The Ruins opened on Friday like most horror films, with a single, late Thursday night "promo" screening, to which the press was gamely invited in full knowledge that it would be too late for review, even for any reasonable web deadline. What's different about The Ruins is that it's not a remake or even a copy of any horror film of recent years. We're talking first-class material, adapted from a novel by Scott B. Smith, who wrote both the mesmerizing 1993 book A Simple Plan as well as Sam Raimi's masterful 1998 film of the same name. It's a terrific airplane novel, surprising and gripping, and Dreamworks could have made an outstanding film of it. But they threw it away, perhaps deliberately, hoping for some of that fast opening weekend green, and little caring about making something worthwhile or lasting (like A Simple Plan).

Vivica A. Fox (Independence Day, Kill Bill), an actress who certainly lives up to her name, has signed on to star in the true story Street. Fox will play the mentor to a sixteen year-old runaway girl named Lexi. Laura Ramsey (The Covenant, She's the Man, the upcoming adaptation of Scott Smith's The Ruins) will play Lexi, a young woman with a "troubled mother" and a "convict father." She runs away with "a boyfriend who ends up abusing her," and "she finds shelter and love with a drug-addicted street kid who teaches her how to survive in a tough Portland, Oregon neighborhood." Toby Hemingway of The Covenant will play the drug-addicted street kid. Rounding out the cast is Rachel Miner as Lexi's "caring sister," you might know her from Bully, The Black Dahlia, or more likely -- from her brief stint as Macaulay Culkin's wife.

I'm generally not a big fan of movies where gorgeous young teen actors try to earn some indie cred by playing homeless, prostitutes, drug addicts, etc. Hopefully this film will dig a little deeper than most in the "troubled teen" subgenre. York Shackleton (sounds like the name of a villain in an 80's teen comedy, no?) wrote and will direct the film. He based his script on the life of the film's co-producer, Kristen Jensen. Shackleton is a former professional snowboarder and actor who also wrote and directed Kush, about a young drug dealer torn between the money and a desire to leave the lifestyle. That film is vaguely scheduled for release in "2007." Shackleton's credits as an actor include I Know What You Did Last Winter (I could have sworn that series had ended, has anyone seen Winter?). Let me just recommend that Shackleton throw Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" over the end credits of Street. That'll add $10 million to the box office right there. Remember how great that video was?

Since February, I've been keeping you up-to-date on The Ruins, the latest adaptation by Scott B. Smith, the guy who wrote the novel and Oscar-nominated screenplay to A Simple Plan. Bugcrush man Carter Smith had signed on to direct, and last month, Black Donnelly star Jonathan Tucker was cast as Jeff. Now we've got the rest of the lovebird couples who stupidly think it's a good idea to follow a stranger into the jungle to find his missing brother. It's got all those thrilling aspects in place -- well meaning but stupid people, and a remote, nature location.

With principal photography beginning at the end of the month in Queensland, we've got the rest of the vacationing couples. Unfortunately, there's no word on who plays who, so you can pair the actors up for now as you see fit, and then see if you're right. There's Laura Ramsey, from Lords of Dogtown and The Covenant. Next comes Jena Malone, the Kevin Kline-kissing, Saved! pregnant Christian girl. Finally, there's none other than Shawn Ashmore, Mr. Iceman himself. It's not a bad cast -- an interesting collection of supporting actors -- although I prefer Malone much more when she's in a good comedy than in a serious piece. Then again, this is a deadly jungle thriller, so I'd say they're all up to the task. Are they enough to make you want to take a trip to The Ruins?

The Covenant revolves around a coven of hard-bodied Harry Potters in a Northeastern prep school. They are descendants of those famously accused witches of Salem, who were apparently the real deal after all. It's pointed out to us that these boys are actually more like witch-kids than witch-men, because they haven't yet reached a crucial birthday in the life of a male witch. At age 18, they will "ascend," which means they'll receive some kind of cosmic endorsement of their witchy virility and gain extra powers. They're already incapable of dying -- we see one of them smash his car head-on into a Mack truck, only to have the car and driver re-assemble in mid-air. But, horror of horrors, they can still grow old. The main witch, Caleb (Steven Strait) takes his new girlfriend Sarah (Laura Ramsey) to meet his father, a bedridden invalid who looks like Hugh Hefner after an hour in the tub. "He's 44 years old," Caleb whispers to Sarah, causing her to bite back a scream.

Age is a constant theme in The Covenant: The main characters discuss "turning 18" throughout the film, usually before or after one of the scenes in which they peel off their clothes and flex finely-chiseled abs. At times, I felt like I was watching a Barely Legal video. When one member of the coven turns 18 on the exact same day his disapproving-of-witchhood parents meet a grisly death, Caleb must figure out whether or not they have a poison apple in the bunch, and if so, how best to go about voting him out of the group. What results is a proudly mediocre mash-up of The Craft and Making the Band. It would all be straight-to-video flotsam if not for the strangely endearing quirks of director Renny Harlin, who's coming off a touch-and-go decade since he was forced to walk the plank over Cutthroat Island. Only Renny would include a scene where two witches are standing toe to toe, about to do battle, and one refers to the other as a "weeyatch."