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The Ruins
Directed by: Carter Smith Starring: Jonathan Tucker, Shawn Ashmore, Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey, Joe Anderson Synopsis: Four close friends are vacationing at a beach resort in Mexico. They get talking with a young German guy who’s about to leave the next day to look for his brother, who had gone along to a recently discovered Mayan temple with a female archaeologist he’d met. Along with a young Greek called Dimitri, they find the ancient pyramid, but get a rather unwelcome reception from the locals. Trapped on the pyramid, the young group soon discover the awful secret of The Ruins... Review: I am very sceptical these days of mainstream Hollywood horror movies. I think it was One Missed Call which was the straw that broke my camel’s back. Unscary and nonsensical. It reminded me of Homer Simpson trying to tell a Halloween story only to mess up the punch-line. So, when the marketing campaign for The Ruins kicked in, I had zero interest. On the face of it, this seemed along the lines of Hostel and Touristas – an ominous warning to American tourists not to wander from the beaten path. To a certain degree this is true, but at least these tourists have a certain level of intelligence. With Indiana Jones still gracing our screens, who could resist the thought of making a true archaeological discovery whilst on their holiday? Jeff, one of the four friends, certainly can’t and wants to return home with more than stories about how drunk they got around the pool...
However, when they get to the site of the temple, the four pals are at least a little savvy to the ominous signs – the path leading to the temple has been purposely obscured, and the local villagers won’t come near them. These little facts do manage to seep into some of their sub-conscious thoughts. Unfortunately getting to the temple itself is enough to push these worries aside – at first. Things begin to go very wrong, very quickly for the gang once they get to the temple itself. A lack of communication skills is certainly the turning point of the movie – if only someone spoke Portuguese or Spanish! Director Carter Smith delivers a realistic horror movie. Everything here works to an internal logic, and the Big Threat, when revealed has a touch of realism to it (watch any Attenborough nature programme and you’ll see something akin to this). In fact you could argue that it is just a side threat, and the isolation, exposure and slow slide to madness are the real dangers to the group. What is also interesting is that not only does everything occur in such a small area, but in blinding daylight – especially when one of them has to undergo a little surgery! The script was written by Scott B. Smith, adapting his own novel. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to read it yet but it has received some good reviews. Smith keeps things pretty streamlined throughout - we are introduced to the dynamics of the group through Mattius, the German tourist who invites them along to the temple, and things get moving pretty quickly.
The small cast works well, and quite realistically. Shawn Ashmore looks completely different here to the babyfaced Iceman from the X-Men movies, while Jonathan Tucker is strong coming off his role in tv’s The Black Donellys. The two of them are quite different characters – Ashmore’s Eric is more freaked out by the situation and resorts to cutting remarks as a way of dealing, while Jeff is more in control – as you’d expect from someone at med-school. What’s also interesting is that the two men aren’t inherently friends – they just happen to be the current boyfriends of the two girls, Amy and Stacy. The two girls are also quite different – Amy is a complete coward, forcing Stacy to be stronger. Overall I was quite impressed with this, mainly because my expectations were so low. In the current crop of blockbusters it’s the only horror movie and is definitely worth a look if you want something different. Verdict: Whilst not as gratuitous as some movies, The Ruins does get pretty grisly and some scenes will have even the most jaded horror fan squirming.
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