The Ruins Comes Together

The Pitch: I was all set to go with “Hostel” meets “Little Shoppe of Horrors” without the comedy. Then I read Jeremy Butler's pitch [at Chud.com] of “It’s 'Hostel' meets 'Day of the Triffids'” and liked his better.

The Overview: Two couples of young vacationing Americans meet a stranger who tells them about a little-known Mayan temple. The five of them decide to go out and take a look. Once there, bad things begin to happen. Very bad things.

The Good: The acting. The cast was made up of relative unkowns so it was possible that any of them could be killed at any point. The screenplay by Scott B. Smith based upon his novel of the same name [and which he changed up for the big screen]. The fact that you believed what was happening. That each of the bad things that happens to the characters basically stems from them trying to do a good thing or at least the right thing. That the movie takes you in one direction and suddenly you’re going in another and it works. You care about the characters.

The Bad: What happens when you’re trapped on the top of an ancient ruin by unfriendly locals and something much, much worse.

The Ugly: “He won't last much longer like this. We're gonna have to cut them off.” “Cut what off?” “His legs.”

The Summary: I love a good scary movie. I’m not much for gore. “The Ruins” is scary and contains gore. Some very gory scenes in fact. I really liked “The Ruins.” A lot. At some point I’ll add it to my movie collection. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes horror movies and doesn’t mind being a bit grossed out.