Horror Actressing: Jena Malone in "The Ruins"
Tuesday, September 8, 2020 at 6:41PM by Jason Adams
I've talked a lot in my "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" series about the ritualized magic that can be summoned on-screen when an actor can get across genuine fear to an audience, but I've talked less about that emotion's trickier parasitic twin -- when an actress is called upon to display weakness. Fear in the context of a horror movie is acceptable -- we show up to these films to live through our fears vicariously; to ride on the Final Girl's coattails through the thorny weeds of nighttime terrors and to triumph over them, standing tall in the dawn.
But weakness, weakness is a slap in the face. A character that makes the wrong decisions over and over again, one who doesn't seem capable in the moment of learning from them, well who wants to watch that? These characters make us angry, sometimes viscerally so -- think of the long standing sneers that've met Shelley Duvall's Wendy Torrance in The Shining or Judith O'Dea's Barbra in Night of the Living Dead. Queens the both, and yet their trembling lips and wet noses inspire such vitriol from so many. Well you can and should definitely add to the whimpering, simpering heap of queens Jena Malone's Amy in Carter Smith's 2008 "When Plants Attack!" film The Ruins.
Amy just can't seem to catch a break...
When we first meet our doomed foursome -- which also includes Amy's best friend Stacy (Laura Ramsey) and their respective boyfriends Jeff (Jonathan Tucker) and Eric (Shawn Ashmore) -- they're partying and partying hard at a Mexican resort on the brink of Jeff leaving for Med School a thousand miles from home. Stacy makes excuses for Amy's out-of-control drunkenness in that she's distraught over Jeff leaving, but even with that on our mind Amy continually makes it hard for us to root for her. She chugs margaritas made with questionably-sourced local ice; she refuses to put on suntan lotion while laying in the sun even though she's quite plainly turning beet red. It's more understandable that she would try to make out with the German tourist Mathias they've just met hours earlier since he's played by a dreamily-lensed Joe Anderson, but still -- not cool, Amy. That's Jonathan Tucker and his four-dimensional abs that you're cheating on!
I remember in 2008 the character of Amy coming from Jena Malone in particular being itself a shock to the system, coming as it did after she'd cemented herself in my head as the smart alterna-girl of movies like Donnie Darko, Saved!, and The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys -- Jena Malone always knew what was up and she was a little cynical about it. She was our lightly goth Dakota Fanning. I hadn't yet seen her embody a flighty party girl like this, and Malone succeeds in scrubbing all of her edginess away -- her voice is a full register higher, her movements lackadaisical, clumsy; you get the feeling that Amy's knocked over a lot of vases in her life and laughed (not meanly, but thoughtlessly for sure) while somebody else cleaned it up.
And across the course of The Ruins Amy does just that, over and over -- she's the one who first steps into the accursed foliage that gets them trapped on the ancient ruins of the film's title; she's the one who throws some of the plant at a little boy resulting in getting him a bullet in the head. Along with Stacy they together make the critically dumb and selfish decision to yoink a broken-backed Mathias onto a homemade stretcher levitating a few feet off the ground, thunderously twisting his spine in the process. (My god the sound design in this movie relishes the snap-crackle-pop of these horrific moments.)
And yet Amy succeeds in ways none of her more thoughtful and considerate peers can. Which is to say, spoiler alert, this self-involved young woman indeed turns out to be our Final Girl, only surviving through the pluck slash ruination of all of the others who sacrifice for her, knowingly or not, each and all falling summarily by the wayside as she alone gets to ride off into the sunset, a dozen once-beautifully-chiseled young people picked skeleton clean in her wake. Amy, smeared in their blood, doesn't seem to have a mark on her. Of course she doesn't. Amy never does.
But Amy's escape into the outer world is clearly intended to be the film's inverse and rebuke of a "happy ending" -- the film's finale is a direct echo of Sarah's escape at the end of The Descent three years earlier, only Amy here has got a car-load of invisible crawlers tagging along with her back towards paradise. They were, as Amy herself stated at the film's midpoint, being "quarantined" there on those ruins, and her freedom presumably spells plant-based apocalypse for the rest of us -- Amy, a carrier, is bringing home the ruins for us all. And who better for it than the girl by the swimming pool who refuses to put on some damn suntan lotion? (Or a damn mask, for that matter?) It'll totally be this girl who ends up killing us all.
Reader Comments (14)
The Sound effects and Malone made the movie for me,a great little creeper.
I remember walking out of the theater at the end of this movie with the distinct feeling that I might have been the only one who enjoyed it. That was certainly the case within my group of friends. Haven't watched it in a while, but I really loved what Malone was doing in it. I'm probably even more in the minority with this next statement, but I love her in The Neon Demon too!
It is a fun little gem and proof of why Jena Malone continuously remains one of the great actresses working today (though infrequently right now due to being a single mom to a 4-year old) as well as someone who is often overlooked. We go on and on about all of these young starlets who get all of these magazine covers, being in awards show, and all of that but none of them hold a candle to what Malone does as an actress. I'm still wondering why she has yet to do a film with the likes of Scarlett Johansson in a supporting role as it's obvious that those 2 together would be like Pacino-De Niro circa Heat. Plus, Malone is one-day older than Johansson.
thefilmjunkie -- I guess I keep myself cloistered because I didn't know people didn't like her in The Neon Demon; then again I stopped paying attention to what people thought of that movie rather quickly though since I thought it brilliant and it was obvious fast that a lot of people didn't. Have you watched Refn's Amazon series Too Old To Die Young? I thought she was even better in that -- there's this dance sequence involving her that is just pure bliss. They clearly vibe really well (her and NWR) and I hope they work together for a long time.
thevoid99 -- agree on all counts. Malone remains tremendously underrated, and is almost always the best part of whatever she does. I didn't mention it in the piece but this write-up was inspired by Antebellum, the horror movie out next week, of which what I just said is by far the case. It made me real happy to see her again, since I hadn't since the Refn series.
I hadn't seen The Ruins in years and re-watching it this week re-confirmed for me that it's a really solidly unsettling film, and shouldn't be forgotten. I'm an easy mark when it comes to body horror but this movie (pardon the obviousness) really gets under my skin.
I loved the book but have yet to see the movie.
Years later and I still can't bring myself to watch this movie - been very curious, but something about vegetal body horror just freaks me out too much. I blame that one "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle" book with the radishes.
This is very disturbing movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ9G3PlxGgs
Alternate ending, which I prefer.
Jena Malone is great, best thing in Hunger Games, but I gotta give a plug to Jonathan Tucker who is ALWAYS great. Kingdom (Netflix) is a criminally underrated show, and he is nothing short of perfect in it. His scened with Joanna Going, who plays his mom, are heartbreaking.
Oh yeah, love The Ruins, it's a great little nightmare and Malone is terrific in it.
The book is a real page-turner as well, and while the movie is pretty faithful some of the characters' outcomes are changed.
Anyway, Malone remains a highly underrated actress and I don't know why. I've never seen her being less than excellent in anything.
I haven’t seen this but I think it’s worth pointing out in the book that not only does no one survive but Amy is actually the secondary female lead and in no way is the final girl.
The book is a terrific page turner, and so was the movie. And it's got some REALLY gross ways to die, /shout out to Jason's Series.
See "Bastard Out of Carolina" for another great Jena performance.
I did read the book right before the movie came out and loved it, but haven't touched it since, which is why I didn't mention the book -- I remembered things being different but not how exactly. You're all jogging my memory though. I should dig up my copy and give it another go
I didn't love The Ruins as a film, but I really enjoyed Malone's performance. It's a very different arc for a survivor girl and she played it well.
I loved this movie. She and Laura Ramsay killed it. The book is even better