Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Scott Smith - The Ruins

It's kinda sad but I'm an absolute sucker for horror movies, even though I get completely terrified. Why I torture myself, I have no idea. I read a review about the movie, The Ruins (which I haven't seen), and found out that it was based on a book. I do enjoy a good horror read too so I decided to look for this book on BookMooch. I took this along with me on my honeymoon in May and I finished reading this on the flight to Bali. I won't give it the same kind of lavish praise that Stephen King did, but The Ruins is a decent horror novel. It was sufficiently creepy with plenty of WTF moments and a constant growing sense of doom and despair. Sure, the story was riddled with plot holes like a slice of Swiss cheese, but once it picked up pace, all of that was inconsequential and it was hard to pull away from the tale. I would have preferred it if at least one of the characters found a way to beat the vines and escape (just one happy moment, please!) but I guess the tragic ending really reinforces the utter bleakness of the situation, which is probably what the author was aiming for. The film is certified fresh on RottenTomatoes so I'm looking forward to see how it compares against the novel.

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