4. The Ruins (2008)
I'm not sure how familiar the rest of the world is with either the novel or movie versions of
The Ruins, but I'd like to take this time to tell you that the novel (written by Scott Smith, who also wrote
A Simple Plan) is pretty damn awesome. The movie version, however, is never anything but mediocre in every sense of the word, and that's a crying shame, because it really had the potential to be a horror classic, thanks to its surprisingly intelligent plot. Whereas the novel, according to
EW's Gillian Flynn, " into our anxieties about global warming, lethal weather, supergerms our collective fear that nature is finally fighting back and given us a decidedly organic nightmare," the movie is just your basic movie. The plot concerns two couples who go on vacation to Mexico and decide to take a trip into the jungle, where they soon find themselves facing off against an unlikely foe: nature itself. Don't worry, this isn't veering anywhere near
The Happening territory: there's actually drama here, and Smith's prose is relentless, relevant stuff - the book is nail-bitingly confused and refuses to play by the conventional rules. Whereas the movie, directed by Carter Smith, was the opposite: a generic horror flick that, like a twisted vine hell bent on destruction, smothers and chokes its awesome premise. For shame!