THE RUINS

[Torgo]

*** out of ****   (unrated version).

The Ruins actually turned out be a surprisingly effective, gruesome and grim little horror movie.  I haven't read the novel that it's based on (the author also penned A Simple Plan which was made into a movie by Sam Raimi).  But the same author of the novel also adapted The Ruins into movie form so I guess that much of what made the novel a best seller was kept in the actual movie adaptation.

The simple and borderline threadbare plot involves two American early 20's couples on vacation in Mexico who have one day left before flying back to the states.  One of them named Jeff has heard of some mysterious Mayan ruins that aren't even located on current maps and an old map has to be consulted to find them.  Another tourist (who is not American) winds up befriending them and he says that his brother and his girlfriend went to the Ruins the day before and hadn't returned yet. When he finds out the Americans are going to go to the Ruins, he asks to tag along to see what's keeping his brothers.  One of his Greek friends also comes along who is at the hotel with him as well.

I don't want to say anymore about the plot but just to say that involves them getting trapped at the top of a Mayan pyramid by some natives who won't let them go freely once they set foot on the ancient ruins.    They also hear the tag along friend's missing brother's cell phone ringing incessantly at the bottom of a deep well leading into the ruins.......   

What follows is almost more psychological horror at times instead of straight ahead horror and the movie has a few scenes that are almost unbearable to watch due to the gruesome nature of what's going on.  The movie is more gory than it is violent at times but what causes the gore to happen  is some pretty strong stuff.  Probably more so in this unrated DVD version as I never caught the R rated theatrical cut during its brief run.

What keeps this movie from getting a higher rating for me is that I actually feel that the movie is too brief at just 93 minutes with credits.  Maybe another half hour to really allow the viewer to get even more into the psychotic states that each person finds themselves in. 

Also, the unrated version ending, while appropriately bleak (which is also not as upbeat at the theatrical ending was which is also listed as an extra on the DVD) feels like it needs to go on a bit longer than it.  In fact, the entire 3rd act feels too rushed and truncated though it still is effective.

I'm going to have to check out the novel at some point.  But this was still a very enjoyable little horror film that people wanting to see something different should check out.

[akiratubo]

The novel isn't very good.  It's just a bunch of late teens/early twenty-somethings arguing about how to survive.  Every so often, one of them gets killed.  It's all pretty pointless, though I think that was actually part of the point.

It's funny; when I was reading it, I was thinking, "Reading this is like watching a s**tty movie."  Then I saw the trailers for the movie.

[Jack]

Sounds like an interesting movie, I'll have it check it out sometime.  I love movies about ancient discoveries and ancient evil Mwa-ha-ha-ha

[indianasmith]

Almost rented this one yesterday.  Sounds like time for a Hastings run!

[frank]

Like akiratobu, I didn't like the novel. In fact, it is one of the few I didn't finish. If I remember correctly, I was more annoyed by style than by the story. Although the "chilling factor" was pretty low to me. Having read about the movie i might have enjoyed the end somewhat, as it is a bit unusual.

[AndyC]

I tend to agree that maybe the movie was too short. Some good ideas, but I never really got invested in the story or any of the characters.

One thing I found really interesting is that once these people figured out why they were not being allowed to leave the ruin, they pretty much ignored it and continued trying to escape without giving the consequences a second thought. Says something about human behaviour.

[Dennis]

I read the novel, I think the point was to show how people react to facing what turns out to be a pretty gruesome death. Even though I found the novel depressing, it was so horrifying in a very primal way that I couldn't put it down.
I know it sounds strange but I'm hoping the film has the same effect on me.

[John Randal]

I think this movie looked okay but from the preview it seemed to be like another mediocre generic horror movie that we have been seeing way too much of.  They need to get out of the cliche of using teenagers or young adults. 

I would like to see a horror movie with old people.  I mean think about it.  Most people that are in their 60s now were teens in the 1960s so it would be cool to see some old hipsters get chased by some killer.

[indianasmith]

I got around to watching this one last night and it was AWESOME!!!  I have seen a lot of gore/horror films, but the amputation sequence made me cringe.  And the idea of the killer - the big danger - being what it was instead of something more common and standard in such films was a nice twist.  I like originality.

[Dennis]

I've put this on my Netflix queue, I think it's one movie I'll just have to watch, while reading the novel I was anticipating that the killer would be something along the lines of an ancient demon or alien monster.
When I first began to realize what it might be, and how it killed it's victims I was shocked. I can't think of too many worse ways to be killed, When I read I can picture the action in my mind's eye and Indiana is right, the scene or scenes of jungle surgery are quite gruesome.

[Bmeansgood]

I just watched it tonight and it was an okay movie. It has some good Fangoria moments, but it just didn't do much for me.  The plot was barely enough to support an hour long tv show like "fear itself" 

[Neville]

I think the movie was just OK. It did a lot of things well, such as trying a slower pace than usual, and keeping several key things open to interpretation (such as the whole attitude of the locals towards the ruins), but in the end the concept wasn't that attractive or scary.

At least the gore was higher than I expected, and well exploited, it was more ouch! than vomit inducing, and you could feel your skin itching after the most serious scenes.   

[skuts]

Hadn't any of these people ever heard of Round-Up?

[The Burgomaster]

I bought this DVD over the weekend without knowing anything about it.  It's one of the most disappointing movies I've seen in a long time.  Hard not to laugh during most of the vine-attack scenes . . .

[CheezeFlixz]

Every time I'm in the video store I look at this one ... but for some reason I never get it. I think I believe it's either going to be great or it's going to be a cliche slasher flick that looks like every other slasher flick I've been burned on, so I skip it.

Guess I need to give it a chance.