Don't Feed the Plants

Caught The Ruins tonight. Scott B. Smith does a smart adaptation of his own novel, which I thought was great.

I was surprised at the amount of gore they managed to retain, especially considering it's a big studio movie. It's a bit relentless and humorless—and as such I can see how some critics turned up their noses to it...

But I also think it's prejudiced snobbery. Many critics are just predisposed to laying the hate on horror movies. And to be fair, there are a lot of bad horror movies out there worthy of hate-laying.

That said, it's a tricky genre and you've got to appreciate a piece of work that plays with the conventions.