Quote: "I feel a sense of responsibility about that.... I never really know when work will pop up. I have to always be on call.... I just accept that's the way things are."
Trivia: It was announced in 2012 that Neil H. Mortiz (producer of "Prison Break") was set to produce an American remake of the film.
Growing up watching daytime television in the eighties and nineties I watched a lot of bad soap operas and infomercials. Occasionally, I would find a cool monster flick which became my favorite movies. I loved (and still love) Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans (God bless Ray Harryhausen). I also really liked the old Universal monster movies, especially Frankenstein and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. However, every now and then, there would be one of the Japanese dubbed monster movies from the fifties and sixties. Godzilla. King Kong. Mothra. Giant spiders. I love the over-the-top nature of those Japanese films, the cheesy special effects, and poor acting. Big Man Japan is homage to those Japanese Monster movies, formally called Kaiju films. Big Man Japan is a mockumentary about a superhero who is tasked by the Japanese government to fight the monsters that are trying to destroy Japan. It is ridiculous in a very deadpan way and has an absolute perfect ending that is completely unexpected.
Trivia: The film's composer, Rick Wakeman, was originally offered a percentage of whatever profits the film made but he had decided to opt for a fee instead as he felt the film had no chance of being successful. The film ended up being the biggest grossing horror movie in Japan.
Quote: "Man, this guy is so burned, he's cooked! A fucking Big Mac, overdone! You know what I mean? And, it's a miracle that he's still alive. If it was me, I'd prefer to be dead. No way I'd want to be this freak. He's a monster, man!"
The Burning is yet another of the dozens of slasher movies made after the huge success of Friday the 13th and it is abundantly clear that the movie was heavily inspired by Friday the 13th (even borrowing Friday the 13th's special effects artist Tom Savini). And while some Friday knockoffs are duds, The Burning actually kicks ass. It is based on the urban legend of Cropsey, a maniac who supposedly massacred children at a summer camp on Staten Island. I decided to check out the film after watching Madman (review here), another slasher made around the same time based on the Cropsey legend. I must say that The Burning blows Madman out of the water. The Burning is a classic slasher movie with some great kills, a great weapon (pruning shears.... brutal!), and some great characters, including a performance by a young George Castanza (Jason Alexander) as Dave, the horndog counselor who talks about jerking off way too much. The film is also the first movie the Miramax pictures put out, even being partially written and produced by Harvey Weinstein (the horndog producer with multiple sexual assault allegations).
Quote: "Lore of the campfire telling of his horror, Lost in the woods with the madman and the stars. Don't laugh at the tell, heed if you call him. The legend lives, beware the Madman Marz. The legend lives, beware the Madman Marz."
Trivia: Paul Ehlers's son Jonathan Ehlers was born during the shooting of the movie. Paul received the news that his wife was in labor while filming a scene in full Madman Marz make-up. Paul went immediately to the hospital and held his newborn son for the first time while still wearing some of his Marz make-up and overalls covered with fake blood.
Madman is a film from the early days of the slasher film heyday. While Halloween started it all, it was 1980's Friday the 13th that really taught filmmakers that an insane amount of money could be made on a small budget by having a masked person hack away at teenage kids. Following Friday the 13th came hundreds of ripoffs. Some of them better and some of them worse. Unfortunately, Madman is one of the latter. On paper, Madman has everything that should make it a solid early 80s slasher: a mythology built around the killer, secluded camp woods location, brief nudity, gruesome kills, and a dope score and theme song. However, none of it really plays on the screen. The acting is bad. The story is drawn out. The killer looks silly. There are plot points that have nothing to do with the story and only distract. I first saw this movie a dozen or so years ago and remember really wanting to like it. The intro had all the makings of a potentially great film: a black and red still screen with the great theme song playing. However, I remember nearly falling asleep during this first viewing. Luckily, this was another Joe Bob Brigg's Last Drive In movie, which gave me the perfect opportunity to rewatch it. Joe Bob (of course) goes way in depth on all the finer points of the movie. Unfortunately though, the movie is just as bad as I remember and generally I agree with Joe Bob on this one, so I'll keep this review short.
Quote: "Well, I figure something fell out of one of the windows from the floor up above. Hit him. Sheared his head clean off. A shard of glass or something like that... Oh shit! Maybe his head just got loose and fell off. Look, whadda' you want from me?"
Trivia: The film that Larry Cohen was fired from before starting production on this movie was I, the Jury (1982). It cost 8 times as much as Q (1982) but only made one quarter as much at the box office.
Joe Bob Briggs and The Last Drive In are back! The second episode in his new weekly show had a double feature showing Larry Cohen's monster movie, Q: The Winged Serpent and the sexual gore fest Society. I had already seen Society, but, Q, was new to me. I am familiar with a lot of Larry Cohen's other films (God Told Me To, Blue Sunshine, The Stuff) and was excited to see another one of his films. It also helped that Joe Bob said this was the best movie ever made giving it four stars. While I liked the film, it didn't think it was all that much greater than C.H.U.D. (reviewed here), which Joe Bob ripped apart the previous week. David Carradine and Michael Moriarty played great parts, especially Moriarty (Do I hate him? Love him? Pity him?). And I liked the the cop drama parts, but the monster parts were cheesy and, for a monster film, surprisingly didn't really add to the film. I hate to disagree with our Patron Saint of movies, Mr. Briggs, but I give it two stars (maybe two and a half).
Quote: "Then I shall become it! I shall consume all the ill fortune which you are set to unleash. I shall chew up all the selfish scheming and ill intentions that men like you force upon men like me, and bury it in the stomach of this place!"
Trivia: The film was released on 5 July 2013 on multiple platforms simultaneously, including cinemas, home media and video on demand. It was also broadcast on Film4 on the day of its release.
A Field in England. The movie that answers the question, what would happen if Alexandro Jodorowky made a historical movie about the English Civil War? It's incredible that the filmmakers were able to create something so vile yet beautiful and enchanting with only a relatively small budget (around $400,000 US). The film incorporates a plethora of visual and auditory effects to build the surreal hallucinatory feel of the film and like Jodorowky's movies, the film uses surrealism to tell a story. However, while Jodorowky used surrealism primarily to explore the subconscious of the individual and humanity, the filmmakers of A Field in England use surrealism to explore a historical event. Upon first viewing, the film may seem like a bizarre collection of psychedelic images and incoherent events as a four bearded guys wander around a field killing each other. However, this is one of the few times in my life that my history degree comes in handy. What this film is, is actually a fairly straightforward retelling of the First English Civil War. But if you're not a history nut like me, it's also a pretty great way to spend ninety trippy minutes.
Quote: "Wait a minute, who am I here?" "Jerry?" "That's right. Jerry Blake. Thanks, honey."
Trivia: Director Joseph Ruben originally wanted Jerry Blake to whistle the Barbra Streisand song "The Way We Were," but the rights to the song proved to be too expensive.
The slasher movie craze began in the seventies but really amped up in the early 1980s following the release of Friday the 13th. By the time the mid- to late-eighties hit, there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of slasher movies. So the difficulty for slasher movie directors became how to continue to make successful movies in a genre so over-saturated? Some movies chose to go with the given formula and just amp up the violence or add in comedic elements (which usually fails). Others, like The Stepfather, chose to go a different route. The Stepfather adds a surprising depth to its characters while playing on an old cliche, the abusive/crazy stepfather. While it has a great performance by Terry O'Quinn and has one of the greatest openings in a slasher movie, The Stepfather leaves a lot to be desired. The first five minutes and last fifteen minutes are exciting, but unfortunately that leaves nearly seventy minutes in the middle where the film is more or less stagnant.
Quote: "hey look exactly like us. They think like us. They know where we are. We need to move and keep moving. They won't stop until they kill us... or we kill them."
Trivia: The Bible verse that continuously appears in the film (Jeremiah 11:11) reads: "Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them."
Jordan Peele has once again created an original and excited new entry into the horror genre. I cannot believe that half the comedy duo of Key & Peele (which had a really funny show on Comedy Central) has become one of the most exciting new voices in the horror genre (and soon to be science fiction as the new host of the rebooted Twilight Zone). Like his first movie Get Out, Us also looks at identity, individuality, and what it all means in the broader social context. However, Get Out leaned more towards the psychological thriller genre (despite the very bloody ending), even being classified as a comedy by the Golden Globes (which it simply is not). Instead, Us places both Peele and the movie firmly in the horror camp without any reservations. Us is bloody, intense, and thought provoking. It also boasts incredible performances by all the actors particularly Lupita Nyong'o who absolutely steals the movie. There are dozens of theories about the social and socioeconomic meanings behind the film. There is a lot of merit in these broader implications. But theories aside, the film is a bloody fun ride that never lets up as soon as it begins.
Quote: "Then, as a psychologist, I think you're confusing suicide with self-destruction. Almost none of us commit suicide, and almost all of us self-destruct. In some way, in some part of our lives. We drink, or we smoke, we destabilize the good job... and a happy marriage. But these aren't decisions, they're... they're impulses."
Trivia: The snake tattoo that appears on Lena's forearm is not there before she enters the Shimmer. It also appears on the arm of Anya (Gina Rodriguez), as well as on the body of the soldier killed on the wall in the building they enter. The tattoo is a symbol of a snake eating itself, which ties into the film's theme of self-destruction.
Sometimes science fiction and horror are a perfect pairing. The almost endless expansion of possibilities and cerebral qualities that science fiction provides compliments the bleak, sinister, and macabre elements of human existence that horror highlights. H.P. Lovecraft capitalized on this nearly a century ago and filmmakers have been capitalizing on this since, from Kubrick's 2001 to Event Horizon. Annihilation is one of the newest entries into the "Science Fiction Horror" subgenre and while it was a box office flop that left many critics disappointed, I personally loved the film and felt it was both a uniquely beautiful film and had an engaging story. Beyond the highly celebrated visual effects, the film is also able to capture humanity on the micro and macro levels. The film is part exploration of the inner turmoils that a group of women live with and part inquiry into the frailty of the human species as a whole. Well acted, well directed, and uncompromising, Annihilation is a movie that forces the viewer to question both existence and reality.
Quote: "No. No. How could I be... how could I be dead if I'm alive? You can't be both things Zach. You can either be dead or alive, and I'm alive."
Trivia: Nick Offerman can be heard narrating the documentary on Machu Pichu in the beginning of the film. One of the several ties to Aubrey's role in Parks and Recreation.
Oh man, remember My Boyfriend's Back? That movie from the early nineties? The one where the guy stages a fake bank robbery to impress the hot chick at school but it backfires and he is actually killed but returns from the dead nonetheless to take her to prom, and hilarity ensures as he tries to manage his sexual attraction with his cannibalistic urges. Life After Beth is like that movie, except without the funny moments, likable characters, or narrative arc. The movie is not a complete waste, it offers great performances by Molly Shannon and John C. Reilly. It also adds its own touches to zombie mythology and has a couple of good gory moments. It just seems very unfocused which left me feeling, "what's the point?" With so many zombie movies out there, this one is not necessary viewing.
Quote: "Then don't worry about it. You don't need to worry about anything ever again. I'll do all your thinking for you. Just put me on the back off your neck, and everything will be fine."
Trivia: During the fellatio scene the crew walked out of the production refusing to work on the scene. A similar incident happened during the shooting of Basket Case (1982).
My friend Andy told me about this flick a few months ago when we were heading to L.A. to see Nick Cave (show was awesome... but that's another story... I'm trying to avoid going off on tangents). I thought he was talking about Brain Dead (the one with Bill Pullman) which has a similar plot. No, he assured me, it's by the guy who did Basket Case. He said something about how it's about a parasite that causes people to hallucinate while it eats people's brains. He also said it was fucked up. Both of Andy's synopses are correct. The movie is fucked up.... particularly the fellatio scene... but I'll get to that later. The movie is the love child of Frank Henenlotter, the guy who brought us the Basket Case movies and Frankenhooker. True to his 42nd Street Grindhouse roots, Henenlotter delivers another bizarre and gore-filled movie. It is weird, violent, trippy, disgusting, and heartfelt. It is a brutal warning about drug addiction while simultaneously being a good movie to get high to (if that's you thing).
Trivia: At one point, the New York Times called the film as the "Citizen Kane" of Blaxploitation (Black Exploitation films).
Dolemite. Dolemite. Where do I begin? Dolemite is the blaxploitation classic. Bar none. Shaft and Super Fly might have had more success (thanks largely to the soundtracks by Issac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield no doubt), but Dolemite was the movie that really took the pimp-turned-vigilante idea and really ran with it. By the time Dolemite came out in 1975, the blaxploitation film genre was already in full swing having begun in 1971 with Sweet Sweetback's Baadassssss Song (a movie I'm looking forward to reviewing soon). Sweet Sweetback and the blaxploitation films that followed generally have a nearly all black cast, black heroes (usually criminals turned vigilantes), funk soundtracks, and heavy use of violence and sex. Dolemite takes all these elements and dives in head first.
Quote: "So you're telling me, that my pizza place is built on a gateway to hell?"
Trivia: The opening credits have a strong resemblance to the opening credits of "night of the demons" (1988).
I really liked this movie! Somehow the movie came out this year without me hearing a thing about it. It wasn't until I was flipping through Amazon Prime Video that I came across the movie and recognized Chance the Rapper's face on the cover. Chance is surprisingly a really good actor and brings a lot to the film. The film also boasts a handful of other likable actors: Zazie Beetz (Atlanta), Paul Scheer (The League), Chris Parnell (SNL), and Hannibal Burress (The Eric Andre Show), among others. The world that writer/director Austin Vesely creates in the town of Kingfisher is also really fun and seems inspired by the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is a world where humans, ghosts, werewolves, and witches all interact. The movie has been criticized for being schlocky and a stupid B-movie, which it surely is. But what's wrong with that? Beyond the campiness, the movie also offers some insightful social commentary on American society at large. A bit disjointed, the movie is nonetheless a fun ride that I recommend.
Quote: "These damn machines will be the death of us all some day!"
Trivia: Dick Maas was fired halfway of the production because of continuing arguments with producer Matthijs van Heijningen about casting. However, he kept on working during that day and was rehired the day after, because Van Heijningen couldn't do it without him.
Shudder recently put up two of Dutch director/writer Dick Maas' horror movies, Amsterdamned and The Lift. I chose The Lift. I chose wrong. About 170 movies in and this was one of the worst movies I have watched yet (Demented Death Farm Massacre was by far the worst). The movie's description reminded me of Death Bed: The Bed That Eats, a movie that I watched on a goof that ended up being a interesting and fun movie. However, this movie lacked the inventiveness and humor that that movie had. I'm really behind on writing about the movies I have been watching so I'm going to make this one short.
Quote: "I'm going to commit murder at midnight. I'm going to kill someone you know. Someone close to you."
Trivia: During the first call made by the killer it is mentioned that the voice modulation makes him sound like 'the phantom' this is a reference to the titular character from 'Phantom of the Paradise' (1974)
New Year's Evil is another of the dozens of slasher movies released in 1980 that was trying to capitalize on the success of Halloween. Of the movies made that year, it is neither great nor terrible. If you're an old punker like me then you'll like that the movie's setting is more-or-less a punk rock show (although it appears the filmmakers only had a cursory understanding of punk rock). There are a few great songs, but "Dumb Blondes" played live by Made in Japan is by far the best one. While the plot is a bit rambling and the big reveal a let down, the killings are consistent, keeping my attention and making it an overall fun film to watch.
Trivia: The movie is based on the legend of Sawney Beane and his family, a feral clan who inhabited and roamed the highlands of Scotland, in the early 1400s. They captured, tormented and ate several transients. They were eventually captured and the executions of the Beane clan all allegedly involved grotesque tortures, inspiring the aspect of the film that the Carter family become as brutal as their attackers when they seek revenge.
Wes Craven had made a name for himself within the exploitation genre with his 1972 film, The Last House on the Left, a brutal rape-revenge movie that did surprisingly well at the box office despite its extreme content (it made $3 million over its $87,000 budget). Despite the film's success, Craven found it difficult to make a second movie as producers and distributors were nervous about working with "the rape" movie guy. However, five years later, in 1977, Craven was finally able to make what is in my humble opinion, his best movie, The Hills Have Eyes. I was stoked to discover that this movie was the second film in Joe Bob Briggs' Dinners of Death Thanksgiving horror marathon on Shudder (the first was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
Quote: "Are you really mourning your loss of humanity? I don't understand. Who in the hell would want to be human? God Almighty... In all of my travels, I've only ever known a human to be an ocean of shit."
Trivia: According to Kevin Smith, most of the budget was used to obtain the rights to use the song "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac.
Like a lot of nineties kids, I fell in love with Kevin Smith's comedy movies: Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy. Something about them seemed to captured the feeling of the mid-nineties and I couldn't help but relate to the characters hilarious struggles to understand who they were and what their place was in the world. My admiration for Smith's comedy is one reason why I was so taken aback by how dark of a movie he was able to create. I knew Smith was capable of creating a serious movie (I had enjoyed his Red State) but didn't know that he could create such a disturbing picture. The movie starts out innocent enough with an expected kidnapping but then goes from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds. The visuals and special effects of turning Justin Long into a Walrus are much more disturbing than one might have thought (the idea sounds funny in theory but becomes a nightmare in practice). Michael Parks (Bill's pimp dad in Kill Bill Vol. 2), Haley Joel Osment, and even a surprise part by Johnny Depp add to the enjoyment of the film. The movie is part Stephen King's Misery and part David Cronenberg's The Fly and is guaranteed to cause either disgust or laughter, but probably both. Either way, Kevin Smith has created a true nightmare that will make it hard to ever look at Justin Long the same way again.
Tagline: There's Horror in the Halls... Lynching in the Lunchroom... Murder in Metal Shop.
Trivia: The film was shot in England with actors adopting American accents to give the impression that it took place in the USA. Furthermore, in the UK, April Fool's Day ends at noon. In the UK, if one plays a prank after noon they are deemed the "fool". The filmmakers were unaware that America doesn't follow this tradition and April Fool's Day is in fact an all-day event.
Yes! It's been a while since I have found a new eighties slasher of such wonderful insanity! Slaughter High has everything that made the slasher genre great! It has a basic teenage revenge plot, a ton of creatively carried out murders, a decent amount of nudity, great (ie terrible) score, and a dash of half baked comedic moments. And to really up the ante, the movie is also a holiday movie that focuses on April Fools Day (which was the original title for the film but had to be changed when the other April Fools came out the same year). Okay, the movie isn't perfect. The ending is actually pretty awful. Apparently the filmmakers were short of about fifteen minutes when they made the film and had to tack a chase on to the end of the film that seems to go on and on and on forever. But slashers usually have lame endings and who watches them for the endings anyways? Plus, this was filmed in England with English actors, so it's fun watching them try to pull of American accents. So sit back, and enjoy the insanity.
The movie begins with the school hottie luring the school nerd into the girl's restroom to have sex with him. This is an eighties movie, so of course it is a trap. While there, she tricks him into stripping down and then a dozen or so student assholes bust in to film him naked. If that is not enough they electrocute him with a car battery before dunking him in a toilet. The bullies (although I think with the electrocuting, terrorists might be a better term) get in trouble and according to bully logic decide they need to get back at the nerd so they mess with some chemicals he's working with in the chemistry lab causing the place to burn down and severely burning him. Fast forward around ten years and the bullies are all grown up when they are all invited to a reunion for just them at the high school. I repeat the reunion is just for the ten of them (not suspicious). You can guess where the rest of the movie goes from here... someone is killing them one by one. It's the nerd. He kills the last one after a final fifteen minute chase scene of the hottie.
Let's get down to brass tax. The killings. I remember someone on Twitter posted a few months ago about how Black people are actually rarely the first ones killed in horror movies. While I had trouble coming up with specific movies, the first person killed in this movie is in fact the black janitor who is oddly enough living in the high school as the caretaker and was not part of the bullying (weird). Anyways, this movie has some pretty great death scenes. During one memorable scene, one of the jerks chugs a poisoned beer that causes his stomach to explode spilling his guts on the floor. Another person has their bath water turned to acid causing a cool face melting scene, looking very much like the face melting scene from Raiders of the Lost Arc. A car engine fan is lowered onto a person's head. There's an electrocution while a couple bangs. After the first slashers of early 1980s, filmmakers needed to get creative with their killings, and this movie goes for the gold.
Speaking of couples banging, there is a fair amount of sex and nudity in the movie. The big sex scene is amazing, not for its sexiness but for its absurdity. So while all their friends are being killed and while the girl's boyfriend is out trying to fix a car to save everyone, some girl decides to bang the guy's best friend. If that isn't odd enough, she also chooses this moment to confess that she is pregnant. Also, earlier in the film, another of the girls gets blood all over her so she goes to take a bath. Why is there a bath in a high school? Don't worry about it. What this does mean is both gratuitous nudity and the chance to melt her in an acid bath. And just to balance the nudity, the movie also has some full frontal male nudity.
A few last side notes before I get to the odd ending. The film's score sounds like it was done entirely with a Casio Keyboard in the best possible way. There is also a great eighties metal song that was written for the movie that says something about April Fools Day and revenge. Also, apparently in England, April Fool's Day ends at noon, a plot point in this movie that will make no sense to American audiences.
I already mentioned the unnecessary chase scene but haven't yet talked about the insanity the follows it. Chase scene, kills girl, classic slasher stuff. But afterwards, our killer begins to see the ghosts of the bullies who are now here to haunt him. Apparently, a supernatural warning not the retaliate against bullies? The supernaturalism comes out of nowhere, but wait, the killer wakes up and he is an a mental institution. Oh, so he was crazy and it was all just a dream. Phew. But wait, no. He rips off the face of his nurse, so it wasn't a dream? Or it was? Eh, who really cares. The main thing to get is that the movie has some dope kills, laughs, and nudity.
Quote: "You never loved me. You just loved how much I loved you. I GAVE YOU EVERYTHING. You gave it all away."
Trivia: Throughout the entire movie, no one's name is ever mentioned and not a single character is ever referred to by any name, the way they are listed in the end credits is by their given role in the story.
My friend recommended this one to me having thought the trailer looked like "something I'd be into." He was right. And I can say without a doubt, this is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time! Like many of Aronofsky's films, it is not specifically a horror movie, but has so many horrific moments that the horror label is not totally incorrect. Director/Writer Darren Aronofsky is an absolute genius when it comes to creating disturbing visuals and building tension in his films and this film is probably his best (much more intense than the finale to Requiem For a Dream even). There are two scenes in particular that reach such an intensity that they made me physically anxious just watching them (One involves the ripping apart and eating of a baby). While the movie itself is nothing more than an allegory for another very familiar story, it is told from a new perspective and with such potency that the allegory was missed until the story had been almost completed. Many of the characters' identities and the film's metaphors also don't sink in until later. I won't get into what the film is an allegory for until after the synopsis, other than to say, this is my favorite version of this story. Some critics, Rex Reed in particular, seemed to have missed the point of the film, but I'll address them at the end of this review.
Quote: "You filthy pig! You and that WHORE! You both belong in the snares of the devil!"
Trivia: Alphonso DeNoble, who played the Spages' fat pervert landlord, wasn't a professional actor at the time. He was working as a bouncer at a gay bar and director Alfred Sole persuaded him to play the role. Before his death in 1978, he got acting jobs in two other low-budget horror films.
I think my wife summed up this movie best when in the middle of it she exclaimed, "This movie is insane." This movie really is insane. The movie is a murder mystery with lots of comparisons that can be made to the Italian Giallo horror movies of Dario Argento (despite the director having never seen Argento's films). The movie begins with the senseless murder of a child in a church, a moment that sets the darkly religious atmosphere that will carry on throughout the film. Adding to the bleakness of the film is that the dead girl's 12 year old sister seems to one who killed her. The movie has no hero or anyone really to root for and instead is a sad look at the destruction of an already dysfunctional family and weight of the guilt and repression that the Catholic Church puts on its adherents. The filmmakers do an incredible job building the tension throughout the film until, two thirds into the film, they reveal the true identity of the killer. From there, the movie seems to fall apart into a confusing mess. While surprising, the killer and its motive are disappointing leaving the movie feeling anti-climatic. Despite its faults, this 1976 movie is one of several films that helped to pave the way for the slasher films that would dominate the early 1980s (although not banned in the UK as a Video Nasty, it was investigated).
Quote: "We're being quarantined here. We are being kept here to die!"... "This doesn't happen! Four Americans on a vacation don't just disappear!"
Trivia: Though the film takes place in Mexico during the summer, it was shot primarily in Australia during the winter. Heavy coats were provided for the actors in between takes, and water and olive oil had to be sprayed onto their bodies to simulate sweat.
I didn't get a chance to see The Ruins when it first came out and had absolutely no expectations when I finally watched it. I have to say, I was underwhelmed. It begins by building a cool atmosphere and we get a brief look into the psychology of the characters (that will no doubt come to bite them later on). The setting of the ruins themselves are well made and I believed throughout the movie that the film was shot in the jungles of Mexico and not Australia. However, when it is finally discovered that the monster is a bunch of plants, I couldn't help but ask the screen, "Really? The plants?" There is so much mysterious and possibly terrifying about the Maya and their ruins that I was hoping for some cool monster or something, but no, all we get is vines. That being said, there are so very brutal moments that were painful to watch. What ended up being more entertaining was the psychological toll the plants have on the characters who begin to destroy each other. However, I still cannot get over that plants are the bad guys. As disappointing as the wind in Shyamalan's The Happening which came out the same year (if you haven't seen it, sorry for the spoiler, but count yourself lucky that you don't have to sit through it). Also, you have girls in bikinis throughout the entire movie and no one gets topless? I don't get that either.
