The Ruining

I bought this from the Troma Studio Store and got Actium Maximus: War of the Alien Dinosaurs as a free DVD screener, so I figured one of the movies is bound to be good. Now maybe the only reason I think The Ruining is decent is because it was far, far, FAR better than the horrible film Actium Maximus, or maybe The Ruining is just a decent horror film. Now yes, the film really doesn't make all that much sense, but I somehow found it to be fairly entertaining. The quality of the film is truly awful however, and in an introduction by Lloyd Kaufman, president of Troma Entertainment and the creator of the Toxic Avenger, he says how bad a lot of the footage was and how they tried to improve the quality, but it was bad. And that it was either no Ruining DVD, or a Ruining DVD with crappy quality. I guess you know which choice they chose. The first 20 minutes of the film has truly awful sound quality, and it looks like a 2 year old filmed it, but as the film goes on the quality improves and so does the film. It has some funny moments, like when a character shoots the truck and when a character is humping his best friend's wife. As the cover says, the "peanut butter scene" is pretty awesome and the best part of the film. Also, a young girl acting like a dog is kind of interesting...now, I am still not positive on the whole plot, like these people in this town are addicted to eggs or something. My advice, don't try to understand the film, just try to enjoy it, and don't watch with high expectations. It is not Toxic Avenger, but it is better than Actium Maximus and Psycho A Go-Go.

I've been a fan of Troma movies for quite some time, and usually enjoy their trashiness. But this one is not even a real movie. It has no coherent plot and literally seems to be an unfinished collection of random shots. The effects are horrible and the camera work appears to have been done by a bored toddler. There are random characters that just appear out of no where and just as soon take off. I honestly can not tell you what happened in the movie or who any of the characters were.

I rented this movie like many other Tromas expecting it to be bad and expecting to enjoy that badness, but it is just not possible to receive any enjoyment out of this movie. If you are of the same mindset as me, I beg you to please spare yourself!

Made over a period of no less than ten years under terrible circumstances and loaded with bad luck, this is one of the best horror films of the past decades. It has the intelligence of other recently made low-budget films and the atmosphere of the beautiful works we saw in the late seventies and early eighties. Due to a lot of rip-offs and other unforeseen bad luck (wonderfully explained in the extra's on the DVD) the only surviving print was the workprint, which wasn't in the best of shape, but weirdly enough the scratches and sometimes slightly incorrect colors only add to the atmosphere of this wonderful, shocking and entertaining piece of art. We can only thank Troma for deciding to give this masterpiece a release in spite of the technical imperfections rather that not releasing it at all. For anyone with an interest in the wonderful horror of decades ago and the sinister and disturbing look of serious terror this is one film not to miss!

This film was truly horrific. As a fan of Patrick Warburton, I "Netflix-ed" it without high expectations, but to describe this schlock as sub-par would be exceedingly generous. The film appears to be have been filmed entirely with a cheap video camera someone picked up at Target. Every scene is dark -- and I would guess not intentionally. The plot is missing in action. The effects are far from special, and the monsters are no more scary than your average sock-puppet.

And, sadly for Warburton fans, his screen time is minuscule.

If you are a horror fan, or a B-horror fan, I think you'll find this film rates an F. My advice: take the hour and a half you were considering spending on this movie and invest it elsewhere.

My score: 1 out of 10.

Really boring and pointless film that I really cant say anything good about. I got the DVD for like 3 bucks. Its a Troma film. The Troma extras on the DVD were far better than the actual film.