An Inscrutable Malice: The Silencing of Humanity in The Ruins and The Happening

Abstract

In April and June of 2008, DreamWorks Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox each released a horror film that featured plants as the principal monster terrorizing humanity. While The Ruins and The Happening both received wide theatrical distribution, neither sold as many tickets as producers hoped, nor garnered much industry praise, although each earned more than its production cost. Critical and consumer response ranged from lukewarm (The Ruins) to vitriolic (The Happening). One film (The Ruins) vanished without much fanfare while the other (The Happening) distinguished itself as a once-promising auteur’s worst film, a major summer flop, and a potential cult classic. Because of these disappointing receptions, discussions about the nature of the monstrous plant remained muted, lost either in the absence of any cultural attention at all, or in a storm of criticism. Within a blockbuster era of cinema obsessed with calculating the odds of expensive productions versus record profits, the innovative idea that plants could act as a legitimate threat to humanity in popular horror film fizzled away, doomed by underwhelming box office performances.