The Ruins (2008)











Written by David Byron, creator of NVF MAGAZINE

Overall: A better tagline for The Ruins would have been "What's Eating You?" That "Terror has Evolved" line is so predictable, so yesterday. I am not saying that The Ruins, directed by Carter Smith, is predictable or yesterday's terror, but it does contain some old, some new, and some very intense gore-toned frights; especially for the man sitting next to me in the theater who was so excited during one bloody, bone-crushing scene he had to stand up and shake it off. I could empathize. As for me, I just got cold sweats and tried to keep the squishing, tearing sounds from making me even more nauseous. I'll be the first to admit it: I'm a wimp when it comes to bloody chunks and meaty scenes embellished with nasty sound effects.           Novelist Scott Smith adapts his story for the screen leaving it essentially the same, though he shuffles his characters a bit, placing more emphasis on the girls, Stacy and Amy, and less emphasis on the sentient, flesh-eating vines that mimic human voices and contain corrosive sap that burns like hell. Also, instead of his character Eric becoming infected with the hungry plant, onscreen it's Stacy (Laura Ramsey) who is driven to madness and self-mutilation. She looks better in a bra and underwear than Eric would have, so good revision there Scott.           Four fun-loving Americans get talked into visiting Mayan ruins deep in the Yucatan jungle by a German stranger, Mathias, they meet poolside. He asks them to join him on a visit to a dig site his brother and an archaeologist friend are working on. Sure, why not? It only takes five minutes of chat to convince them to go into the jungle with a total stranger. Haven't these people seen Hostel? Young Americans abroad are always fun-loving and looking to get into mischief (aka dumb and dumber). Director Smith dotes on their buff bodies and rosy cheeks as they splash away in the sun, providing quite an eyeful of Stacy and Amy. At first I thought he was doing the usual eye-candy for the teen crowd, but when Jeff, Eric, Amy, and Stacy become trapped at the top of the Mayan temple, he dotes on their increasingly dirty, disheveled appearance even more, exemplifying how unprepared they are, rushing into the jungle without a thought or a backpack. When the taxi drives off, they suddenly worry how they'll get back to the hotel. Amy complains she can't walk through the jungle in her flip-flops. Political commentary on American arrogance? A social metaphor for American youth's shallowness? Nah; just dumb American tourists getting themselves into trouble as usual in a horror film.           Instead, both Smiths keep the ninety-one minutes focused on the intrepid groups' realization they're badly screwed and help is not a cell phone call away, the angst regarding the food they didn't bring with them and no Starbucks in walking distance, and the lively vegetation that's just so darn happy to finally have company for dinner it can't stop latching onto--its dinner. At first, the local villagers try to warn them off, but not understanding the language or the danger, the villagers eventually force them to the top of the ruins after two of the no comprende touristas inadvertently stomp through the plants during a tense standoff, sealing their fate.           At the top they find the dig site and no one else around. A windlass and rope lead down into the ruins. Not being spelunkers or into rappelling, the German guy manages to break both legs when the rope snaps. Jeff and Eric, not so dumb after all, send the girls down to help him. The girls use what little first aid skills they have to move the back-cracking and screaming Mathias in a position to be hoisted back up. You'll be reaching for the Tylenol yourself after that one.           It gets worse when Stacy gashes her leg while helping Mathias. The next morning her leg turns into a flower pot and sprouts a beautiful new vine. The gore-o-meter hits the yellow zone starting here, and goes into the red when Mathias's legs become a bloody trellis for more vines. Jeff, the first year medical student, decides they have to remove Mathias's infected legs. Not much is left after the vines start growing in and around them, but the ensuing graphic double amputation is not for the squeamish. Not to be outdone, Stacy becomes crazed by the growing vegetation squirming around inside her. Grabbing a knife she decides to do surgery on herself, only she's not a medical student. You may want to buy an extra large popcorn bucket for this movie just in case. No popcorn; just the bucket. It may come in handy.           The continual ringing of a cell phone sends both girls down into the temple again to look for it. The archeologist may have had a satphone, or maybe Verizon service really is that good. Or maybe there's something else going on, and waiting in the dark rooms of the ruins. While the novel delves deeper into the sentience of the plants, the lesser, disconcerting glimpses that show up in the film provide an adequate sense of mystery and dread.           The Ruins is a straightforward, humorless, study in terror. While there have been other movies and novels dealing with people-eating plants, from sci-horror to science-fiction, the elements of your typical American horror film--gore and pretty, but clueless, young people--come together here in a way that's simply effective and scary (or nauseating: take your pick). While the histrionic acting is par for the horror course, it is still done reliably, and director Smith's pacing builds the tension while applying realistic gore where it can do the most damage to your piece of mind when depicting the novel's more harrowing scenes. Bring a date. I guarantee he or she will be clinging to you just as much as the hungry vines do to their victims. But in a nicer way.

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