| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
|
| Story: |
B |
|
|
| Acting: |
B+ |
|
|
| Direction: |
B |
|
|
| Visuals: |
A |
|
|
Intense and effectively gruesome horror thriller!
by TomL (movies profile)
May 6, 2008
23
of
25 people found this review helpful
The Ruins is a rather simple horror story in which a group of American college kids on vacation in Mexico decide to follow a German tourist to an ancient mayan temple. Almost immediately Upon their arrival at the temple the group realizes several things, one is that the location seems to be covered in vines, another is that the locals are not happy with their presence, and finally... that something is very very wrong. Trapped and surrounded by the locals, the kids venture into the temple by way of what appears to be an old well, and from then on.. their vacation turns into an all out nightmare. The vines and plant species that exist within and around the the temple are carnivorous, penetrating the skin and devouring their host from the inside. Director Carter Smith wisely keeps the musical score in the background through out most of the film, and so we are left with the excrutiating sounds and screams of the plant monsters and their human victims. The Ruins is an incredibly effective film, and even without the gruesome violence the movie would have been substantially scary. The cast is quite good, their acting above par for the genre, and as a result we get to know these characters who seem to have believable enough emotions and understandable reactions. The film missteps only slighly with a mildly weak ending, but is otherwise much better then typical modern horror efforts. |
My Public Profile 
