The Ruins Movie Reviews

The Ruins

                                                   

The Ruins is a horror thriller movie released in 2008. This movie is written by (screenplay) Scott B. Smith and directed by Carter Smith. The plot of this film is adopted from the novel of the same name by Scott B. Smith. The leading characters of The Ruins are played by Jordan Patrick Smith, Jonathan Tucker, Shawn Ashmore, Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey and Joe Anderson.

In The Ruins, we see a group of friends visiting a Mayan ruin, where they fall victim to the strange nature there and start getting killed one by one.

A scene from the movie The Ruins

Plot:

The Ruins starts with two couples, enjoying their vacation in a resort in Mexico. They meet a German tourist in their resort, who offeres them to take part on a trip he was going, which will take them to an archaeological dig at a remote Mayan ruin. He said, his brother has gone there but has not returned yet, so he is going to look for him. He already has another companion for his trip, a Greek tourist from the same resort. The couples accept his offer.

They start at the fixed day and reach to place from where they take a ride in a truck to a dense jungle. None of their phones can’t find any signal except the German’s. Then they find a hidden path, which takes them to that ruin. A girl from the couples feels suspicious about why the path is hidden, but finally goes there for peer pressure. 

The archaeological site looks something like a pyramid where most of it is covered with some vines. As soon as they reach there, some local people come and threat them with guns and arrows. They start screaming at them, but none of the groups understand the other’s language. When the German gives his phone to the leader of the local group to show his brother’s photo and enquire about him, a misunderstanding gets created and the local people kill the Greek. Being scared, the couples and the German run to the top of the ruin. Surprisingly, the local people don’t follow them there, instead they keep waiting for them by keeping a distance from the ruin. They also set a camp there and bring more people.

At the top of the ruin, the tourist group decide to stay there till help comes. They assume, when neither them nor the Greek goes back to the hotel on the next day, the Greek’s friends will come to look for them following the map they left at the hotel. They are also hopeful that, from the hotel, there absence will be informed to the police and they will come to look for them. At the top, they find two tents and other camping instruments abandoned by any previous team. The German then finds the dead body of his brother. They also hear a ringtone coming from the bottom of the pyramid. Using a shaft set up by any previous team, the German starts to go inside the pyramid to get that phone and call for help. But he falls. Then one of the girls goes down and finds him paralyzed by breaking his bones. She also cuts her knees while climbing down. She then, with the help of the other girl who comes down and the boys who run the crane, brings the German out on the top.

They find that the German’s physical condition is not good, so they make a comfortable place for him. Meanwhile, a couple goes down to the ground to reason with the locals, but fail. Becoming frustrated, she throws some vine to a little boy and later on, the villagers kill that boy. The couples understand that there is something wrong with it and the villagers are scared of the vines.    

The next morning, after waking up, they find that the vines have grown on the wound of the German and one of the girls. They remove some part of those. The cell phone from the bottom of the shaft keeps ringing, so the two girls again go down the shaft. At the bottom of the mine, they find a dead body and a broken phone, and also find the fact that, the flowers of the vine are making the sound of the ringtone. The vines attack the girls and they finally manage to escape and come on top. The group then realizes that the vines are killing the people here and that’s why the local people don’t want them to come down from the ruin. The flowers also have the ability to mimic any sound they hear. They also realize that they have no other option than to wait for help to arrive.

The German’s condition gets worse and finally, one from the group decides to cut off his legs so save his life. After some arguing, all of them agree to it and then they do it together. The legs are then taken by the veins. Staying in a situation like this, they start to lose control over themselves. One girl, who was infected by the vines, hears something and starts fighting with her boyfriend. Later, when she finds out that she has several plants inside her body, starts to cut herself to get rid of it. She then stabs her boyfriend who tries to save her. Finally, there is only a couple left alive and one of them gets ready to make a sacrifice to save the other.

My reviews about The Ruins:

First of all, The Ruins is a rare horror movie which I liked.

The plot of The Ruins is good and interesting. The ending is not like something which we are used to see regularly in horror films. It was not easy to predict the ending and the ending leaves the probation for the continuation of this movie. But not only the ending, the director has succeed to keep the suspense up throughout the movie. For more than half of the time in The Ruins  it will keep you wondering about what is actually happening here. What the local people want, who is responsible for the dead bodies, the mystery about the ringtone are something which will keep you wondering until the answers are shown.

The acting of most of the characters in The Ruins are good. I only felt Jonathan Tucker’s acting lacked some facial expressions. Everyone else has done a good job. The dialogues and the make ups also seemed completely fine. Screenplay is also good without any doubt.

The special effects of The Ruins are praiseworthy. The director has successfully kept the use of special effects to a minimum level which matched perfectly with the movie. None of the movements of the vines, or nothing else looked funny or overdo of special effects. This has specially increased the quality of this film.

The only thing I didn’t like in The Ruins is the scene where they cut the legs off the German. The scene was unnecessary graphic, which didn’t match with the whole movie. This level of graphic scene was not needed at all in this movie to make a sense. To me, this single thing has taken the grade of The Ruins a few steps down.

For a small nude scene at the beginning of The Ruins and for some graphic scenes, this one is not suitable for kids.

If you have read the novel, then can’t predict the ending of this movie from that. Although the main plot and name of the characters are same in The Ruins as the novel, but the characters’ actions are different. The ending is also completely different from that of the novel. And about ending, according to Wikipedia, The Ruins is released with three different endings and I’ve watched the one which ends with the car.

So overall, I didn’t expect The Ruins to be any good but it surprised me. With a plot this peculiar, it is hard to make a horror thriller movie, but the director has succeeded in that tough job. I’ll recommend The Ruins to all horror movie fans.

How did you like The Ruins? Share in comments.

To know more:

IMDB link: The Ruins IMDB

Wikipedia Link: The Ruins IMDB

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