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The Ruins

(2008) Horror - Rated R

Directed by: Carter Smith

Starring: Jena Malone, Jonathan Tucker

Overview: Tourists fall prey to carnivorous vines ensnaring the ruins of an ancient Mayan temple.

RATINGS:

  • OVERVIEW
  • REVIEWS
  • USER COMMENTS (6)
  • CAST

  • The Ruins

    Tourists (Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey) fall prey to carnivorous vines ensnaring the ruins of an ancient Mayan temple.

    Reviews

    REELZ REVIEW
    "A quartet of Americans vacationing Mexico encounter a menace far worse than Montezuma's Revenge...."  [more]
    — Thomas Leupp

    User Comments and Video Reviews

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    • Karona

      04/12/08 01:30 PM
      The Ruins is your typical horror movie with young adults, who are led onto a rollercoaster of a psychological nightmare. However, fans of the genre will love that man is not the one always to be feared...nature sometimes takes a stab at exacting revenge! Just as the characters hope and die for, The Ruins will pull you in and leave you wishing for a way out. The lengths that the characters go through to survive or end their suffering are unbelievable, and the audience is right there with them to the very end! Scary!
      Review Rating: +2
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    • Thomas Leupp

      ReelzChannel.com, April 04, 2008


      A quartet of Americans vacationing Mexico encounter a menace far worse than Montezuma's Revenge.


      Ok folks, here's the scenario: You're vacationing in Mexico when a random You're going to a shady abandoned temple? Count me in!German guy approaches you out of nowhere, inviting you to join him on a tour of an abandoned, unsupervised archaeological dig located in a remote part of the jungle. What do you do? If you're the appropriately dim yet attractive protagonists of the new horror flick The Ruins, you jump at the chance, of course! And don't bother to heed the ominous warnings of the spooked natives, either. What do they know? They don't even speak English!


      To be fair, The Ruins is a far better flick than the above intro suggests. Based on the bestseller by A Simple Plan author Scott Smith and directed by newcomer Carter Smith, The Ruins takes the familiar nature-versus-man horror concept -- in this case, killer vines versus slow-witted college grads -- and executes it successfully. Smith's story is very much a slow burn, not revealing said killer vines until far into the movie, when the unfortunate kids He's not long for this worldbecome trapped in the Mayan temple and are forced to choose between death by ravenous plants or death by the angry indigenes who aren't too keen on the trespassing tourists.


      Those vines play a mean game of psychological warfare, too, messing with the characters' (and by extension, the audience's) heads until they're practically begging for death. In the end, most of the movie's gore is actually handed out by the characters, either on each other or themselves, while the sadistic flora are content to sit back and watch the grisly action.


      As one would expect from a horror flick, the performances aren't much to write home about, but they aren't so bad as to be distracting, either. Stars Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore and Laura Ramsey are generally convincing as boneheaded tourists, and most of the laughs elicited by their dialogue are of the intentional variety. What matters most in a horror flick, however, are the scares, and The Ruins delivers enough of them to qualify as a solid choice for fans of the genre.


      ReelzChannel Rating:  6


      Disagree? Let me know at tleupp@reelzchannel.com

    • Karona

      04/12/08 01:30 PM
      The Ruins is your typical horror movie with young adults, who are led onto a rollercoaster of a psychological nightmare. However, fans of the genre will love that man is not the one always to be feared...nature sometimes takes a stab at exacting revenge! Just as the characters hope and die for, The Ruins will pull you in and leave you wishing for a way out. The lengths that the characters go through to survive or end their suffering are unbelievable, and the audience is right there with them to the very end! Scary!
      Review Rating: +2
      Characters remaining:
      Submit Cancel

    • Karona

      04/12/08 01:28 PM
      The Ruins is your typical horror movie with young adults, who are led onto a rollercoaster of a psychological nightmare. However, fans of the genre will love that man is not the one always to be feared...nature sometimes takes a stab at exacting revenge! Just as the characters hope and die for, The Ruins will pull you in and leave you wishing for a way out. The lengths that the characters go through to survive or end their suffering are unbelievable, and the audience is right there with them to the very end! Scary!
      Review Rating: +1
      Characters remaining:
      Submit Cancel

    • Duffbug

      04/20/08 11:54 AM
      This movie is for people who are in to gory movies. I wouldn't recommend you taking your say for example, your 7 year old there is to much gore and two parts in the begining that earn't suited for children atleast under 12 or 13. Remember this is only my opinion, you can take your kids to see it.
      Review Rating: +1
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    • watzdat

      04/11/08 04:26 PM
      this movie seems so scary!
      Review Rating: 0
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      • Duffbug

        04/20/08 12:02 PM
        It sort of is but some people only rate scary/horror movies by the posters that they see and there are times that theres a scary looking poster but its only rated pg-13 so be careful. And actually this movie is more of a suspense film than anything well it is very gory but i would recommend you see it if you are into gore or dont mind it.

    • faithm

      04/13/08 12:00 AM
      great movie keeps you on the edge of your seat
      Review Rating: 0
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  • Crew

    Director Carter Smith
    Producer Ben Stiller
    Producer Stuart Cornfeld
    Producer Chris Bender
    Executive Producer Trish Hofmann
    Executive Producer Jeremy Kramer
    Executive Producer Gary Barber
    Executive Producer Roger Birnbaum

Summer Movie Guide

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  • The Ruins Review

    The RuinsIn the new horror flick The Ruins, a quartet of American tourists vacationing in Mexico encounter a menace far worse than Montezuma's Revenge. Can killer vines really be that scary? Find out by reading our The Ruins review.

     


    The Ruins - Trailer

    Tourists encounter killer vines in Mexico

    Posted 04/05/2008 by Thomas

    The Ruins

Friday, April 4

  • The Ruins: Early Fan Reviews

    The Ruins: Early Fan Reviews Does The Ruins deliver the scary? We caught fans' first reaction to last night's midnight screening of the archaeological dig horror movie based on the popular book by Scott Smith.

    Next week we'll be at the first showing of Street Kings starring Keanu Reeves.




    Next Showing: The Ruins opens nationwide April 4, 2008.

    Posted 04/04/2008 by Dack

    The Ruins

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