Review: “The Ruins”

SMITH, Carter (Dir.), “The Ruins”, Spyglass Entertainment/DreamWorks Pictures/Warner Bros., 2008.

There is a code to these types of movies. Not a hidden message that will lead you to the Holy Grail, or the burial place of Christ, but a structure of signs and meanings that tells you exactly what’s going on and what will happen next. This film follows The Code pretty much all the way down the line, which is why I wanted to talk about it.

Horror movies of late tend to be funded – like most films - because they will attract a degree of box-office return. Most horror movies are targeted at people aged between 16 and 24 years of age; the reason being that young folk enjoy being scared because, going through the motions of calming and reassuring a frightened party, leads to various bonding consequences. On top of this, these movies tread a strict, prurient line of educating youth on ‘proper behaviour’: The “I Know What You Did Last Summer” series, for example, is all about the consequences of naughtiness done by young-uns who should know better. The Code lets young men know when to slink an arm around their date’s shoulder to reassure her, and lets everyone prudishly acknowledge that the horrible demise depicted onscreen is justly deserved.

Because of this, there is very little of merit with these movies. The artistry lies entirely with the special effects, set and audio design, and the camera work and lighting. The script is pretty much just a colour-by-numbers exercise while ‘acting’ is simply a matter of scream intensity and six-packs. There are two reasons why I would recommend this film (other than the opportunity to see The Code in action), and I’ll come to those later.

The story involves four handsome young Americans on holiday in Mexico, who meet with a young German fellow whose brother has wandered into the jungle with a local archaeologist to see the eponymous ruins – an old Mayan pyramid. He invites the two couples along with him to see the place and also embroils a trio of young Greek holidayers. Overnight, before the trek the following day, partying occurs: the Greeks get blitzed; the brunette drinks too much and makes an inappropriate pass at the German fellow, after her boyfriend leaves to go to bed; the blonde couple agree not to mention this faux pas to the brunette partner. After this, the party winds down and everyone turns in.

At this stage, following the precepts of The Code and before anything horrific has taken place (apart from the attitudes of entitlement displayed by the American youths and the quality of the acting), we know exactly who survives and who doesn’t. Or, at least, in what order they’re going to be finished off, if it’s that kind of flick. It breaks down like this: you need to keep an eye on the characters who attract blame. First, the German guy goes, because he embroils the rest in the mayhem to follow; i.e., it’s his fault that everyone else dies. Next, the Greeks go: they are unnamed and they don’t speak English, so they’re cannon-fodder for the horror to come. That leaves the two couples. The blonde duo die: this is because “blondes have more fun” so they deserve to get their come-uppance; they also tacitly agree to hide the brunette’s indiscretion from her boyfriend, so – guilty. This same boyfriend is also doomed, because, if he’d been a better boyfriend, his girl would not have felt compelled to come on to the only other single guy standing at the party’s end (also he shouldn’t have left her there alone). So, the brunette is going to be the sole survivor of the carnage to come. Q.E.D.

It should be quite obvious to any thinking adult that this process is completely f**ked up. This notion of ‘blame and consequence’ is based on the most puerile of sensibilities, and would never stand up in any court of reason. However, this is the shorthand that is used to communicate a moral code to the audience in these types of situations. It’s just that the moral centre of this code is guided by a wonky compass.

As the movie progresses all of these deaths come to pass. The group comes to the ruins and the Greek guy (the other two remained behind, passed-out on the beach) gets blown away minutes after their arrival by some strangely agitated locals who, conveniently, don’t speak English or Spanish (or Greek or German). The tourists are forced to ascend to the top of a vine-covered stepped pyramid which comprises the ruins of our tale. The brunette guy (who, we learn, is moments away from earning his medical degree) takes charge, ordering a search of the pyramid’s summit where signs of the German guy’s brother are evident, in order to scrape together what food and water they might find. During this search, the sound of a mobile telephone is heard at the bottom of a well which opens at the flat area atop the structure. The group decides that the German guy’s brother must be down there and prepare for a descent.

Of course, the rope breaks and our German friend falls into darkness. The blonde girl is chosen to descend in order to help him: she jumps down to the bottom of the shaft (because the rope is now too short to go the distance) and slices open her knee. The German guy has broken his back and is paralysed: the others build a back brace and send it down with the brunette girl and they contrive to haul everyone back upstairs. During this moment, there’s some indecision about how to move a victim with such an injury and the frightened blonde girl takes charge, insisting on manhandling the guy inappropriately: if he wasn’t paralysed before, he sure is now. Here’s where she scores another piece of blame: not only did she not mention her friend’s indiscretion from the night before, and then give her boyfriend oral sex the next morning, but she also callously mistreats an injured person while in a state of panic. By now she’s doomed. Oh, and we also learn that the vines covering pyramid inside and out, are capable of mimicry and have been faking the sound of the mobile ‘phone.

Time passes. The brunette couple try to reason with the natives who have surrounded the pyramid and are making sure the tourists stay put. They prove intractable, and the brunette girl throws a handful of vines at them, striking a seven-year-old boy by mistake. The boy’s grandfather shoots the kid, who was completely unharmed by the attack, and his body is given a wide berth. The brunettes start to work out that something irrational is occurring. By nightfall the party is unnerved, but expecting folks back at the hotel to begin searching for them in order to deal with their absence. An investigation of the German guy finds him overgrown with vines, the plants seeming to sprout out of his legs, and the blonde girl has a similar experience in which her boyfriend pulls a vine out of the wound in her knee. Gangrene becomes German guy’s greatest threat, so the other two guys decide to amputate his legs. This accomplished, he dies and the vines descend upon the patient and the removed limbs, dragging them away into the foliage.

Next morning, blonde girl starts acting strange and an examination reveals that the vines are growing inside her, especially in her brain. She grabs a knife and begins trying to cut the plants out of her body. Blonde guy tries to stop her and gets stabbed in the chest for his efforts. Blondie keeps on cutting...then there were two.

Finally, the brunettes decide to make a break for the Jeep parked nearby, which belonged to German guy’s brother. Brunette guy fakes out the Indians (and gets peppered with arrows for his trouble) while brunette girl flees into the jungle and makes for the vehicle. The last scene is of her screaming and driving away into the distance.

Thus, The Code is fulfilled in every particular: cannon-fodder wiped out? Check. Those guilty of wrongs punished? Check. All those marked for death are dead and the ‘blameless’ go free. It’s interesting that the brunette girl escapes: brunettes are, according to The Code, the ‘everywoman’ characters whom the girls in the audience are supposed to relate to; blondes, or overtly trashy women, are always victims because they are perceived as being somehow ‘morally inferior’. Agreeing to have sex, or showing your breasts, is a clear identifier of imminent death, and our blonde girl in this instance does both. It’s not even that the brunette in this case is somehow superior: she whines, she disses her boyfriend, she gets blotto and makes a pass at a stranger; after that, she throws up the next morning and continues bitching about everything, from the weather, to the walk in the jungle, to the distance she has to cover in her flip-flops (as if no-one mentioned to her that they were taking a HIKE, through a JUNGLE). But The Code lets her go, and this proves just how twisted The Code truly is.

Now that I’ve rolled out the plot (so-called) of this picture, there’s no real reason why you should waste any time on it; however, I did mention that there were two reasons to recommend it. The first is that the premise is a great one to base a Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game upon, and, if you know your Mythos, there’s a perfect stand-in for the mysterious vine, ready to hand. It’s the Black Lotus (see my earlier post about this creature at this blog). Dig up the mimicking vine and replace it with a healthy growth of Nelumbo tenebrarum and you have a Mythos adventure good to go. Those Indians can be swapped out for Tcho-tcho guardians and Bob’s your uncle. The Lotus has a million ways to mislead, fool and entrap its victims and this film is a good springboard for ideas as to how the story should progress, without – of course – any reference to The Code.

The other reason to see this movie – and it’s a completely parochial one, I agree – is that it was completely shot in Australia, somewhere in Queensland, and the scenery is spectacular. Who knew that Banana Bender territory could stand in for Mexico so well?

Two tentacled horrors.