The Ruins Review (2008) Worth Watching?

It’s about a group of friends on vacation who venture out to explore some ancient ruins and wind up a bloody mess.

The Ruins was directed by Carter Smith and stars Shawn Ashmore (from Devil's Gate, Frozen, Solstice), Jonathan Tucker (from Pulse, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and Jena Malone (from The Neon Demon, Donnie Darko).

Terror has evolved.

This movie really caught me off guard. I thought this was going to be another cheesy formulaic vacation horror movie. You know the one. You have the usual group of friends (a tough guy, a smart guy, a hot wild chick, a shy modest girl and sometimes a fat funny guy). They party and take selfies the day before they all start getting whacked one by one by some routine threat (maniac with a knife, bear, shark, sometimes a weird torture cult). Then you have two left, usually the two who didn’t get along, and they hug it out before one of them gets whacked and the other runs away.

The Ruins is nothing like that. Well, actually it is, to a point. You do have the usual group of friends, they do party the night before and they do start getting whacked one by one. But that’s where the formula ends. Their whacking is slow, painful, super gory and the threat is anything but routine. This movie has amazing gore and the practical effects really sell it. There’s several memorable gore scenes that are so crazy they make me chuckle just thinking about them. Trust me, when you have a character yelling “Kill me! Kill meeee! Kill meeeeee!” you know you’re in for a wild ride.

There’s, of course, plenty of scenes that were laughably unrealistic (and this movie has its fair share of bad reviews because of it) but I personally found it entertaining. All of the over the top stuff is there simply as a catalyst for the gore, I didn’t find any of it frustrating as is common with other indie horror movies. The Ruins is a fun movie as long as you don’t take it too seriously.

Worth Watching?

Definitely. Especially if you like movies about wildlife survival, nature getting its revenge or if you just want to see a bloody mess regardless of the context.