Tuesday 2 April 2013

The Ruins

 
The Ruins was purchased because, thanks to the TV show The River, I developed a crush on Joe Anderson.  It allowed me to purchase the wonderful The Crazies and despite my better judgement I also treated myself to The Ruins.
PLOT:  Four American holidaymakers meet a German traveller looking for his brother.  They agree to follow a map to a remote archaeological dig in the Mayan jungle in search for him.  Deep in the jungle the group are trapped on some ruins by the local Mayan tribe but the longer they spend on the ruins the more they realise that it isn’t the locals they should be afraid of.......  END PLOT
After a brief introduction to the characters The Ruins wastes no time in getting the group to the ruins.  On a first glance it appeared that the local tribe were going to be the villains but we discover that the big bad of The Ruins is foliage.  Yes, evil plants.
No matter how you try and sell it, the idea of people eating plants is more comical than scary.  Luckily the filmmakers were aware of this and kept the death by vegetation concept as a background threat.  This worked as it ramped up the psychological horror with paranoia and fear of the unseen becoming the main themes of the film.  The Ruins was never scary but I couldn’t help feeling unsettled.
I have always maintained that I am not a huge fan of gore and blood in horror films.  I am now at the stage that I am struggling to convince myself that this is true.  The Ruins featured a fantastically graphic double leg amputation using only a small knife, a rock and a frying pan.  Sometimes gore is unnecessary but when it is done well it deserves credit!
The effects didn’t rely on CGI which made the amputations and man vs plant battles all the more impressive.  With a budget of $8million (IMDB) The Ruins can hold its head up high in that regard.
The cast is made up of familiar faces which includes Joe Anderson, Jenna Malone and Shawn Ashmore.  The cast do a decent job of running around a very small ruin looking scared and dehydrated. 
The Ruins is by no means a classic but I enjoyed it much more than I expected to.  It gets 7.5/10.  It is unlikely that I will view it again but it filled 90mins very well.

8 comments:

  1. I'm a total fan of this movie as well. The creep effect was high, the gore well done and I loved the use of the Natives. Those kid did try to warn them..... Sad ending, great story.

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    1. I tried to get the book on kindle but I couldn't which was annoying

      Really enjoyed this one!

      Thanks for reading

      K :-)

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  2. I remember seeing this back when it first hit video after many recommendations. I didn't care for it, I found it funnier than anything else.

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    1. I was waiting for it to slip into unintentionally funny but it never did. The benefits of watching it alone in the dark!

      K :-)

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  3. Great review for a fantastic flick. Big fan of it since I first saw it a couple years ago, especially because of the stunningly gruesome amputation scene and the scene where the blonde girl cuts herself.

    Believe it or not: just today I wanted to post a new, extended Ruins review, but due to the death of Jess Franco and the final festival line-up, I skipped it. Looks like you did my job ;-)

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    1. Thank you!

      I wasn't expecting to like The Ruins as much as I did!

      The amputation scene was amazingly well done. The cutting scenes were excellent too especially as the blond girl was really starting to lose her marbles!

      Not sure if I saw the extended version or not though

      K :-)

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    2. As far as I know, there's no extended version. So the version you saw is the right one. Uncut and gory as hell :)

      Btw, my review goes up in a few minutes - incl. a link to your review!

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    3. Sorry - I read your last comment wrong! It was your extended Ruins review and not an extended version of Ruins!

      Thank you for linking me into your blog! Appreciate it!

      K :-)

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