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The Ruins | 
 enlarge | Director: Carter Smith
Studio: Paramount
Category: Movie
Buy New: $2.99
Rating:  87 reviews
Sales Rank: 674
Genre: Book Adaptations
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 91 Minutes
ASIN: B001DIAXA0
Release Date: November 20, 2008 (New: This Week)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 82 more reviews...
 The Ruins April 24, 2008
Michael Zuffa (Racine, WI United States)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Four friends on spring break in Mexico,; Jeff (Tucker), Amy (Malone), Stacy (Ramsey), and Eric (Ashmore); meet Mathias (Anderson) while lounging around the hotel pool. Mathias tells them of a pyramid that has just been discovered, and they all decide to go exploring. In the middle of nowhere, cut off from civilization, they find the temple. Once there, they are surrounded by the locals wo make it clear that they will kill them if they try to leave. They head up to the top of the pyramid with their meager supplies to figure out what to do, but soon find that the villagers below are the least of their problems.
"The Ruins" is a great horror story of survival. Death lurks on top of the pyramid for the characters, and is very much a character itself. The sense of having no way out permeates the film. Adapted by the author himself from the great novel, Scott Smith has rearranged the kills and story elements to keep everything fresh for the readers of the book. Despite that, the film is faithful to the spirit of his book. The cast effectively handles the mental deterioration that their characters endure. The film is tense and suspenseful and one of the better horror movies to come out in the last few years. I recommend this film.
Based on the fantastic novel by Scott Smith October 10, 2008
Schtinky (California)
Couples Amy and Jeff, and Stacy and Eric are vacationing in Mexico. By the pool they meet a German named Mathius, who says his brother Heinrich is missing and he's going to go look for him near some ruins. Mathius talks the couples into going with him. Heinrich left a map showing the location of the ruins, far off the tourist area of the Yucatan.
The next day the couples and Mathius set out, accompanied by Demitri, a Greek friend who doesn't speak English. After a bus, a taxi, and a hike through the jungle, they discover the ancient site. The ruins rise above the jungle floor, magnificent, and covered in blooming vines. Mayans race out of the jungle, shouting warnings in a language the tourists don't understand ... until Dimitri is shot for stepping into the vines. The Mayans chase the tourists onto the ruins and surround them, threatening to kill anyone who attempts to leave the cursed place. Now they are trapped, and must struggle to survive.
There's so much more that happens in the movie but you must watch it to find out what. The book by Scott Smith was fantastic, and since Smith also wrote the screenplay the story stays true to the book (except for a surprise altered ending). The movie has some very decent gore in it; gory cuttings, grisly amputations, and of course, a flesh-hungry vine. A fantastic enemy and a hopeless situation, along with gruesomely bloody scenes, save this movie from being just another typical "slice and dice" film. The actors are relatively unknown but do a very decent job of performing. The atmosphere is good and the scenery is realistic. You feel the struggle of the trapped tourists, and care about their plight. I'd recommend a purchase, but make sure to pick up the unrated edition. Enjoy!
Stacey, give me the knife July 14, 2008
erickufo (el paso, texas United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have to accept that I was not expecting a lot of this movie, so I kept my expectations low, for my surprise this movie really rocked, the special effects, the cast and acting where very good, not to mention the story itself! This part of Mexico has a beautiful natural environment except for the "vines". A movie worth watching with your friends over the weekend.
The Ultimate In 'Plant-Horror', And Surprisingly Believable July 30, 2008
Stephen B. O'Blenis (Nova Scotia, Canada)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A group of vacationers coming across a recently discovered ancient Mayan temple in the heart of the Mexican jungle is the basis for "The Ruins", in which long-dormant deadly plants are awakened and create the menace for what might turn out to be the best horror movie of the year. Killer plants have been used periodically in horror movies, sometimes successfully (the demonically-possessed woods in "The Evil Dead", for example), but more often not. What's more surprising than the success achieved in The Ruins is that the angle is played 'straight', with a seemingly non-supernatural origin and a level of believability that one probably wouldn't have predicted.
A group of two young couples at a Mexican resort meets and becomes friends with a German archaeologist (or it may have been an anthropologist, I can't remember) who's planning to embark the next day on a trek into the jungle to meet up with his brother and the brother's research partner, who've uncovered some old ruins. Looking to add something different to their vacation, the group joins up with their new friend and his guide and takes a jeep into the wild. At this point, no one in the party has any reason to suspect that the ruins are anything more than what they seem to be - an interesting find of ancient buildings out in the jungle. Upon arriving at their destination though, things soon change.
Once inside the clearing, they're surrounded by jungle-dwelling locals who seem terrified of the temple but who refuse to allow them to leave the clearing once they've entered it. Upon making their way into the ruins in search of the pair who was supposed to already be on-site but appear absent, the real horror begins. Something deep under the surface has awakened and is getting stronger after centuries of dormancy. The things this movie does with the plants and the ruins are just too good to give away in a write-up; suffice it to say that there are some freaky, seriously frightening things going on. Innovative, gorgeously photographed and emotionally powerful, with some cool sexy parts and occasional, highly effective moments of viciously gory carnage, it's a shame that this movie seemed to fly under a lot of people's radar. It's unquestionably one of 2008's best, and one of the year's best ensemble casts to boot. A definate horror must-see.
Realistic Gore September 7, 2008
Sci-Fi Fanatic (Geelong Australia)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I loved this Movie, mainly because it made my Family cringe with the realism of the fleshy special effects.
The storyline was believable although they should have better explained the reason for the vines existance, Blood from the year's of Human Sacrifice on the Pyramid!!! An all around enjoyable movie but not for the weak stomach or faint hearted. A+++
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