The Ruins

A surprisingly decent pulp horror outing with its roots (no pun intended) purely in the 1930s: this is based on a contemporary novel which I'm convinced must have been inspired by the Clark Ashton Smith short story The Seed from the Sepulchre (coincidentally one of my favourite stories ever). The story is simple, an age-old tale about naïve teenagers on a holiday from hell, not dissimilar to PARADISE LOST in its own way. Once the characters find themselves trapped in an ancient Mayan temple and at the menace of a most unusual monster it really picks up.

The horror is a neat mix of slow-building fear with graphic surgical gore, a la HOSTEL. It certainly doesn't pull its punches, with one graphic set-piece particularly difficult to forget afterwards. There are plenty of other chilling moments, like the bits involving mimicry or a later scene that literally gets under your skin. The youthful cast is typically dull, with only the German character provoking interest, but that doesn't matter when the story and pacing are so well achieved. It's amazing what a little originality can do: compare this to something like the exceptionally dull PROM NIGHT remake and you'll see what I mean.

Four American tourists agree to a trip into a South American jungle with a German tourist, to look at an ancient Aztec temple. Once they get there, they find themselves trapped on the temple by some locals. However, they begin to realize however, that they are keeping them there for a horrifying reason....

On the surface, this is yet another movie about American tourists getting into trouble in another country. However, unlike for example Paradise Lost, the Hostel movies, Wolf Creek, and such, the threat here is not from a human source, but something else. It's a refreshing change, but that is only one of the plus points in this good horror movie. There are many more.

The script, written by Scott B. Smith based on his own novel, is pretty good. The characters are well written, and the plot as it unfolds takes it's time to play out, which again is refreshing. Most American horror movies seem to want to rush through the opening scenes, to get to the so-called scare moments, but Smith takes time with his plot, as he did with his other script, the brilliant A Simple Plan. This movie isn't as good as that but it is still good. One of the key things is he never explains how or why the temple is doing what it is doing, yet you never really question it. He allows some intelligence in not only the characters but also in the audience watching. Again, a refreshing change.

The performances from the cast are good. The script allows time for the cast to make their characters believable (for a horror movie)and as the horror and terror mounts, they react in different ways.

The direction by Carter Smith is good. He creates a sense of dread as the the events play out. While the movie is not particularly scary, he creates a sense a good sense of dread, right up to the end, and also doesn't try and cop-out at the end, or allow for some awful twist. Again a welcome change.

The movie does have some scenes that are bloody, or graphic and gory, it's not over the top. There is a reason for the violence in the movie, and also the blood and gore. It's not simply there to gross-out the audience (though the scene with the makeshift amputation will have that effect, no doubt!!).

At a time when most of the American horror movies are either remakes or sequels, it's nice to see a horror movie that while not original at least is different. And for that reason alone, it's worth watching.

A group of young friends travelling in Mexico, are convinced by a young German man named Mathias, to accompany them to an archaeological dig.

I honestly can't believe that this film dates all the way back to 2008, I watched it when it was first released, and have never forgotten a few of the scenes, one in particular.

If you're a fan of films along the same lines as Paradise lost and Green inferno, then I think you may well enjoy this, the horror comes more from gory sequences, rather than jump scares. Some of the visuals are pretty gross.

It's far from perfect, it takes an age to get going, and there are more cliches than you can even count, plus a set of characters that are a little difficult to like.

Despite its many flaws, I still enjoyed it, it's not without originality, and the horror moments still hold up.

Time to invest in some weedkiller.

7/10.

The Ruins was an impressive achievement and all out great gory fun, in my honest opinion. While the characters aren't really likable, the movie itself is so entertaining and interesting that it makes up for the obvious solid plot and professional development it lacks. While it's certainly not a masterpiece, The Ruins is just an instantaneous breath of fresh air. It's clever in a sense, creepy to the bone and new with an insane entertainment level that it keeps your attention and doesn't let go.

I found the "creatures" an effective and nice, sinister twist to deal with next to the other conflict of being stranded upon the Mayan ruins away from all civilization except the natives who are hellbent on letting them die up there, and I thought while the characters were stupid, that was the right way to handle the situation considering that most people would lose their wit in situations like that after some time, and I always like it when horrors try to make their characters believable, because that makes up for them not being special. It was so compellingly good just to watch what all happened, and I really enjoyed the scenes and thought that it had excellent suspense and a wonderful atmosphere of claustrophobia and paranoia.

Yes, it gets a little bland around the edges, and like I said, it's not like it ranks among the greatest films of all time, but I truly do think it is a satisfying taste of what effective, legendary horrors could do if they were made with better care, because it has all the right substances, but just falls flat a little with it's slight mediocrity. Regardless, it is nonetheless very amusing and indulging. I praise the creators for coming as far as they did with a poor direction, and for toppling over a lot of horrors that have been made in the past decade. Too bad more people didn't see what I did, because it is quite underrated and under appreciated, I think.

I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of horror movies having watched innumerous films during my 50 years on this planet. To see this little gem rated 5.9 when other movies that are complete pieces of bovine excrement, is truly incomprehensible. Do yourself a favor and watch this well-crafted film and you can thank me later.