Reviews: The Ruins (2008) Movie Review
Genres: Horror, Thriller, Fantasy, Adventure, Monsters
Subgenres: Gore, Supernatural, Survival, Dangerous Exploration, Tourists, Wilderness
Horror fans will enjoy our review of The Ruins (2008), where we cover its story, scares, and how it ranks among modern horror classics.
The Ruins (2008) is an American-Australian supernatural horror film based on Scott Smith‘s novel of the same name. Scott Smith (A Simple Plan (1998)) also wrote the screenplay. The gut-wrenching gross film was shot in Mount Tamborine, Queensland, Australia; Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia and Village Roadshow Studios, Oxenford, Queensland, Australia. Director Carter Smith (Jamie Marks Is Dead (2014), Bugcrush (2006), and Boys Life 6 (2007)) did a fantastic job executing his first full-length film that was too gross for my taste with the devastating effect the killer plants have. The Ruins had an estimated budget of $8 million and grossed over $22 million at the box office.
The Ruins revolves around a group (four people) having the time of their lives while vacationing in Mexico. The group was enticed to visit an ancient pyramid of the Mayans as Jeff (Jonathan Tucker - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Hostage (2005), Sleepers (1996)), who is a pre-med student, talks them into it. Jeff told them this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity they may never get again and should go. Oh, why, oh, why did the three friends listen to Jeff? Did they not see enough horror movies to know how this can end? It did not take long for the disaster to start after the group arrived at the pyramid ruins. They shortly found themselves surrounded by a group of people with guns, arrows, and wielding bows pointed at them, preventing them from leaving the pyramid ruins. The group of friends is not sure what to expect, whether they are being robbed, if they will be leaving alive, or if they will be going without any limbs/body parts.
We soon learn that anyone who has had contact with the killer plant will have to be killed and later learn why. The group of friends was left to fend for themselves with the killer plants surrounding them, leaving them stranded with no means of escape. Will the friends turn on each other? Will they do whatever it takes to get the ringing cell phone down deep in the dark pit?
The Ruins was a great scary movie to watch on a dark rainy night, but it was too gross for me, and I had to watch away a lot from the screen due to the gross graphic images. Excellent job with the character development, sound, special effects, cinematography, practical gore, frightening villain, and disturbing images. The Ruins was one of the creepiest and most disturbing psychological horror movies from beginning to end that I have seen revolves around a killer pant that is out for blood, human blood, that is. The movie was more about what friends/people will do in horrific situations to survive than a human blood-sucking plant. There was tension for over 80 percent of the film scattered throughout, well, not the first few minutes in the beginning.
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Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- The Ruins Rating Scores
- Our Score: 8/10
- Overall Score: 6.14/10
- IMDB: 5.9/10
- MetaCritic: 4.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.1/10
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