The Ruins (film)

The Ruins
Promotional poster
Directed by	Carter Smith
Written by	Novel & screenplay: Scott Smith
Produced by	Ben Stiller (executive) Chris Bender Spyglass Entertainment
Starring	Jonathan Tucker Jena Malone Shawn Ashmore Laura Ramsey Joe Anderson
Cinematography	Darius Khondji
Edited by	Jeff Betancourt
Distributed by	USA DreamWorks Pictures. Australia Paramount
Release date	4 April 2008.
Running time	90 Minutes (Theatrical Version) 94 Min. (Unrated Director's Cut)
Countries	Template:FilmAustralia Template:FilmUS
Languages	English, Spanish, Mayan
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$22,375,067

The Ruins is a 2008 horror film directed by Carter Smith and starring Jonathan Tucker, Shawn Ashmore, Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey and Joe Anderson. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Scott Smith, who also wrote the screenplay.

Plot

In a dark, dungeon-like room, a young woman tries to call for help on her cellphone. Unable to receive a signal, she is dragged away by an unseen force.

Two young American couples (Jeff and Amy, and Eric and Stacy) are vacationing in Mexico. They are lounging around the pool of their hotel, and make friends with a German tourist, Mathias. They decide to help Mathias look for his brother Heinrich, who supposedly joined an archaeological dig at a remote Mayan ruin in the jungle.

The location of the ruin is shown only on a crude map that Heinrich drew before departing. They join forces with Dimitri, who is in search of his friend, a journalist who had also gone to the dig (the girl in the opening scene). After a long bus ride the six adults arrive at the trail head, where they see a jeep, and hike the rest of the way the site.

Shortly after they arrive, enraged Mayan villagers appear on horseback, armed with guns and bows and arrows. Mathias shows them a photo of his brother on his cellphone but when Amy inadvertently steps into the vines covering the temple/pyramid, the Mayans aim their weapons at them. When Dimitri tries to calm the situation down, he is shot and killed. The Mayans force the others to climb up to the temple roof.

There the five find an abandoned camp with a mineshaft in the center. The group try their cellphones but nobody has a signal. From the bottom of the shaft, they hear what sounds like a cellphone and Mathias recognizes the ringtone as his brother's satellite phone. Mathias is lowered into the shaft but the rope breaks and he crashes to the bottom. Stacy goes after him; she too is injured on the way down. Amy descends the temple steps to try to reason with the Mayans. When she angrily throws a clump of vine at them and hits a young boy, the others promptly kill him. Later, Jeff and Eric rig up a backboard and Stacy and the paralyzed Mathias are lifted out of the mineshaft.

The next morning, Stacy finds that a tendril of the vine has crept into her wound. Even worse, the vines have wrapped themselves around Mathias's lower legs and have eaten into them, down to the bone. The cellphone is heard again, and Stacy and Amy are lowered down the shaft to find it. In a small, vine-covered room they find the young woman and her phone, which is broken. Amy realizes that the flowers are vibrating and screeching, reproducing the ring of the cell phone. The vines attack them but the women manage to escape. Stacy is convinced the vines are alive, and that they are growing inside her. The group realizes that the vines are predatory and that the Mayans are actually trying to keep them quarantined and have salted the earth all around the hill to prevent the vines from growing further. Jeff insists that "Americans on vacation don't just disappear" and that help is on the way.

With Mathias's condition deteriorating, Jeff amputates both of his legs in brutal fashion, using stones to cut the flesh and a hot pan to cauterize the flesh. Stacy becomes jealous when she sees Eric comforting Amy, even going as far as saying that she overheard them having sex. When Jeff comes to try to defuse the situation, Stacy calls Amy's fidelity into question, hinting that she has not been faithful to Jeff in the past. While the four of them argue, the vines suffocate Mathias.

Later, Stacy soon reveals that the vines are now growing inside her. Using a knife, Jeff is able to take out two but stops after realizing the futility of his efforts. Stacy claims that she can feel more inside of her but the others reluctantly deny her pleas to remove them, instead saying that she will be fine in an effort to comfort her. While the others sleep, Stacy sneaks out of the tent and begins to cut the vines out herself. As she is clearly in a catatonic state of mind, Jeff attempts to take the knife from her but she swipes at him, cutting his hand. She resumes cutting at her own body, but when Eric tries to stop her she swipes again but this time the wound is fatal: she stabs him through his chest which eventually kills him. As the vines move in to take Eric's body, Stacy's cries to be put out of her misery. Jeff removes the knife from Eric's body and slowly walks towards the two girls, implying that he does, indeed, kill Stacy.

Realizing that they will both eventually die, Jeff makes a plan for Amy to escape. He marks Amy's body with Stacy's blood and carries her down to the bottom of the temple and lays her on the ground making it appear as if she has died. While distracting the Mayans to allow Amy to escape, Jeff is shot multiple times with arrows. Lying on his back gasping for air, the vines slowly reach out to him. As he is being pulled by them, he is shot by the Mayan leader. Meanwhile, Amy is fleeing the rest of the Mayans who narrowly miss her with arrows and bullets, but she safely makes it to the jeep and escapes.

Alternate Endings

One alternate ending shows Amy driving away from the ruins, suddenly the vines appear under the skin of her face and her eye fills with blood, implying that the vines got to her after all. The scene then cuts to a cemetery where a caretaker is walking among the headstones whistling Frère Jacques. He hears the same tune coming from Amy's grave. Around the headstone lie a few of the same red flowers, and as the caretaker reaches for one, the vine grabs his arm.

Another alternate ending (the DVD ending) shows Amy driving down the road (with no vines appearing in her skin), then cuts to the Greeks arriving at the ruins.

Cast

Actor	Character
Jena Malone	Amy
Jonathan Tucker	Jeff McIntire
Laura Ramsey	Stacy
Shawn Ashmore	Eric
Joe Anderson	Mathias
Dimitri Baveas	Dimitri
Jesse Ramirez	Mayan

Production

Filming in Australia completed on 7 February 2008, and the film was released 4 April 2008.

Release and box office

The Ruins was released in the US on 4 April 2008. In the US box office it debuted at #5 making $8,003,421. After 3 weeks it exited the top 10. As of July 7, 2008 it has grossed $17,432,844 domestically and $22,321,810 worldwide. Despite not being a huge hit, the film is still considered a success, as it made back its production budget ($8 million) in its opening weekend and more than doubled it overall.

In Australia, The Ruins was originally planned to release on April 17. Then the release was pushed to July 31, which was then pushed to August 7. These plans were scrapped when Paramount pulled out of distributing it to theatres, but however has not scrapped plans for a December 4 DVD release. The premiere in Queensland was on June 28, 2008.

Critical reception

The film received generally mixed reviews from critics. As of 12 February, 2009, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 45% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 77 reviews.

Among critics who gave the film favorable reviews, James Berardinelli gave the film three stars out of four, saying, "The Ruins does what a good psychological horror movie should do: rely on tension rather than gore to achieve its aims. This bleak, edgy motion picture isn't concerned with appealing to the masses that flock to multiplexes to enjoy the spatterings of the latest serial slasher or the hollow weirdness of a PG-13 ghost story."

Audiences gave the film mixed-to-positive reviews, with a 53% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes among audiences as of 18 August 2008 (though most certified it "fresh") and a 6.3/10 rating on IMDb as of 30 June 2008.

DVD Release

The Ruins was released on DVD on July 8, 2008 in both R-rated and unrated versions. It debuted at #4 on the DVD Sales Chart, selling 189,128 copies. As of 3 August, 2008, The Ruins has sold 343,414 copies. The R-rated edition includes a commentary by director Carter Smith and editor Jeff Betancourt, three featurettes (Making The Ruins, Creeping Death, Building The Ruins), additional scenes (Rain, Celebration, Going Over The Escape Plan, Alternate Ending), and trailers. The unrated edition includes the theatrical cut and extra material, and also an alternate ending and optional commentary with additional scenes. An unrated Blu-ray edition is also available with identical features..

External links

• Official site
• The Ruins at IMDb
• The Ruins at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Ruins at Metacritic
• The Ruins at Box Office Mojo
• The Ruins at AllMovie
• Human Lab Rat (Viral marketing Justin.tv channel).
• Critical analysis of the film by Critical-Film.com reviewer Jason Pitt]]