Review by jhanse29

I recently finished reading the book in which this movie is based on. For starters, I am not much of a reader. I always have movies I'd rather watch and TV shows I have recorded that need to get caught up on to sit down and read. I went through The Ruins 506 pages within a week and a half. I couldn't put it down. It was suspenseful and claustrophobic and down right terrifying. I'd recommend anyone who likes a good horror read to get this book, even if you didn't care for the movie.

Now onto the movie. The movie takes a lot from the book in it's short 90 minutes showing. A lot of what happened in the book is there in the movie. One thing the movie does to differ itself from the book, is it shuffles up the characters. Things that happened to the character in the book happens to a different character in the movie. Some people may not like this idea but for me it made the movie enough of a difference for it still to surprise me. The acting is great and the cinematography brings out the terror in the daylight which is somewhat unusual for a horror film.

The one thing I felt this movie was lacking was the suspense and terror of being trapped onto of the ruins. The book really made you live the terror with these tourists. You felt there worry about water and food. The feeling of being stranded and desperate. The movie was so fast paced that it didn't evoke that same paranoia from the book. My opinion is the film could have been at least twenty minutes longer and really give the audience the feel of terror before the terrifying actually strikes.