A near miss. Some bad dialogue and early pacing deflate the creepiness
Four young, attractive Americans are in Mexico for a few days of Spring Break-like laying around and drinking. They meet a young, attractive German guy who encourages them to go with him to visit a Mayan ruin that is off the tourist radar. You see, his brother, an archeologist, has gone there with his girlfriend...otherwise they'd have the place to themselves. The Americans, in a nod towards soaking up some history & culture, accompany their new friend to the ruin, which is nothing more than a modest sized Mayan pyramid, fairly well covered in some sort of vine with red flowers. Along the way, they pick up a young Greek man, also on his way to the ruin.

They arrive and are suddenly surrounded by some natives, who speak Mayan, not Spanish, and their threatening gestures drive the 6 tourists up the pyramid and into the foliage. This, based on the reaction of the natives, is REALLY BAD. In fact, after touching a plant, the Greek man tries to leave, and is promptly killed by the natives. So our remaining "heroes" find they are kinda stuck at the top of the pyramid. Cell phones don't get signals, the natives are vigilant and vicious and there is no sign of the German archeologist and his girlfriend.

This is the setup for the laughable yet somehow insidiously creepy THE RUINS. I've never read the book, so cannot judge it's faithfulness to the source material. I can't imagine it's all that important.

As you might guess (or seen from the trailers), all is not well at this pyramid. The seemingly harmless vines actually have fairly malevolent powers, and the 5 tourists have a pretty miserable, scary time of it.

I hesitate to tell you more of the plot. This film isn't terrifically gory, nor are the effects even terribly convincing. But as time wears on and the humans become more desperate to escape...the movie begins to become effective despite itself. There is just something inherently creepy in what happens. The idea of things literally getting under your skin is just a little too cringe-worthy to simply be laughed off.

It's a very simple, direct story that could have been readily told in 20 minutes less time...but the writers REALLY stretched to get us to 90 minutes. The opening 15 minutes or so establishes the dynamics between the lead characters, and this portion is DEADLY dull. We know it's obligatory...but I couldn't help thinking about the far superior THE DESCENT, which took about 6 minutes to establish its characters. Yes, it did it in a fairly clichéd manner, but at least it got it over with in a hurry. THE RUINS seems to take forever to get going.

The acting is spotty too. Best known, and least successful is Jena Malone, who seems like the person you'd least want to take on spring break with you. Whiny and high-maintenance...she does little to win our sympathy, particularly when she gets drunk and we see how poorly she behaves with her inhibitions down.. Far better is relative unknown Laura Ramsey, who endures some of the greatest hardships and is most successful at translating her fear right to the audience. Jonathan Tucker ("The Black Donnellys") is okay as Malone's boyfriend...he is at least suitably annoyed at her through most of the film. Joe Anderson (ACROSS THE UNIVERSE) is Mathias, their new German friend, and he lays on a thick accent, a little more that is very convincing.

But we all know we watch these kinds of movies for the thrills and chills. I wouldn't say it delivers many thrills, but there are a decent number of chills, if you have the patience to wait for them.

I am literally completely on the fence about recommending this movie. If you like the kind of film I've described, check it out. If you normally shy from the genre...this is NOT the film to change your mind.

A bit predictable
This film could have capitalised more on its exotic and mysterious atmosphere, but instead, focuses too much on gore and ultra-predictable plots. I also noticed that the cover of the dvd looks a lot like "The Descent."

What ruined "The Ruins" for me was the plot about the evil vegetation. Something straight out of a B Horror film, and I wasn't expecting a B Horror film. I knew it was a low-budget film, but wasn't there something else that could have been done with the plot? And there was way, way too much focus on gore. This isn't what horror films are supposed to about -- don't even get me started on the "Saw" movies, which I refuse to watch.

There isn't much else I can say. This was a very predictable film and it wasn't very interesting. It's too bad, again, that most films set in remote and mysterious jungles never live up to their promise of delivering the visual and psychological impact that they seem to hype.

Addendum: After reading a few other reviews, I realised that this movie is based on a book, so I suppose the plot couldn't have been changed all that much, if at all. Still, this film just didn't do it for me.

Suspenseful Movie that Entertains
The plot and acting in this movie aren't that great, but what it lacks in story and polish it makes up for in suspense and entertainment value. I enjoy the genre (Wrong Turn, Turistas, etc) and if you are a fan of those movies then you will more than likely also enjoy "The Ruins". Works well for what it is and is worth a look.

A bad book gets worse
The film version of "The Ruins" is a classic example of "not as good as the book". Unfortunately, the book wasn't that great, either. By isolating the story in one small geographic area (really, just one "ruin"), writer Scott Smith increases the despair of his characters, but also limits where the narrative can go. The main antagonist lacks the sinister, deliberate quality that it had in the book, making it seem somewhat more incidental than the secondary antagonist(s). Without giving too much away, Smith never explains the theory of "why" they are trapped, as in the book, so it feels less satisfying. Ultimately, it gets the Hollywood treatment, with a different ending, the omission of a crucial character (his lines/actions are given to other members of an already large protagonistic cast), and a final feeling of "that's it?".

A bunch of vines that eats people...
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this movie and having not read the book I was surprised to find it to be pretty decent. It starts off just like an original horror movie but shift as you get further into it. The Ruins takes place in Mexico with four college-age kids (Tucker, Malone, Ashmore and Ramsy) and another guy (Anderson), the latter who takes them to a Mayan temple where his brother is working supposedly on a dig. When they get there, a bunch of angry Mexican-Myans attack them, they scurry up to the top of the temple, and are basically quarantined with a host of virulent, monster-type plants and vines, who in typical horror fashion kill them off one by one. That's the basic premise, anyway, and if you know that and have seen the trailer you probably took a guess whether this is up your alley.

The film really came through for me and I was pleased with the outcome. The cast was pretty respectable and I really came to love Stacy's (Laura Ramsey) character in the end. The characters did have their brainless moments at times, but were believable and you could tell they were desperate to get down there. The film has it's shocking moments and those come about halfway throughout the film. There was one scene that stood out and made me at awe.

On the downside of it all I would have loved more character development and transition scenes between the characters. I hear there was a bit more of character development scenes that were cut. Why? Next, I got a very different vibe from the trailer than the actual film. Finally, I'm sure this is the most talked about negative and that would be the ending. It felt rushed and quick. The truth is it could have been so much stronger of a film if it had more of a psychological ending. I was hoping for one thing to happen and something else ended up happening. That's my biggest disappointment for the film.

"The Ruins" do get quite gory and brutal as the teens get infected in various ways and start losing their minds. There's some nudity, too. The story does stay away from some clichés, like a fiery conclusion or the anorexic girl hero who saves everyone by beating the bad guys to death. Perhaps most surprising was the villain of the story aside from that it's a watchable flick.