids they're targeting are either too stupid to recognize bad writing or too apathetic to care.  But then along comes a film like The Ruins to prove me wrong ...


I was planning to miss this one, really had no interest in it based on the trailers which made it look like just so many more attractive young bodies being fed to the machine but then something weird happened.  People I like and respect started talking about how good it was.  So I started to pay a bit more attention.  And then I learned it came from the pen of the same writer who was behind Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan - an outright brilliant film - and I knew I had to check it out.  And here's the thing: it's not going to reinvent the wheel, it won't go down on anybody's list of all time great horror films, but it's really, really solid.

So, the set up is as basic as they come.  A group of four young, pretty Americans wander ignorantly into an unknown environment where a multitude of bad things happen.  It's been done and done and done but this one stands out from the crowd for a few reasons.  First, I actually buy these characters as real people.  The interactions fit the way people really behave, they ask the right questions, they avoid all of the stupid horror movie cliches.  Rather than being your basic fodder for a series of kills this crew of characters actually lets you care a bit about what happens with them.  Second, the villain is not at all what you expect, unless you've read the novel.

In fact, you could even make a pretty good argument that this is a film that plays out entirely without a villain at all, an interesting twist that puts all of the tension and terror back into the character work, which as I said is pretty solid.  And third, the acting is decent throughout - not ever brilliant, but always a good step above average.  Throw those three elements together - good writing, an unusual perspective on the genre, and believable performances - and you've got something a good bit better than the norm.