The Ruins

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 ...more

Trips to Mexico can be pretty killer. Just ask the four 20-something travelers in The Ruins. Their foray into the jungle to find a Mayan temple leaves more than a few bodies completely dismembered. The Ruins separates itself from the average Hollywood slash-n-gasher, and it actually elevates the genre in terms of intensity. The Scott B. Smith-penned script, adapted from his novel of the same name, throws characters into extreme and frighteningly believable situations without some masked ...more

A satisfyingly gruesome but brutally abbreviated version of author Scott B. Smith's epic downer of a novel, the feature-film version of The Ruins feels like someone blasted through the book with a highlighter in order to assemble the screenplay, and in their haste just happened to overlook some of the most interesting and disturbing details therein. Of course, a quick glance at the running time will be enough to let any fan of the 528-page novel know that the filmmakers aren't exactly striving ...more