Premise: Hot American tourists discover a Mayan ruin with a terrible secret.
Stars: Jonathan Tucker * Jena Malone * Laura Ramsey * Shawn Ashmore * Joe Anderson
Story: Four American tourists in Mexico connect with a few Greeks and a German and learn of an archaeological dig and a set of Mayan ruins. When the German asks them to go with him (to ostensibly locate his missing brother), the Americans and one of the Greeks take off with him to locate the missing.
They discover an isolated ruined temple, covered with thick vegetation. Almost immediately, they are accosted by some natives, who startle the Americans. While they are trying to get the tourists to get away from the ruin, one of the tourists steps on the vegetation, instantly provoking the natives. Mistaking their intentions, the Greek soon ends up dead and the rest are forced onto the ruin. The natives set up a hostile encirclement of the ruin, preventing their escape.
Believing the missing brother and his cohorts are in the temple due to the presence of a tent and the sound of a ringing phone in the temple, the five start investigating the ruin. Mathias (Anderson, the German) descends into the ruin, only to have the rope snap, causing him to break both of his legs. Stacy (Ramsey), goes into the temple to help him, cutting her leg. Both are retrieved. Over the course of the next days, they discover the vegetation is alive, and that it lives on flesh & blood. It is also able to mimic sounds, including the ringing of cell phones.
Review: Following in the vein (ahem) of Hostel, Cabin Fever, Turistas, The Ruins falls somewhere in the middle of the pack of the torture porn genre. The gore is limited to two individuals, and while it's gratuitous in its nature, it's quite unlike the sadism present in the Hostel films. Instead the blood and gore comes from the attempt to prevent septicemia and further infection from the plants.
The acting is pretty typical of the young crowds filling up films and television - all in great shape, displaying lots of eye candy for both male and female watchers. Nothing demands a great stretch of imagination: the attempt at stoicism by the macho Jeff (Texas Chainsaw Massacre's McIntire), the attempt at heroism of Eric (Ashmore of the X-Men franchise), the lots-of-crying-and-screaming of Stacy (Ramsey) and the what-the-hell-is-going-on of Amy (independent film star Malone) - these are all straight out of previous entries in the genre.
Portions of the movie make little sense - having learned that the plants are drawn to people, they leave a bleeding Mathias close to vegetation, away from the four Americans. Is this a statement by the director, or is it just slipshod pretensions of ominous overtones? The tent is surrounded by vegetation but only once do the plants invade it, and that early on - did the plants give up? (I admit I didn't watch the unrated version, maybe there's something of value missing.) The plants pretty quickly grab a dead body, but when Stacy is walking around bleeding profusely, the plants do not move after her.
Lastly, the escape attempt is handled pretty honestly. The only question is that as the main ending is hopeful, it does not address the earlier noticed event of the plants growing on their clothes - as the movie progresses clothes get grungier and slightly greener as presumably spores, seeds or pollen end up on them. A more honest ending would've been that the clothing had to be burned at the least - the alternate ending is more in-line with such thinking.
Overall: Mediocre
Links: IMDb * Wikipedia * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
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