Rental Review: The Ruins!

The Ruins

Written By Steve

Score: 7/10 (Entertaining!)

Bottom Line: Spend Your Money

To-The-Point: Slow-building and packed with plenty of horrifying moments, The Ruins is an intense film that dodges most of the mistakes that modern horror films fall victim to, but still fails to fully take advantage of its unique premise. Although the opening and closing segments were typical and unsatisfying, the second act escalates quickly with solid acting, tense sound design, and a building sense of dread that delivers a creepiness mostly unseen in today's horror films.

Complete Truth: When I stated in my review of The Mist that horror films were going to gradually embrace a return to character-driven stories that revolved around creatures or the supernatural, The Ruins is exactly what I had in mind. With sadistic, cruel horror movies focusing on torture clogging up cinemas, audiences are craving a return to fantastical terror that gleeful allows moviegoers to be scared and have fun at the same time. The Ruins manages to bridge the gap between grim torture-porn such as Hostel and campy supernatural romps like The Blob with a familiar premise intertwining cliches and genuinely unique ideas.

Before I hype The Ruins as if it's the horror movie equivalent of The Dark Knight, let me honest about the entire first act: it's what Safeway Select cola is to Pepsi - a generic and unfulfilling combination of ingredients that competitors have already established in a better format. After the requisite opening kill that generates about as much excitement as a senior citizen strip show, we're thrust into a tale of four college buddies that have traveled to Mexico for booze, adventure, and random boob shots. As our two couples lounge around posing for imaginary Abercrombie & Fitch advertisements, they're soon introduced to a foreigner that claims to have an inside scoop on a hidden set of ruins that would make Indiana Jones proud if he weren't busy taking refuge from nuclear explosions in refrigerators. Our group of heroes decide to make the unrealistic journey of walking miles upon miles to a remote set of stones covered in overgrowth despite the fact that two people have already gone missing there. Of all the craziness in The Ruins, I find the hardest thing to believe is that four spoiled college kids are going out of their way the day before their flight to walk through the jungle for miles without their iPods, Segways, or pistols (they are Americans, after all).


"What do you see, Iceman?"

But once these naive twenty-somethings arrive at the titular ruins, the stakes are shockingly raised in an instant and everything you had predicted is suddenly tossed into a Magic Bullet as events become more frightening than a Friedberg-Seltzer movie marathon. Blood is shed and the five remaining members are trapped on the ruins between murderous Mayans on the outside and a growing evil lurking on the inside. What follows is a perfect balance of thrills and tension as a sense of impending doom overtakes the film and threatens viewers with a feeling of hopelessness. Even if you read the novel, prepare to be shocked as author Scott B. Smith has thrown in a few curveballs to keep you guessing.

With surprisingly solid acting, beautiful cinematography/directing, and strong sound design, The Ruins elevates the typical premise into frightening and entertaining territory. Since the events are taken quite seriously, there is no escape to alleviate the tension with a cheesy moment or cheap nervous laugh. There isn't an overabundance of brutal gore, as true suspense is generated from what you cannot see, but the bloodshed that is shown throughout is effective in creating shocking moments that truly relay the horrific situation these characters have fallen into. As the mystery is slowly revealed and specific moments make you scared to even answer your cell phone after the movie is over, you've realized that you haven't blinked in an hour and your leg won't stop nervously twitching. Although the ending is somewhat of a disappointment and lacks the necessary punch to create a memorable classic, you won't soon be forgetting your trip to The Ruins.

Side Note: What makes The Ruins even more astonishing is that one of the executive producers is none other than Ben Stiller!

The Ruins, a Dreamworks SKG release, Rated R for strong violence and gruesome images, language, some sexuality and nudity.

Total running time is 91 minutes.

Starring Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey, and Joe Anderson. Based on the novel by Scott B. Smith. Written by Scott B. Smith. Directed by Carter Smith.