Ruins (Blu-ray) (2008)

"Slick, sick stuff...  Empire
"...a lean, mean horror machine...Like Hostel, this is a flick that's irredeemably sick and designed only to freak you out...  Grady Hendrix, AMCTV.com
"...a handful of intense sequences and a few scenes of squirm-inducing gore...  Pete Vonder Haar, Film Threat
"The Ruins will make you scream, squirm, cringe and bite your nails.  Steve Prokopy, Ain't It Cool News
"A surprisingly effective little horror nightmare.  Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

Editor's Note Author Scott Smith adapts his own popular 2006 novel in this unsettling and surprising horror yarn. In its first half hour, THE RUINS seems to be cut from the same "body-count-of-young-Americans-abroad" cloth as HOSTEL and TURISTAS, but the film has a supernatural element not present in either of those works, keeping it clear of the overpopulated slasher and torture genres. A talented young cast also ensures that Smith's tale reaches the screen with plenty of genuine chills intact. While vacationing on the Yucatan Peninsula, 20-something Americans Jeff (Jonathan Tucker), Amy (Jena Malone), Eric (Shawn Ashmore), and Stacy (Laura Ramsey), befriend German traveler Mathias (Joe Anderson), who invites them to accompany him into the jungle to meet up with his archaeologist brother at an "off the map" Mayan temple. They agree, but once they arrive, angry locals shoot one of their party and refuse to allow them to leave. The Americans and Mathias retreat to the top of the temple, only to find the archaeological camp deserted. Mathias falls into the temple and is badly injured, but that is only the beginning of their troubles, as it soon becomes apparent that the vines covering the temple are alive in a way that goes beyond normal vegetation. It may be tempting to summarize THE RUINS by saying that it's about killer plants, but that would be undermining its strong points. The latter two thirds of the film play out like a very grim five-character stage play about survival, with large servings of death and desperation, without resorting to the fake scares that many horror films use as a crutch. The gore, while often quite nasty, is also necessary to the story, which takes on a heavy psychological component as the characters begin to fear for their lives.

	Shawn Ashmore
	Joe Anderson
	Laura Ramsey
	Jena Malone
	Jonathan Tucker
	Chris Bender - Producer
	Jeremy Kramer - Executive Producer
	Darius Khondji - Director of Photography
	Scott B. Smith - Screenwriter
	Stuart Cornfield - Producer
	Ben Stiller - Producer
	Graeme Revell - Composer
	Scott B. Smith - Source Writer
	Gary Barber - Executive Producer
	Trish Hofmann - Executive Producer
	Roger Birnbaum - Executive Producer
	Carter Smith - Director

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "THE RUINS plays on the post-9/11 fears of Americans abroad....[With] committed performances..." 11/01/2008 p.134

Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "[E]ffective in execution, relying less on jump scares than icky amateur surgery and self-harm....It will take root in your subconscious." 11/01/2008 p.185

Reel.com 8 of 10
Watch out, Martha Stewart! Not even your garden tools can stop the predators in The Ruins, a Hollywood adaptation of Scott Smith's novel. They aren't mummies, pharaohs, or cannibalistic tribesman, but killer flowers...No, this isn't a comedy like Little Shop of Horrors, but a shocking and disturbing experience that slaughters any comedic notions audiences may have after realizing they're watching a movie about killer flowers. Does the sight of a girl cutting herself open and pulling plants from her wounds make you cringe? Then prepare for one of the most unsettling horror films of the year...The Ruins should have further explored the psychological disintegration of the vacationers. With some big plot points unexplained, the movie never quite taps into its full potential. For instance, at one point the flowers "speak" to Stacy and convince her that Amy and Eric are having sex behind her back. Can the flowers read minds? The film could have revealed or developed plot points like this without taking away the mystery of the plants. The Ruins also could have allotted more time for the characters to turn on each other...Still, with One Missed Call, Shutter, and Prom Night delivering sell-out, watered down thrills, The Ruins is a breath of fresh air, and certainly not a horror movie that's easy to forget. - Blake French

ReelViews 8 of 10
The Ruins does what a good psychological horror movie should do: rely on tension rather than gore to achieve its aims. This bleak, edgy motion picture isn't concerned with appealing to the masses that flock to multiplexes to enjoy the spatterings of the latest serial slasher or the hollow weirdness of a PG-13 ghost story. Adapting from his own novel, Scott Smith stays true to the tone and intent, if not all the specifics, of the original story. The Ruins is about the dynamics that develop within a group of five as they face the inevitability of their own deaths at the top of a lost Mayan temple in the middle of a jungle...The Ruins is no more a life affirming movie than the book is a feel-good page-turner. Smith understands suspense, though. His novel A Simple Plan was the source material for the Sam Raimi thriller. Although The Ruins is unquestionably horror, as the central conceit confirms, it belongs to a shrinking sub-category of the genre: adult films more concerned with generating tension and promoting viewer unease than reveling in an orgy of unrelenting violence. In order to appreciate The Ruins, one has to be a die-hard fan of horror or bloody thrillers. Those in that category will discover that The Ruins delivers the goods. - James Berardinelli