This article has spoilers, the word "ending" in the headline should give that away. If you haven't seen the movie, but plan to, you may not want to read this article. That said, let's soldier on.

Cinematical has an article up asking why studios aren't screening horror films for press. Paramount's latest release The Ruins spawned the article, but that question seems to be a bit overdone after all the complaining that has been going on since studios have now decided to hide certain films. It's a "who cares" issue for me. However, a comment from one of Cinematical's readers caught my attention with regards to The Ruins.

It goes as follows:

I hope the studio was so ashamed of the "happy" ending they had hammered onto what was otherwise a servicable if disappointing rendition of a pretty good novel. I can only imagine the author's reaction when the suits made him let the pretty brunette just RUN AWAY for God's sake. Despicable! But by then it was so obvious that they weren't going to get anywhere near the money they needed to do real justice to the novel's true creepiness, I bet he just said "Fine. Whatever. Let's just get this out there and over with." A sad little fable of disappointment and failure. Too bad. I was actually looking forward to this.

Yes, Jena Malone's character gets away while her three friends and German and Greek counterparts all die. However, I looked at the ending a little differently. Please understand, I have not read the book, so while the film ending may be different from the book (and I am sure, as always, the book is better) I still think it holds some downer possibilities.

The whole reason the locals didn't want the people that came in contact with the plant that occupied the ancient ruins to live or leave the place was because they believed they were instantly "infected". They believed they would then infect those that came into contact with them. The locals didn't want it spreading beyond the ruins, thus why they shot the little boy just for being hit by the vine.

As you watch it seems the plant made its way into the blood stream via cuts and abrasions. However, I think there is more to the spread of the plant than just open wounds.

The filmmakers showed how the plant was starting to grow on the people proving there may be more than just the cut and abrasion form of "viral" spread. This fact alone is what makes me think the ending of the film is actually quite dark. Yes, Jena Malone escaped, but she took a killer vine with her and now the possibility of global infection is entirely possible. That's how I saw it…

However, if we really wanted to pick some nits with this flick, one could ask why the locals didn't just torch the shit out of the vine. No matter how you look at it it is still just a plant… burn the fucker would have been my solution.

Related post categories: Editorials, Features : The Ruins

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