'Ruins' Delivers Gory Goods

Four twenty-somethings are on an exotic vacation in Mexico: best friends Amy (Jena Malone) and Stacy (Laura Ramsey), along with their boyfriends Jeff and Eric (Jonathan Tucker, Shawn Ashmore), decide to head out to an archaelogical site in the jungle by a fellow German traveler named Mathias (Joe Anderson) where his brother has gone missing. Once they step foot in the area behind an ancient Mayan temple, they are cornered by tribesmen with arrows and guns who refuse to let them leave. Worse, they must stay atop the ruins with no-service cell phones, a dwindling supply of food and water . . . and some sort of carnivorous plant life.

'The Ruins' is 'Little Shop of Horrors' With Scares

If there ever was one, 'The Ruins' is the killer plant movie to end all killer plant movies. Although formulaic in its setup, it's played straight and delivered with viscera, originality, and bloody gore. This is a fun, intense, squirm-inducing horror flick that has the courage of its own convictions.

The characters aren't particularly deep or highly intelligent, but they do feel like real human beings, and the "villain" is real threatening. As for plot, author Scott Smith is credited for adapting his book to write the script, carefully keeping things simple enough to not get bogged down in silly explanation. Some viewers may need resolution, but for those who enjoy economically made, stripped-down thrillers, 'The Ruins' does not disappoint.

Even the acting level is strong for a film of this genre. The girls (Jena Malone and Laura Ramsey) are especially good, acting with emotional intensity and empathy, while the guys (Jonathan Tucker and Shawn Ashmore) are the sensible, physically stronger, but just-as-vulernable leaders. Ramsey, in particular, is courageous the way she bears her soul in many of the film's psychologically scary moments. Kudos to the effectively icky sound effects and realistically gruesome makeup, showcased in the film's pinnacle amputation scene. However explicitly gruesome, the gore is not gratuitous but necessary to tell the film's story, and Carter Smith's (no relation to author Scott Smith) surehanded direction balances the gore with tension.

As for nitpicks, some of the CGI enhancement could have been lessened. Also, the finale is an annoying anticlimax, and the last shot a sequel setup.

But as a respectable representative of the horror genre, 'The Ruins' should satisfy those looking for solid thrills---and perhaps a reason to never be a botanist.

Four friends encounter 'The Ruins'

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