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The Ruins (2008)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 88
Fresh: 42 | Rotten: 46

Despite a solid cast and truly frightening source material, The Ruins founders, thanks to a weak script and an excess of gore.

Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 9

Despite a solid cast and truly frightening source material, The Ruins founders, thanks to a weak script and an excess of gore.

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Average Rating: 2.4/5
User Ratings: 512,577

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Movie Info

Based on the novel by A Simple Plan author Scott Smith, director Carter B. Smith's Yucatan-set thriller follows four American tourists as they unwisely venture off the beaten path while vacationing in Cancun. When a friendly German tourist implores the Americans to help search the jungle for his missing brother, the group becomes hopelessly trapped in a nightmare scenario that seems too strange to be true. Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey, Jena Malone, and Shawn Ashmore star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

R, 1 hr. 30 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Horror

Directed By: Carter Smith

Written By: Scott B. Smith

In Theaters: Apr 4, 2008 Wide

On DVD: Jul 8, 2008

Box Office:$17.4M

DreamWorks/Paramount Studios

The Ruins Trailer & Photos

More Photos (22)

Cast

Critic Reviews for The Ruins

All Critics (91) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (50) | DVD (28)

A more than satisfactory scare fest.

April 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail

| Comment

Stephen Cole

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

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.

April 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Toronto Star

| Comment (1)

Philip Marchand

Toronto Star

Top Critic

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

April 7, 2008 Full Review Source: ReelViews

| Comments (2)

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Top Critic

The usual gore-and-gristle fare, but this one serves it up with a tad more suggestiveness and smarts.

April 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Newsday

| Comment

Gene Seymour

Newsday

Top Critic

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.

April 7, 2008 Comment

Matt Zoller Seitz

New York Times

Top Critic

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.

April 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly

| Comment (1)

Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

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

December 17, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comment

Cynthia Fuchs

Common Sense Media

Watchable killer-plant horror movie.

August 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

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.

August 8, 2009 Full Review Source: Reverse Shot

| Comment (1)

Leo Goldsmith

Reverse Shot

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

July 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Film Freak Central

| Comment

Walter Chaw

Film Freak Central

Tenso, bem montado e dirigido com seguran�a e intelig�ncia por Carter (que tamb�m extrai boas atua��es de seu pequeno elenco), o filme consegue o imposs�vel: transformar plantas assassinas em algo assustador.

March 1, 2009 Comment

Pablo Villaca

Cinema em Cena

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

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle

| Comment

Marc Savlov

Austin Chronicle

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

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]

| Comment

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian [UK]

We don't care when these characters die because they are not real people; they are manufactured victims ....

August 1, 2008 Full Review Source: DVD Review

| Comment

Felix Gonzalez Jr.

DVD Review

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

August 1, 2008 Full Review Source: DVD Review

| Comment

Felix Gonzalez Jr.

DVD Review

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Audience Reviews for The Ruins

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This was better than i expected. Decent ride. Some gorey parts on the unrated version may be a bit too much for some.

August 19, 2008

John Manard

Super Reviewer

The Ruins is an interesting little horror flick. The premise is very good, unfortunately it ends up being a decent horror flick. Throughout the years, there has been many horror films dealing with nature, The Ruins is yet another film in this genre of horror and instead of killer animals, we have plants that mutilate

March 11, 2012

Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

The Ruins Quotes

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1. Stacy: [hurrying to catch the bus] Jeff is going to be pissed if we miss it.
2. Eric: Oh, the terrible wrath of Jeff, followed by I'm sure the more frightening whining of Amy.
– Submitted by Virginia K (11 months ago)
1. Amy: We're being quarantined here. We're being kept here to die.
– Submitted by Virginia K (11 months ago)

Character	Quote
	Enter quote here...	Delete

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