Jason Adams reads my mind and posts about the bizarre reaction to The Ruins by all of Ain’t It Cool News’s reviewers. (Thanks for saving me the work, man!) Basically, they all loved it, but they were all totally stunned by this because they assumed it would suck. I’ve seen similar bafflement about the movie expressed on some of the big horror sites–statements like “I just have to know what the hell is going on. Hopefully I won’t be disappointed when all is revealed.” If only it were based on an acclaimed novel available at your local library!
My friend Jim Treacher wrote me to say he was nervous that the studio wasn’t screening the movie for critics. But can you blame them? If the CW among genre-centric reviewers, who really ought to know better, was that it was gonna stink, what do you think your average mainstream-media critic would make of it? After all, it’s about violent and horrible things happening to attractive young people–unless you can cobble together a metaphor for the Bush Administration’s treatment of Latin America out of it, it must be garbage, right?
It seems like there are some kinds of film it’s just not worth screening for critics. Here we’ve got a story by a guy whose first novel was great, doing the screenplay, and his first screenplay was great, and the trailers are wonderfully intense and beautiful…and the horror punditocracy can’t seem to bother getting a clue. If I were the studio, I probably wouldn’t bother, either.
Can’t say I’m surprised at all of this… INCIDENTALLY, Sean, and please forgive me if I should know the answer to this, I got the chance to pick up Max Brooks’ “World War Z” (it actually arrived in bookstores in the UAE, yayayay), and couldn’t help but notice that one of its heroes just happened to be named T. Sean Collins. That couldn’t possibly be coincidence, right?
Bruce: That’s what I’m saying. I’m actually sort of taken aback by how clear it at least SEEMS that they simply chose not to show this movie to critics because it was a genre piece, not because of any qualitative problems with the movie itself. As you’re about to see from my review, which is posting even as I write this, I was a bit let down by the movie compared to the book, but it is by no means a bad film.
Natalia: I’ve wondered about that! I’ve read some interviews with Brooks where the interview asks if the character was inspired by Brooks’s fellow Saturday Night Live writer T. Sean Shannon, and Brooks said yeah, in part. But if I had to guess, I don’t think I’m being egocentric in saying that he probably googled for zombies, found my old zombie blog, and combined my name with Shannon’s for the character. I really ought to see if I can get in touch and ask him. It’s flattering at any rate since it’s a very good book.
Carnival of souls: special derailment edition
* First we learned that Lionsgate was pushing back the release of the upcoming Clive Barker adaptation The Midnight Meat Train. Then (i.e. this morning) we find out that they may have once again shortened the title to the Pips-esque…