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DVD Review: Harley Checks Out the Unrated Cut of ‘The Ruins’
Making its DVD premiere this upcoming Tuesday is Paramount Home Entertainment’s The Ruins, which makes its way to shelves in a rated and unrated version (and on Blu-ray). Having just watched the unrated DVD, the differences between the two versions seem to be some extra gore (which I’m sure more than few horror fans won’t be too upset about) and an alternate ending, which fixed some of the problems I had with the theatrical release by fitting in tonally with the rest of the film and its themes. Inside you can find a full blown review of the DVD release, or you can click here to read David Harley’s review of the film.
Special Features (only included on the unrated DVD)
Commentary – Director Carter Smith and Editor Jeff Betancourt have recorded what is easily one of the most informative commentary tracks I’ve heard this year. The duo go over the conditions of their Australian location shooting, some of the differences between the book and the film (and why they changed it), onset stories and even the routine of everyone’s diet. Perhaps the most interesting thing mentioned was the impact of their test screenings, which is a practice some people are just now learning about, with the WHERE THE WILD THINGS debacle becoming a widely known story. They both speak about the comments given to them during the screening but you get the sense that only Betancourt got anything he deemed useful out of it.
Making The Ruins (14:22) – Starting with the book rights being bought and Carter Smith’s short film BUGCRUSH being noticed by Steven Spielberg, this making-of segment hits on everything from the psychological implications of the story, the task of making the film scary, despite being filmed in broad daylight, and working with Scott Smith to adapt the novel. Even though the commentary goes over these topics more in depth, it features interviews with the cast and crew not on the audio track and acts as a fairly informative behind the scenes featurette for those who normally skip commentary tracks.
Creeping Death (15:03) – The biggest challenge for the special effects team working on THE RUINS was to make the botanical threat actually scary. It sounds easier than it is, especially when considering the overall tone of plant-themed movies like DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, THE HAPPENING, ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES, etc. Reading about a killer plant is one thing, seeing it realized on screen, without laughing, is something entirely different. Creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos and visual effects supervisor Gregory L. McMurry show the creation of the vines from concept drawings to molds and finally to CGI movements. There were a lot of times in the movie where I thought there was puppetry used but I was surprised to find out that wasn’t the case at all. The effects teams who worked on the film made me appreciate the film a little bit more (especially the practical gore effects) and for that alone I vote Creeping Death as my favorite documentary on the disc.
Building The Ruins (06:17) – Production designer Grant Major, who worked on the LOTR trilogy and a few other Jackson films, talks about designing the ruin sets from the ground up. In the book, the ruins are basically a mound of dirt in the middle of a small clearing but for the movie, they wanted to make an ancient structure. So, who better than the man who helped create Middle Earth? Major also goes over the CGI used to enhance certain scenes (most of which is integrated quite well), locations scouting and studio vs. location shooting differences.
Deleted Scenes (11:54) – Three deleted scenes, plus a second alternate ending and the theatrical ending are included on the disc. Since the film takes place over a shorter time frame than the book, two of these scenes were removed for good reason, though I will say they both feature subplots from the book that I think could’ve been put to good use in some other capacity. The other deleted scene poses an interesting question about the ending, which I personally think would’ve made it work better. The additional alternate ending actually hammers home the idea of the vines spreading and was my personal favorite of the two new endings. An optional commentary with Carter Smith is included on all the deleted scenes, except for the theatrical ending.
For a film that was believed to have only enjoyed mediocre success, despite having doubled its reported production budget of $8 million during its theatrical run, the unrated release of THE RUINS is sufficiently filled with behind the scenes material to make it a must buy for any fans of the film.
DVD score: 3.5/5
Night School, director Ken Hughes and writer Ruth Avergon‘s tale of a headhunting slasher on the streets of Boston, arrived in the early Golden Age of the slasher film and never quite broke through the endurance test that other films in the subgenre, like Friday the 13th, managed to pass with flying colors. Blame it on a more cerebral tone, a crowded market, whatever you like, but saying it’s a shame that the film didn’t break through doesn’t begin to cover it.
Night School isn’t just an underrated slasher, or an underseen one. For my money, it’s one of the best films the subgenre has ever produced, full stop, and Vinegar Syndrome’s new 4K UHD restoration, arriving just in time for the film’s 45th anniversary, is must-have proof. Stacked with special features highlighting the craft of the film and its place in slasher history, and headlined by a gorgeous restoration showcasing the wonderfully textured production, this is Night School as it’s meant to be seen for slasher devotees everywhere.
So, what makes the film so effective? It starts very simply, with the revelation that a killer with a very cool knife and a motorcycle helmet as a mask is murdering young women in Boston, taking off their heads, and dropping those heads in the nearest body of water (no matter how small).
Solving the case falls on Judd Austin (Leonard Mann), a detective with an academic background who traces all of the victims in one way or another back to a local night school. There, suspicion falls on a womanizing professor (Drew Snyder) who sleeps around on his research assistant and romantic partner, Eleanor (Rachel Ward), whose own death could be right around the corner.
I’m doing my best to stay as spoiler-free as possible here, not just because I think plenty of slasher fans still need to see Night School, but because the film is quite determined to be a whodunit in the classic Italian giallo sense. The kills are brutal and elaborate, the killer deliberately covered head-to-toe in leather and a gleaming black helmet, the knife and the headhunting a disturbing signature. Avergon’s script is well-versed in the trappings of exactly this kind of story, complete with red herrings galore. And yet, by the time it’s all wrapping up, there’s also the sense that the answer was right there in front of you the entire time, something the very best films by legends like Mario Bava and Dario Argento could also achieve.
But on to the restoration: Like the best of the gialli, Night School is also a beautifully engineered film full of colors and delicate camera compositions and sound design. The opening kill, which takes place on a playground carousel outside of a daycare, is rich in exactly this kind of thing, from the cityscapes that lead into the scene to the sound of a motorcycle slowly rolling forward, its engine already dead. Cinematographer Mark Irwin, best known for his many collaborations with David Cronenberg, paints the film in rich reds, absinthe greens, and haunting, chilled blue-white light on wet Boston streets, all of which are preserved beautifully by the restoration team at work on this one.
It’s a movie that very deliberately evokes a specific place – the aging streets of Boston in the 1980s, and the halls of relatively low-level academia – and then takes that place into haunted territory, saturating every frame with color and shadow that suggests a killer lurking just out of view.
Night School is not a massively gore-heavy film, but it does deliver the slasher goods with a series of tense, often unpredictable kills and body discoveries that range from the darkly comic to the flat-out jaw-dropping. That’s thanks to the sound design, the score, the editing from Robert Reitano, and more, all of which add to the film’s giallo soul.
In every case, the scene’s geography is outstanding, and it’s easy to see where the simplest possible kill shot might land, but the film never goes for the obvious. Throw in a surprisingly (for 1981, anyway) feminist bent to the storytelling and some very progressive moments for an early slasher film, and this one fits right in with Black Christmas and The Slumber Party Massacre as a film with depth you can just keep unpacking.
That depth, helped along by a load of featurettes and two new commentary tracks featuring members of the crew, is what stands out the most in this new 4K set. Night School may be a niche film recognized mostly by horror addicts and the slasher faithful, but it deserves to be something more, a landmark on the roadmap of slasher cinema history. It’s one of the best in the genre, and this restoration highlights, underlines, and shouts that from the rooftops.
Night School is now available in 4K UHD from Vinegar Syndrome.
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