Ruins (2008)
First: about the book. The book the film is based on has more details, more happenings on the way to the Temple, and characters' actions are swapped. It's also a decent read that clarifies the story about these killer plants. My main assumption is that they glossed over details for time, omitted survival methods because when gorehounds want survivalism they watch 'Survivorman,' and gave the girls some of the less sane behaviours because 1. it elicits more sympathy and 2. is a stereotype.
Still, not your typical screaming college girls and stupid jock boys, and we get flashes of both female and male nudity. It's fairly egalitarian, in my not wholly humble opinion. The natives will cause an eyeroll or ten-- if they're actually speaking a dialect of one of the (diminished and oppressed) native peoples, the accent is questionable. The film wasn't made in Central America. So... just ignore it and move on unless you're watching this as an example of Manifest Destiny still rearing its ugly Eurocentric head.
I like this one. Might be me enjoying some of that backlash against the tragically funny line of "four Americans just don't disappear!" Or that it's killer plants. Or that the gore is not as fast or silly as it could be, and this slow burn doesn't inspire me to wash the dishes.
If you get the blu-ray-- I'm assuming the DVD has the same extras-- there's an alternate ending which is less alternate and more "we added a scene that confirms exactly what you're thinking." I don't think it makes much difference either way, other than showing an awareness of consequences and black humour regarding the monster of the film.
Read the book after you watch this. Both are enjoyable, and I found waiting to read it made me fonder of the film, rather than reading it first and bitching over the screams that they left out this and that.
Would I watch it again? Yes.
Would I own it? Already do.
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