The Ruins

This is actually a pretty good movie. It has a surprising horror yarn. In its first half hour, a talented young cast reaches the screen with plenty of genuine chills intact. This group of guys and gals take on the Yucatan Peninsula as a vacationing spot. It sure would have helped them to understand/speak the Spanish language. They befriend a German friend and traveler named Mathias. He invites them to accompany him into the jungle to meet up with his archaeologist brother at an "off the map" Mayan temple. They agree to go, but once they arrive, some angry locals (speaking a language the travelers can’t understand) shoot one of their party and refuse to allow them to leave.
Lots of shouting and arrows begin flying. A chase ensues. There is only one way to go…and that is UP! The Americans and Mathias retreat to the top of the temple, only to find one lone tent sits atop of the temple and the archaeological camp deserted. Now they are trapped on top of the temple. They can’t come down because death awaits them. Mathias falls into the temple and is badly injured, but that is only the beginning of their troubles, as it soon becomes apparent that the vines covering the temple are alive in a way that goes beyond normal vegetation. Since this was an unexpected serving of disaster, they are on short supply of food, water, and any form of protection. This story, takes on a heavy psychological component as the characters begin to fear for their lives. It’s worth seeing! Two or twenty snakes would have added a nice touch!

E-gads! This movie got really gross before the End!

If you like scary movies like I do, then you have to see this one. The whole point of the horror doesn't make itself known to the viewers until way into the film. It starts with just a smidgen of something going wrong with some girl trapped somewhere and she is dragged away screaming in the dark, but we never really know until later what happened to her. The film picks up with 4 friends sitting by the pool at a resort somewhere near the Yucatan Peninsula. Amy (Jena Malone) and Stacey (Laura Ramsey) are best friends on vacation with their boyfriends Jeff (Jonathon Tucker) and Eric (Shawn Ashmore). When Amy realizes that she lost an earring, a stranger named Mathias (Joe Anderson) finds it at the bottom of the pool and returns it to her. They all become friends over drinks and discuss plans to visit a ancient Mayan site only known to the villagers.

The movie really begins when they get the ancient Mayan temple ruins and find that they are trapped by local Mayans who wind up killing one of the friends of Mathias who came with them. They are then forced up the temple face and get stuck on the top.

The plants are the temple ruins secrets. Much paranoia ensues as each person is driven to fear by living plants that even mimic their voices.

If you are at all squeamish about people cutting into there own flesh, then don't stick around to see Stacy go bananas. The movie keeps you interested up until the end but really never satisfies the catharsis of satisfaction of getting rid of the the culprit, which many films try and do. Although this film was adapted from a horror novel, I don't think the book's ending would leave us all hanging at the end like that.

Otherwise, read the book if you are so inclined, then watch the film. I'd say it was around 80% satisfaction level for me so I'll say 4/5.

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E-gads! This movie got really gross before the End!

If you like scary movies like I do, then you have to see this one. The whole point of the horror doesn't make itself known to the viewers until way into the film. It starts with just a smidgen of something going wrong with some girl trapped somewhere and she is dragged away screaming in the dark, but we never really know until later what happened to her.

The film picks up with 4 friends sitting by the pool at a resort somewhere near the Yucatan Peninsula. Amy (Jena Malone) and Stacey (Laura Ramsey) are best friends on vacation with their boyfriends Jeff (Jonathon Tucker) and Eric (Shawn Ashmore). When Amy realizes that she lost an earring, a stranger named Mathias (Joe Anderson) finds it at the bottom of the pool and returns it to her. They all become friends over drinks and discuss plans to visit a ancient Mayan site only known to the villagers.

The movie really begins when they get the ancient Mayan temple ruins and find that they are trapped by local Mayans who wind up killing one of the friends of Mathias who came with them. They are then forced up the temple face and get stuck on the top.

The plants are the temple ruins secrets. Much paranoia ensues as each person is driven to fear by living plants that even mimic their voices.

If you are at all squeamish about people cutting into there own flesh, then don't stick around to see Stacy go bananas. The movie keeps you interested up until the end but really never satisfies the catharsis of satisfaction of getting rid of the the culprit, which many films try and do. Although this film was adapted from a horror novel, I don't think the book's ending would leave us all hanging at the end like that.

Otherwise, read the book if you are so inclined, then watch the film. I'd say it was around 80% satisfaction level for me so I'll say 4/5.

IF YOU LIKE MY REVIEWS, PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO LET ME KNOW BY VOTING. THANKS.

Attack of the killer man eating Mexican vines!

The Ruins was based on a novel of the same name written by Scott Smith in 2006. The movie centers around four twenty something yuppie types who decide to vacation in Mexico. While there they meet a German vacationer whose brother was apparently lost at an archaeological dig deep in the jungle. The yuppie types, Jeff, Eric, Amy and Stacy, journey to this location with the German, Mathias, and a Greek tourist who is apparently just there to die horribly as soon as they get to the ruins. Once they get to the pyramid everything goes wrong, people start dying, the weak willed characters start turning on each other, and the evil vines start eating people.

The movie stays true to the best selling book which both helps and hurts the film. Smith's rehashing of the old "journey to the forgotten ruins and rediscover an ancient evil" plot worked in the book and and it still works here as well. The virtually no name actors give pretty strong performances and the special effects aren't bad although the vines are a little cheesy. As an example in one scene the vines are actually singing to re-create the sound of a cell phone to attract its prey. The obvious plot problem with this is that the vines have completely covered the pyramid so why don't they just attack instead of starting the yuppie lunch tour. Another positive was that the movie was less than ninety minutes long which helped to keep the overall gore level down. Please note that this movie gets quite bloody and is not for the squeamish.

While I liked a lot of the movie it still had lots of issues. The major problem I had with the film, and the book, is the lack of details. Where did the genius level vines come from? How did the locals survive the vines before they knew to spread salt to contain them? How was the pyramid discovered and who built it? Yadda yadda yadda. Lets just say that if questions keep popping up when you're watching a movie then you're probably not that into it anyway.

All in all its an average movie but if you can ignore the obvious plot problems, tolerate the annoying characters, and not laugh out loud at the singing vines, the movie actually ends pretty well.