The Ruins: Critic Reviews

The Ruins is lumpish, static, and obvious. It's a gringos-go-home cautionary fright flick done in the spirit of a cheap '50s horror movie, except that it leaves you longing for the competence of grade-Z studio-system trash.

More disgusting than scary, The Ruins is the latest in a long line of horror films about upper-middle-class travelers being terrorized in unfamiliar environments.

It had me squirming, and the sheer anarchy and amoral chaos involved was refreshing.

A surprisingly effective little horror nightmare.

Squabbling among the skin-deep characters doesn't induce much sympathy, though thesps do their best.

When you've got cute young tourists, an exotic locale (well, sort of: Mexico), ancient Mayan hoodoo and surly peasants with machetes, you expect a bit more than The Ruins gives you, which is: killer plants.

With Scott Smith's rep and a best-selling horror novel, a sexy location and solid young cast, you'd have hoped the studio would find a director with a little more than a Tommy Hilfiger commercial under his belt.

Moral of the story: never visit an out-of-the-way Mexican ruin covered by vines and blood-red flowers that make a squeaking sound.

A more than satisfactory scare fest.

The Ruins does what a good psychological horror movie should do: rely on tension rather than gore to achieve its aims.

While not as silly as it sounds, it nevertheless is silly (as are most horror films), and while certainly different, the payoff isn't there.

Not even a fixer-upper, The Ruins should be considered a complete tear-down.

Tourists vs. flesh-eating vines; guess who wins?

Watchable killer-plant horror movie.

So bereft of creativity that it fails even to deliver to its base--teenage boys--the ghouls and boobs they so desperately want to see.

If it could happen to these kids, smart and beautiful, then it sure as shit is going to happen to me.

Tenso, bem montado e dirigido com seguranca e inteligencia por Carter (que tambem extrai boas atuacoes de seu pequeno elenco), o filme consegue o impossivel: transformar plantas assassinas em algo assustador.

Smith's singularly bizarre novel managed what this film cannot: fear and sympathy.

... soft-core torture porn that quite literally sets up its pretty, Hollywood protagonists for brutal sacrifice.

Enjoyable, well made and genuinely creepy horror flick that transcends its ridiculous premise thanks to a strong script, some sure-handed direction and superb performances from a talented young cast.