The 2008 “survival/horror” film, The Ruins, is based on the 2006 novel of the same name. Its author, Scott Smith, also wrote the screenplay, so he must’ve known what mattered in paring down the nearly 400-page tome into 90 minutes of screen time. Even so, the much-acclaimed book—“The best horror novel of the new century,” Stephen King crowed—was a box office bomb, and its reviews were so-so.
I actually read the novel and viewed the film back-to-back. Didn’t have a problem with either one. I understand that no screen treatment of a book, short of a mini-series, can do justice to it. I enjoyed them both—as much as one can “enjoy” this raw, disturbing story of survival.
TERROR HAS EVOLVED
With that tagline, and with the promise not to natter on about the differences between the film and the book, here is a brief overview of the former. Two young American couples, Jeff and Amy, Eric and Stacy, are partying down in Cancún, Mexico. They meet Mathias, a German tourist, who is looking for his brother, last reported at an archaeological dig at a remote Mayan ruin. The five, along with Dimitri, a Greek tourist, decide to check it out. It’ll be fun, it’ll be fun, they think. Or not.
The group is excited to be there…at first.
They bus to a town, then take a rural taxi out to the edge of the jungle. The driver warns them not to go out there, but of course they do. They hike to the ruin, which sits in the middle of a broad clearing and is encrusted with vines and pretty red flowers. Almost immediately they are surrounded by people from a nearby Mayan village, all of whom are armed with bows and arrows, and guns. Mathias tries to explain the reason why they are there, but the Mayans do not understand. They start freaking out when Amy steps on some vines, and when Dimitri comes forward to try and calm them down, he receives an arrow in the chest and a bullet in the head.
Now who’s freaking out? The five tourists run to the top of the ruin, where they find the remnants of the archaeologists’ camp, but no people. None of their cell phones work, but they hear the ringtone of one coming from the bottom of a shaft into the ruin. Mathias is lowered down to check it out, but he falls and breaks his back. Now the group is stuck atop the ruin, surrounded by angry villagers below, and burdened with the critically injured German.
The group is dwindling and looking the worse for wear.
And yes, this is only the start of their troubles. The following is all revealed early, so I’m not giving much away. The aforementioned vines should be referred to as the vine, singular, with gazillions of tendrils, and the damn thing is carnivorous. Its pretty flowers can vibrate and imitate any sound it hears, including a ringing cell phone, and—gasp!—the voices of people! Are these folks in some deep shit, or what? Let the body count begin!
I gotta say, The Ruins provided and entertaining hour-and-a-half. But be forewarned that you might not want to eat anything before or during the film. Trust me on this.
Jeff confronts the deadly vine.