Reviews from the Horror Chamber -- The Ruins, Women's Studies

It’s back. Welcome to Reviews from the Horror Chamber. I am your chamber keeper, Anthony Thurber. Back from a nice week off, from this column. I’ve been very active here on filmarcade.net, So here a collection of what has happened lately here, since I’ve last written this column I’ve reviewed a couple of horror films, a great documentary and a film that totally sucked and oh yes posted two interviews while conducting a couple more. And yes, that’s only the beginning. In this upcoming week, yours truly will be have his interview with Hal Masonberg, a director who’s trying to have his version of “The Plague” be released on DVD. I have a couple of reviews of films that have DVD release dates coming up and a film that played at this year’s Fantasia festival over in Montreal, which I may get to this week or next at the latest, depends on my schedule. Enough with my plans, now on to the reviews.

The Ruins
Year: 2008
Director: Carter Smith
Stars: Jonathan Tucker. Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Studio: Dreamworks Pictures
Running Time: 96 Mins
Review Rating: 4 Stars




Finally, a major studio horror film that is not remake of a previous horror film, instead it’s based on a book of the same title.

The Ruins is about a group of college friends, who are on vacation and decide to visit the site of a Mayan ruin that has been left undisturbed. Once inside the ruin they find an ancient trap, where a mysterious entity waits to drag its victims into an endless abyss. Soon the group of friends are stuck on top of the ruins, when the locals surround it fearing that they’ve been infected. They soon begin to distrust one another, as their fears and paranoia begins to eat away their souls. Now to end this endless nightmare and escape, they must commit to something that is unthinkable. And oh by the way Ben Stiller (yes that Ben Stiller) co-executive produced this film.

Finally, there is hope that the major studios can make an effective horror film. After hating the last two major studio film that I reviewed with Funny Games and One Missed Call, I was glad that The Ruins didn’t fall into category of worst films. Instead, this film felt more like The Descent" with the caves and the fear that the characters were going through.

The Ruins is the bloodiest major studio horror film to come out this year, so far. This is a very good film, from first time feature film director, Carter Smith. He is a talent that you should be on the lookout for. He does a great job directing this film especially with the action scenes. He makes sure that the action is intense and suspenseful, so that you really feel for the characters and the situation that they’re in. Smith also is very good with directing his actors. He makes sure that his actors act all frightened and intense. It also helped with the actor’s performances, as the chemistry with each other were very good.

Scott Smith, who was also the author of the book, which this film was based on, wrote the screenplay here. I thought that this was one of the film’s strengths. He does a very good job with his character development. Scott Smith develops the story by mostly focusing on the psychological aspects of the characters that were trapped on top of the ruins. It works well here, as this could have been, just a boring killer plant film. He does that, so that the frightening aspects work well within the film. Also, he does a great job creating tension among the characters in his screenplay. The tension works, as the film doesn’t come off as a killer plant film, but a suspenseful and intense psychological/ horror film. Scott Smith also times the scares very well, as there were a couple of them that made me jump.

The Ruins a very intense killer plant film that builds tension till the final moments of the film.

Women’s Studies
Year: 2008
Directors: Lonnie Martin
Stars: Cindy Marie Martin, Tara Greenwood, Judith O’ Dea
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Ningen Manga Productions
Running Time: 103 Mins
Review Rating: 2 Stars
Official Website http://www.womensstudiesmovie.com/


Women Studies is about a pregnant woman named Mary who is heading back to school with a couple of her friends. Along the way, their car gets stolen. Soon, they meet a group of female students, who offer them to take them back to their dorm, until they can find their car. Mary and her friends discover that the dorm that they were taken to, is part of a girl’s only school. Soon the woman starts to find that the school is hiding a dark secret, as the girls in the school are part of a cult that’s obsessed in killing men. Now, Mary must make a choice, Join them or fight them.

This is one of those films that looked good on paper, as I was looking forward to seeing this film, since seeing the film’s trailer. This had all the making of a good horror film. Good characters, good actors but the major problem with this film was the fact that it had no identity.

Women’s Studies is a film that could have been an effective horror film but it had an identity crises, along the way. Director, Lonnie Martin’s direction was not bad considering the script he written. The only thing that makes this film watchable is the performances here. Lonnie Martin does a good job directing his mostly female cast. He made sure that the chemistry between each of the actors was lively. He also gets good performances from his female leads, as they were entertaining and kept me interested, even though the film’s screenplay wasn’t that great.

Lonnie Martin’s screenplay was one that was not that great. It had a lot of holes. First, all the characters and some of the plot lines felt clichéd. I was going into this film thinking that somehow the characters would be strong; instead they felt like they came out of your average horror film. Some of the scenes in the film also, felt like scenes that you see in your typical horror film, as they were predictable. Finally, the premise of the film had an identity crises in which type of horror, it wanted to be. I didn’t know if this film was supposed to a weird horror film, a slasher film, an occult film or a grindhouse film. It was confusing, as their was no central theme to what the film was trying to a accomplish. It was very distracting as it took away whatever goodwill this film had.

Women’s Studies excels in the acting department while failing in the writing department.

Don’t forget that you can read my reviews of Poison Sweethearts at http://www.filmarcade.net/2008/07/direct-to-dvd-poison-sweethearts.html , Hellboy 2: the Golden Army at http://www.filmarcade.net/2008/07/hellboy-2-golden-army-review-written-by.html ,and my interview with Roger G Scheck, director of “Nobody Loves Alice” at http://www.filmarcade.net/2008/07/10-questions-with-roger-scheck.html

If you’re a filmmaker and interested in having your horror film reviewed in the horror chamber, you can reach the Chamber Keeper himself at horrorchamber@filmarcade.net or if you have any film in any genres that you want Film Arcade to review. Send us an email at screeners@filmarcade.net.

Also, don’t forget to add the official myspace home of Reviews From the Horror Chamber at http://www.myspace.com/reviewsfromthehorchamber,. You can also leave coments and email me there with your thought on this column.

Next Week, I will be back with an all-new edition of Reviews From the Horror Chamber, where I’ll review a couple of recent releases from Lionsgate including “Trapped Ashes”.

Until then, have a frightening day.