Starring: Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey, Shawn Ashmore, Joe Anderson, Sergio Calderón,
Review: When a quartet of attractive college friends (Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey, and Shawn Ashmore), along with a chummy tourist (Joe Anderson), turn their Mexican escape into a gut-wrenching horror show with an eerie excursion. They are gonna wish that chose a "stay-cation" instead of visiting The Ruins.
Thanks to movies like Saw, which I've seen, The Ruins is one of those sorta kinda torture-porn horror movies of the early 2000s. It's filled with gross-out body horror, annoying protagonists, and an overwhelming needed to shower once the end credits roll.
The dreadfully generic leads are stuck on some ancient ruins for the majority of the movie's runtime arguing, screaming and crying, and waiting to be rescued by some fellow drunken thrill-seekers also vacationing at the same resort. The movie becomes very repetitive once our hapless group finds themselves stuck on top of the sinister structure. It's all, "What are we gonna do?", "Someone will find us!", "I'm scared!", for more or less an hour and a half. And occasionally someone has to be mutilated, mangled, carved up, or have limbs amputated so you cringe for an entirely different reason.
Like most bad horror movies, if you don't root for your protagonists to survive their horrific ordeal then really, what's the point? Now, the exception to the rule is the Friday the 13th franchise, but The Ruins is nowhere near as frightening and fun as those trashy gems. And plus you're vile villain are literally flowery vines, that can talk and make moaning noises so one of your leads will accuse two others of doing it during this hellish holiday. Are you kidding me?!
Oh, and another thing that really bugged me was that Amy (Jena Malone) gets really drunk the night before the excursion. The morning of she's puking her guts out, feels terrible, and almost stays at the hotel to recover, but instead heads out with her friends to trek through the jungle, in flip-flops no less, and is never again bothered by her hangover or severe dehydration while stuck on the ominous edifice. And they do bring up the fact that they only have a limited amount of food and water, but this is never mentioned again over the course of all the blood-curling craziness that goes on over the next few days. They should have all died of dehydration long before the locals or the mysterious monument does them in. It just doesn't make logical sense.
I really didn't enjoy my trip to The Ruins, actually I kinda hated it. And after I post this review I am going on Tripadvisor to do the same. I'd rather drink tap water from the region this feature takes place than sit through it again.
Fun Fact: Though the film takes place in Mexico during the summer, it was shot primarily in Australia during the winter. Heavy coats were provided for the actors in between takes, and water and olive oil had to be sprayed onto their bodies to simulate sweat.