The Ruins (2008)

Scott Smith is both an up and coming author and filmmaker. His novels
are landmarks in the development of contemporary American fiction. The
film versions of his works are also very good. The 1998 film adaptation
of his novel A Simple Plan is generally regarded as one of the single
greatest crime dramas of the last few decades. Naturally, Smith decided
after this triumph to enter the field of horror fiction to prove that
his skills were not limited to crime fiction.

Among the end results of Smith’s new interest in horror writing are both
the novel The Ruins and the movie adaptation of the same name. The Ruins
is about the downside of visiting tourist resorts such as Cancun,
Mexico. Some friends visit Cancun and after a while they get bored. They
decide to explore the countryside and come across an ancient Mayan
temple. There, they encounter an evil that has lurked at the temple
waiting for some nice, juicy victims to wander by.

The Ruins is a great horror suspense film. The acting and direction are
decent and it has excellent special effects. However, the movie has
nudity that is all too pointless. There is simply no reason to include
nudity in this movie. Despite this drawback, The Ruins is the scariest
movie of the year thus far. It is also the most suspenseful. The vines
scene is especially scary and suspenseful.

The original novel was a great scary and suspenseful read. Given the
fact that the writer of the screenplay is also the author of the
original novel, you would expect that the movie were also be every bit
as scary and suspenseful as the novel. Your expectations are all richly
rewarded by this hair raising movie that will leave you clutching on the
edge of your seat in the most terrifying movie event of the year thus
far.

The main problem is that it has nudity that like nudity in so many
American movies made since the 1970’s is completely pointless and is
simply not needed. On the other hand, the bad guy killer in The Ruins is
not one of those seemingly immortal characters out of the slasher
flicks. Instead, he was a relatively ordinary fellow who the audience
could relate to.

This is a most entertaining and suspenseful movie that the audience will
well worth find worth the $10 or so cost for tickets.