The Ruins

Directed by Carter Smith
2008
Rated Unrated (R Rated version released in theaters)
94 minutes Uncut (90 minutes for theatrical)

Summary from Netflix: An idyllic Mexican vacation in Cancun takes a dangerous turn for four young Americans when a mysterious tourist persuades them to join an archaeological dig, and they subsequently find themselves lost within the cursed ruins of a forgotten city. Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey, Jena Malone and Shawn Ashmore head the cast in director Carter Smith's bone-chilling thriller, adapted by Scott B. Smith from his novel.

My rating: ★★★★ out of 5

"People come from all over the world just to see these ruins, especially one that's not on the map. I'm not taking you to some tourist trap, honey. Don't you want to have some experience or something to shoot other than the beach, the pool, the beach, the pool?"

I've been a huge fan reading horror/thriller novels during my free time whenever that comes available but most often when that certain story is picked up for movie adaptation I usually cringe. Most Hollywood writers usually have a hard time translating the terror and emotion of a good thriller and usually falling back into a type-by-numbers format of telling a "monster movie". Thankfully when Ben Stiller's production company picked up the rights for Scott B. Smith's The Ruins novel they just got the author to adapt his own story into a screenplay and found Carter Smith, who was a first time feature director, to take up the challenge of bringing it to life.

I had no high expectations of the movie when I settled into my comfy lounge chair other then some word of mouth on several horror sites online during it's initial release in theaters. What little I had heard about it was quite positive in that it had been put into the right hands and while not shooting with a high budget the film makers wanted to create a realistic thriller but bring back the classic old school build up of suspense and fight for survival. Which is quite a tall order when so many modern horror films and thrillers just never manage to pull it off quite as well as they claim they do until you sit your butt in front of a screen and see it yourself.

The film starts off with a typical group of college students on their vacation and looking for something more exciting to do then just being tourists. Of course it's just their luck that they stumble across a German tourist like themselves who is planning to leave on an expedition to an old ruin to look for his brother who traveled there with a pretty female archaeologist. Since it's a ruin that is off the beaten path and VIP only they figure it would be something worthy of exploring and getting in a few photographs of. First warning they get of something wrong is that when their trusty taxi driver has to be bribed into getting them there once he hears where they are going. Second warning is when they arrive at the jungle clearing before the ruins there are many long abandoned vehicles parked around that area and looking like they had been there for quite awhile. Course this would not be much of a story if they didn't ignore the obvious warnings and decide to venture further towards the dig site. Once they reach the base of the ruin they notice they are being watched by a few locals who seem quite surprised at their appearance there (or dumbfounded that a large group of people showed up). When a few of the students start climbing the ruins and come into contact with the vines growing around the ruin the locals go into a panic and treat them like they just were infected with a highly contagious disease not allowing them to go anywhere but to their intended destination at the top of the ruin.

What unfolds over the next seventy minutes on screen is quite a ride to behold as they discover what they had all gotten themselves tangled up in. The sound of an echoing cell phone ring emitting from the open shaft at the top of the ruin which forces a few of them on an exploration of the inner chambers to find a way to communicate with the outside world. The mystery of where the previous campers had disappeared to and why it seems odd that the locals and even birds and insects seem to avoid going anywhere near the ruins. I found myself quite enjoying the build up of the storyline surrounding all of these mysterious events and especially biting my nails when the girls found themselves being lowered into the inner chambers of the ruin to find the source of the ringing sound. It was a terrific payoff for the climax of the film and completely shifts around your whole concept of what is going on and the reasons why they need to find a way to contact the outside world.