The Ruins
(2008) 90 Min.
Rated: R (Gore)
Director: Carter Smith
Starring: Shawn Ashmore, Jena Malone, Jonathan Tucker, Shawn Ashmore, Joe Anderson
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★☆☆
A group of tourists discover a Mayan pyramid that holds a deadly secret.
Synopsis:
Two young American couples are drunk and enjoying themselves in Cancun, Mexico. They are Jeff (Tucker), Amy (Malone), Stacy (Ramsey) and Eric (Ashmore). They meet a German tourist named Mathias (Anderson) who plans to look for his brother Heinrich. Heinrich was last seen going to a Mayan archaeological site with an archaeologist girl. Another friend, Dimitri, comes along on their journey. The couples decide that it’s more exciting than the beach and go on this trip.
They are able to bribe a local man into driving them to the location deep in the jungle. As the group approaches the archaeological site, which looks like a Mayan pyramid covered in vegetation, they find locals who start to shout at them.
The local Mayans do not speak Spanish and are clearly agitated. They end up shooting Dimitri dead. The rest of the group scrambles onto the pyramid in fear.
At the top of the pyramid is an abandoned campsite. Mathias finds the body of his brother shrouded in vines. Mathias grieves for a bit, then hears a trilling noise which he says belongs to his brother’s cell phone. Mathias is lowered into a hole in the pyramid with a hand-winch and rope. The rope, however snaps and Mathias is dropped into the abyss.
Amy and Jeff try to reason with the Mayans below, but they won’t listen. Amy throws a clump of vines at them in frustration. It hits a young boy who the villagers then kill. Amy and Jeff retreat back up the pyramid.
Stacy is lowered into the hole to check on Mathias. She falls a bit and gets a wound on her leg. Mathias is alive but paralyzed. A board is rigged to help bring up Mathias and Amy and Stacy manage to put Mathias on the board and he’s hoisted up.
Stacy wakes the next morning to find a vine entering the wound in her leg. Mathias’ legs are covered in vines and they’ve eaten his legs so that the legs are mostly bits of flesh on bone.
Stacy and Amy descend into the pyramid hole again when the trilling sound of a cell phone is heard. The two discover the body of the archaeologist girl and a smashed cellphone. They also find that the vines are trying to grab them and that their flowers were making the trilling noise.
The group grow increasingly distraught. Jeff amputates Mathias’ legs. Stacy grows paranoid and accuses Eric and Amy of sleeping together. While they argue, vines creep onto Mathias and move down his throat choking and killing him.
The next day Stacy is worried about moving vines she feels under her skin. Jeff is able to remove a few with a knife. Stacy soon starts cutting herself repeatedly with the blade and when Eric moves to stop her she shoves the knife in his heart. Stacy begs Amy to kill her after realizing what she’s done. Stacy is killed off-screen.
Jeff hatches a plan to distract the Mayans while Amy makes a break for it. Jeff is able to distract them, but he is shot and killed with arrows in the process. Meanwhile, Amy is able to reach Heinrich’s car and drives it away. Vine-like tendrils pass under her skin as she drives off to freedom. Meanwhile Mathias’ Greek friends arrive at the location of the pyramids looking for their friend.
Review:
This film really tried to keep a high level of tension. I think one of the issues I had with it was that I couldn’t identify with the characters and I found them far too insufferable and annoying.
The vine itself is slow sometimes and quick at other times, and this seems a bit inconsistent. I know the story is based on a novel by Scott Smith, but even in that it seems like the book and movie have some key differences. Here’s an A.V. Club in-depth analysis.
Personally, I think this film was light on the tension, heavy on the gore, and also a little unbelievable. But it was okay for what it was. If someone is a genre fan and just looking for a time waster, this will fit the bill. It’s nothing too exciting, just a simple tale of a man eating vine.