The Ruins: Five Other Horror Adaptations We Want to See
by Tom Burns

If you’ve seen ads for the new "vacation from hell" horror movie The Ruins, you might be asking yourself, “Haven’t I already seen this movie? Wasn’t it called Turistas and wasn’t it pretty damn lame?” And that might be fair – if you’ve only seen some of the movie’s less-than-inspiring TV spots. But, in that case, the giant thing that you’re ignoring is that, unlike the weak Hostel-wannabe Turistas, The Ruins is based on a really great book. We mean, a really, really great book. Written by Scott Smith, a really, really great writer. Think we’re exaggerating? Well, a guy who knows a little something about horror named Stephen King had this to say about the novel: "The Ruins is going to be America's literary shock-show ... doing for vacations in Mexico what Jaws did for beach weekends on Long Island." Mr. King also has a nice quote that they’ve been touting on those Ruins TV ads in which he calls the book, "The best horror novel of the new century." Talk about high praise from someone who knows. So, despite the somewhat familiar premise of vacationers under siege, it’s easy to see why a book like The Ruins had its film adaptation frantically fast-tracked by Hollywood.

That got us thinking here at The Deadbolt about what other great works of horror literature (that haven’t already been turned into films or ABC mini-series) deserve really great movie adaptations. Most of the true horror movie classics – Frankenstein, The Shining, The Exorcist – originally come from some of the scariest books you’ve ever read, so here are our 5 choices for downright terrifying tales that could easily serve as the source material for some fantastic horror movies. (And, yes, we did pick a Stephen King book. The man is legion, for he is many. It’s impossible to resist him.)

BOOK: Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead

WHY IT WOULD MAKE AN AWESOME HORROR MOVIE:

Aside from the torture porn genre (which got castrated by Hostel 2’s limp box office), no other horror subgenre has seen a more recent upsurge than the zombie movie. And let’s be honest... a shocking number of them have been pretty darn good. Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Romero’s Diary of the Dead – who knew that 40 years after the original Night of the Living Dead that the undead hordes would be enjoying such big-screen success? And zombie enthusiasts have also witnessed a fantastic series of genre-expanding written works such as Max Brooks’ World War Z and David Wellington’s Monster Island (both of whom have movie adaptations on the way). However, zombies are also making a big splash in comic books, most notably, in the satirical Marvel Zombies series (“Hulk love brains!”) and Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead, our choice for the work of zombie fiction that’s just SCREAMING for a big Hollywood adaptation. Now, OK, we know what you’re thinking – there have been SO many zombie movies lately – why do we need another one? Aren’t we just pressing our luck?

And, while, yes, it IS pretty easy to screw up a zombie movie (looking at you, Resident Evil), Walking Dead is about so, so much more than just zombies. Kirkman's comic is all about the aftermath, how the trauma and tension of life during and after wartime can transform even the most normal of us into something akin to a monster. The plot follows Rick Grimes, a Kentucky police officer who was in a coma during the outbreak – a device lifted from 28 Days Later – and wakes up to find his world overrun by the undead. He eventually (and luckily) locates his wife and son and finds himself the de facto leader of small group of survivors. While this premise sounds like almost every other zombie movie ever made, Walking Dead is concerned with the long term. After the initial set-up, the zombies just become a background element, an always looming, though not particularly aggressive threat. The REAL story is about how this group of normal joes, who are constantly surrounded by dread and death, begin evolving (in both positive and negative ways) thanks to the oppressive atmosphere that’s ALWAYS surrounding them. The characters in Walking Dead are concerned with rebuilding families, planting crops, finding long-term safe lodging, love, jealousy, selfishness, death, creature comforts... the works. The zombies are there, but they’re a deus ex machina. Think of them like the asteroid that hit the earth and killed the dinosaurs, and Walking Dead is about the last dinosaurs after the impact, trying to move forward. Granted, because it’s a comic series, we don’t know how the story ends yet, but Kirkman has created enough drama and atmosphere in the 40 plus issues of Walking Dead to make one hell of a great zombie movie.

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