I read the book a while back, and loved it to pieces. I'd still consider it the best book I've read in the last year, and it easily makes my top 5 horror novels of all time. I can't say anything of the like for the film adaptation, but I do think it's made well enough to be worthwhile for horror fans. The film gets most of the events right, in the right order, although some of them happen to alternate characters. But without being able to go into the characters minds, the film suffers. The mental anguish they go through in the book, is what makes it so terrific.

I don't think it's any secret who or what the villain in this story is now, it's right there on the poster, so I'll just go ahead and talk about it. I wasn't sure they would be able to make killer vines scary, it's a pretty ridiculous idea, even for a a book, but the filmmakers managed to pull it off. They do the smart thing and keep them in the dark for the first act, but this is the rare horror film that takes place mostly during the day. The thing that makes the vines so scary is that they have infinite time and patience. They wait until the victim is asleep or incapacitated to attack. The way they crawl right into the flesh, through the smallest of cuts, feeding on you from the inside out, is a wonderfully creepy idea.

Four young friends are vacationing in Mexico, they befriend a young German man, whose brother has disappeared in the jungle, looking for some ruins with a girl. Hoping for a bit of adventure before heading back to school, the friends follow the German to the ruins. A group of locals try to scare them away from the site, but once one of the girls has touched the vines, they're forced to stay at gunpoint. Unable to leave and unable to find the others who came before them, they're forced to just wait it out, while they slowly discover why there are only bones left and why they can only wait around to die. Things get worse, when the German falls down a shaft, becoming paralyzed from the waste down. The scene where the two guys try to amputate his legs with a rock, is the best scene in the film, and one of the most gruesome scenes in recent memory.



The film has much better acting than your typical teen-horror film, they're really able to sell the pure terror of the situation. Jena Malone, who is one of the best young actresses around, I've been following her career since she played a young Jodie Foster in Contact, stars as Amy. Jonathon Tucker is good as Jeff, a pre-med student, who fancies himself as the only one who can get them out of this horrific situation. Laura Ramsey, who I don't remember in anything before this, gets the toughest role of Stacy, she goes through the most torture in the group. Shawn Ashmore, who I only just realized played Iceman in the X-Men, is fine as Eric, doesn't do anything special, but doesn't mess anything up either.

I think this is the only time I'll ever make the recommendation to read the book before seeing the film, so you can bring the character's thoughts to the actions that go on around them. I was able to enjoy the film on a whole other level, thinking about their internal tortures, while having their external ones visualized for me. Without reading the book, the movie lacks something, it's mainly violence for violence sake, but it's so well done that I can recommend it even without the full story. Film grade without reading the book: Grade C - With the book: Grade B (Seen on 7/13/08)

I'd heard this was the best horror novel of 2006, and been wanting to read it since; I finally got around to it and it was definitely worth the wait. This the probably the most intense book I've ever read, a real page-turner. Usually I read a chapter or two of a book a night before I go to sleep. But I couldn't stop thinking about this book while I was reading it, and did a rare thing, and read it during the day. Finishing it in a couple of days, instead of the usual couple of weeks.

The book is about a group of young adults trekking into the jungle to look for one of the guy's brother, whose been missing for a few days, following a girl to some remote ruins. Deep into the jungle they go, finding a small village whose residents try to scare them away. The group stumble across a small hill covered in beautiful foliage, surrounded by a clearing in the vegetation. Once they make a move towards the hill, the villagers turn from trying to chase them off, to forcing them to stay there.

They find some tents at the top of the hill, along with some other signs of recent activity, but they are unable to find any people. Things start to go from bad to horrible really quickly. People are badly injured, they've brought no supplies, the villagers threaten them with death if they try to leave and there is a mysterious force far worse than anything else they're faced with.

The book takes us inside each of the characters heads as they deal with their horrendous situation. Some of them are expecting to be rescued, some trying to figure their own way out, and some waiting around to die. I won't ruin what the mysterious force is if you haven't read the book, but I expect it to work for some people who are more willing to suspended their disbelief; but if you like realism, this isn't the book for you.

Of course a movie is already in the works. The first teaser trailer is below. I expect that they'll get the events mostly right, but without being able to see into the character's minds, the effect can't possibly be the same. I expect those who've read the book will enjoy the movie more, knowing what's going on in the characters head. The situation is enough to make a good horror film out of, if they do it right; it could be great or hokey, most likely somewhere in between. I hope it's half the film that A Simple Plan is, the movie based off of author's Scott Smith's first book.