BD Horror News - Sneak Peak: SpookyDan Watches 'The Ruins'

Now that we know the poster floating around the web is fake, we might as well post something solid to help keep the balance in the universe. Inside you can read about SpookyDan's visit to the editing studio where director Carter Smith chats about his film, The Ruins (trailer), which arrives in theaters April 4. Click the title above for more information on the film or read on for the story.

The Ruins: Director Carter Smith Ruins My Appetite

By: SpookyDan

Carter Smith, The director of the phenomenal short film BugCrush, is currently in Los Angeles putting on the final touches for his feature film debut, THE RUINS. Bloody-Disgusting was invited to come by to not only chat with Smith, but to take a sneak peak at the film arriving in theaters April 4.

Based on the 2006 novel by Scott Smith (A Simple Plan), RUINS stars Jena Malone (Donnie Darko) and Jonathan Tucker (Pulse, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). While on vacation in Cancun Mexico, four American friends are persuaded by a stranger to help him on a hunt for his missing brother. The missing brother was last seen on his way toward some ancient ruins, and the four Americans soon find themselves lost in a jungle, inhabited by the unknown.

But just what the hell is THE RUINS? I know it�s about some hot college kids who go on an adventure in Mexico and have very nasty and gory things happen to them, but what is going to make this different than TURISTAS or HOSTEL? So I asked Smith exactly that; he explained how it is VERY different from those films. �The story takes place over a period of three days that they are trapped in The Ruins, which is much more condensed timeline than what is in the book,� he explains, �It�s not set up in a way where each character just dies, and in what order and what cool way will it happen. The film is set up where you really get to spend the entire film with all of the characters. You see them go through the transformations and changes, and of how this affects them. The main difference here is that you don�t really know what they are up against until about halfway through the film. Even then it�s not a film that follows typical horror conventions. Much more in line with THE LORD OF THE FLIES than TURISTAS.�

He continues to chat about the differences, �On paper these films probably sound similar, there�s something about the violence and brutality that happens in our movie that all come direct result of a characters actions, and decisions. It isn�t some masked outsider that is responsible for what happens to these kids. As an audience member, you are constantly asking yourself, �would I do that, would I be able to, or even want to do that?�, hopefully there is a connection with who its happening to, and something that I haven�t seen in the genre for quite a while.�

One concern most horror fans have is CG vs practical FX work, this has a pleasant blend, �Throughout the whole thing there is a blend of practical and CGI, but we tried to do as much as possible with practical, and only use digital when we had to Practical FX by Jason Baird and Rising Sun both in Australia.�

Promising a blend of CGI and practical FX it seems as if Smith and editor Jeff Betancourt have the know-how to deliver a heavy and dark film that isn�t just a remake, flavor of the day, or typical by the numbers film. �In a conventional genre picture the whiney one is the first to go, but not the case here. My approach, from the beginning was to make it as real as possible, both in the way that it looks and sounds. I felt that the only was you could tackle a subject about a flesh eating �things� that invade your body, was to stay as far away from the comic and camp as possible. To create a world that feels very real, and by creating these characters that you are invested in, and when it gets to where it�s going you are really invested in it.�

On the topic of FX and gore I was shown a small piece of the film where one of the characters has to perform an impromptu �surgery� and the gore and blood are certainly there. And what really stood out was the tension in the scene, which made it gut wrenching and horrific to watch. Smith continues, �We (Betancourt, and I) are both huge genre fans so we are really conscience always of pushing the boundaries of what can be shown and what feels right for the scene. The last thing you want is for something to feel gratuitous without moving the story forward, and not giving you something new. If the violence and gore is doing that then it earns its place, but if it�s just there to gross you out then I feel its there for the wrong reason.�

One of the other scenes I saw was during the opening sequence when the couples are getting ready to leave on their adventure. The scene certainly has its fill of nudity, but in a nice change of pace (regarding recent horror entries) the subtext and scenery is VERY sexy. BugCrush (Smith�s short) had a huge amount of sex appeal to it, almost to a disturbing degree. So I asked him if THE RUINS carry over the same feeling. He explains, �There�s something very sexual about what they turn into as they spend time up there, slowly dying of exposure and dehydration. There is a real physicality that they become very in touch with, that I find sexy, but it�s a dirty, grimy, bloody and sweaty - not conventional in a typical horror movie fashion. Hopefully it�s sexy!� he jokes. -SpookyDan

THE RUINS arrives in theaters April 4