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

Click here for the film review