Amy (Jena Malone), her best friend Stacey (Laura Ramsay) and their boyfriend’s Jeff (Jonathon Tucker) and Eric (Shawn Ashmore) are on holiday in Mexico when they meet and make friends with a German holidaymaker Mathias (Joe Anderson), Mathias informs them of some beautiful ancient ruins which only a select few lucky people ever get to see because they are so remote.
When they arrive at the ruins, Mexican locals appear from nowhere on horses wielding guns and arrows, they shoot a young boy from their own tribe after Amy throws something to distract the gun men which hits the boys. The group of teenagers manage to escape and end up at the top of a temple, all that’s there is an abandoned camp and a well, they hear a phone ringing down the well so they hoist Mathias down there, the rope snaps and he breaks his back. When the girls go down to rescue him they discover that there’s more horror in the well than they could ever have imagined…
I didn’t know what to expect when I watched this on Sky Movies, there was very little synopsis and no trailers to give me a spec of knowledge on what to expect from this psychological horror film. I had never heard of it before and although I wasn’t exactly enticed by the brief and vague synopsis I decided to give it a watch hoping that it would be an interesting and spine-tingling watch.
Unfortunately what I got with The Ruins is nothing of the sort, it reminded me of a couple
of other films, Hostel and The Descent, these are both decent films with strong plotlines and it seems like The Ruins has tried to borrow ideas from both of these superior films in the hope of creating a brilliant horror film, sadly things didn’t quite work out that way. They borrowed very little from each of the films, I think that if they had delved a bit deeper into each individual aspect this would have been a more intense and nerve-racking watch. I’m not a huge fan of Hostel but I must admit that it terrified me, this is the path that I assumed this film was going to take when foreigner Mathias was brought into the mix, you instantly assume that the seemingly friendly German tourist isn’t going to be as nice as he first comes across and that he’s going to lead the unassuming teenagers to their painful and gruesome deaths, this however isn’t the case though, I think the film did this to pique your curiosity because it looks as though he’s going to be the villain in the film, it would have been a lot better if he was. This would have made the film a lot more exciting to watch if there was a man who lured them to their deaths instead of the teenagers unknowingly leading themselves!
The film also borrows aspects from The Descent which is undoubtedly one of the best British horror films of recent years, what was so great about The Descent was that it left you on tenterhooks waiting to know what it was that was down in the caves, the atmosphere the director manages to build up is electric and the tension comes out of nowhere, The Ruins fails on every scale with this, if you’re going to try and replicate a film you need to try and better it otherwise you’re going to come out of it looking a fool which is what the director is for making this trash.
There were some good points with this film believe it or not, this isn’t a generic horror film although it follows all the usual horror paths to get it to the unoriginal part which in a way cancels out any credibility it could have had. I don’t want to give away too much but what’s lurking in the well is the last thing that you’d expect.
If you’ve seen this film then you’ll know what I mean and although it gets a few brownie points for originality the horror aspect is also laughable and at times it feels like you’re watching a spoof movie or a horror/comedy because the whole thing is just so ludicrous. The special effects are awful and it reminds me slightly of Little Shop Of Horrors which I remember watching at school and being in stitches over. The Ruins isn’t quite so over the top and in your face as Little Shop Of Horrors but it basically follows the same premise and any horror that steals ideas from an 80’s children’s film is bound to be absolutely dire.
The film manages to create tension from the mystery of what may be at the bottom of the well cleverly for around 15 minutes or so but when you eventually discover what it is it becomes a complete shambles. There was nothing really scary about this film because it is so farfetched, the film includes limited gore, I was expecting there to be a lot more gore. Although this makes a nice change from the norm I can’t help but think that this could have been more successful with the inclusion of more gore to scare people. There are a few really squeamish moments including a leg, a knife and a burning pan. Another one involving Stacey was pretty unnerving but it was nothing that hasn’t been done before. This film tries so hard to be original and different yet it turns out to be one of the most terrible and unoriginal horrors I’ve ever seen.
Unfortunately after sitting through what seemed an eternity albeit was infact only 90 minutes we’re still no closer to learning what happened and why. It’s revealed why the locals want to kill them but apart from that we’re left none the wiser with absolutely no hint of an explanation as to why the tragic events took place. Just another disappointing aspect of this disappointing film.
The acting was simply terrible and so clichéd, when trying to be original didn’t the director think that maybe a group of good looking but oblivious teenagers, including one medical student wasn’t the best route to go down when the characters were thought out? This was another downfall of the film that tries so hard that it’s killed by it’s own enthusiasm. The characters had no depth to them whatsoever and it’s obvious who’s going to survive and who’s not, you simply don’t care about any of them and Stacey in particular was a very irritating character who had no personality to her whatsoever.
Overall this isn’t a horror film that I would recommend to anyone, it has no positives about it at all, it’s dull, farfetched, includes some of the worst acting that I’ve ever seen in a horror film, is predictable and utterly contrived. Definitely isn’t something that I’ll be watching again.
The DVD is available from play.com for £5.99.
Special features include: Never-Before-Seen Alternate Ending Commentary With Director Carter Smith & Editor Jeff Betancourt The Making Of The Ruins Creeping Death Building The Ruins Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary Theatrical Trailer
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Production Year: 2003 - Horror - Director: Marcus Nispel - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Erica Leerhsen, Mike Vogel, Eric Balfour, Andrew Bryniarski
Jul 19th, 2009
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