The Ruins (2008 film)

Still from The Ruins (2008 film)...

Summary

A group of friends see their leisurely Mexican holiday take a turn for the worse when they, along with a fellow tourist, embark on a remote archaeological dig in the jungle, where something evil lives among the ruins.

Details

• Release Date: 2008
• Country/Language: US, English
• Genres/Technical: Horror, Science Fiction
• Runtime: 1 hr 30 min
• Starring: Shawn Ashmore, Jena Malone, Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey, Joe Anderson
• Director: Carter Smith
• Writer: Scott Smith
• Producer/Production Co: DreamWorks SKG, Spyglass Entertainment
• View Trailer: (link)
• IMDb: (link)
• Wikipedia: (link)

Ratings

MPAA Ratings

• Rated: R (Violence, Profanity, Nudity, Adult Content)

Tentacle Ratings

A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:

• S____ (One Tentacle: Debateably Lovecraftian; has almost no direct connection to Lovecraft's work)

This film is not especially "Lovecraftian", though the indifferently deadly monster lurking in an ancient temple leading up to a less than happy ending could fit right at home in a Lovecraftian universe.

Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.

Reviews

Review Links:

• HorrorFreakNews, (link) - "The Ruins is, from beginning to end, creepy and disturbing horror...."
• Brian Orndorf at the Sci-Fi Movie Page (3/4 Stars) (link) - "...The Ruins is governed by one rule: razor-sharp simplicity. There's no undercurrent of absurd social commentary, no extraneous subplots vying for screen time; The Ruins is a straightforward exercise in endurance and disturbing imagery."
• Richard Scheib at The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review (3/5 Stars) (link) - "I wouldn’t place The Ruins on my Best of the Year list but it is modest and above average."
• Dennis Schwartz at Ozus' World Movie Reviews (B) (link) - "Though it's hard to take such hokum seriously, it's also hard to ignore its shocking unthinkable intense scenes in this well-crafted film that gets a lot of mileage out of its scare story as it plays it straight without camp or wink and nod jokes."

Synopsis

 Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)

A group of young adults look for fun during a sunny holiday in Mexico, but they get much more than that after visiting an archaeological dig in the jungle, where carnivorous vines try to ensnare the friends in their tendrils, forcing the group to fight for survival.

Notes

Associated Mythos Elements

• race: Hell-Plants
• race: Tcho-Tchos
• race: see also: Triffids, Kudzu, Breath-Death, Body Snatchers (other killer plants)

Keeper Notes

• The setup here - an archaeological expedition into an abandoned temple in the jungle, guarded by hostile natives, and hiding an ancient and evil monster - would be quite easy to adjust into at least a one-shot Call of cthulhu or Delta Green scenario for a small group of doomed investigators. With a little tinkering, Tcho-Tchos and/or Triffids (or perhaps a Shoggoth) could easily be substituted for the well-meaning natives and the vine-monster, with the investigators perhaps representing a follow-up expedition from Miskatonic University, to find out what happened to a previous expedition....