Remember the scene in Creepshow when all of the plants turn evil? Well, combine that with Cabin Fever and you get a movie not unlike The Ruins. It’s one of those movies that you’ve seen the trailer for more than a thousand times in the theater, and every time it’s shown some portion of the audience is always grossed out at the sight of the “weird worm thing” crawling under everyone’s skin. Well, you’ll be most likely disappointed that that’s the entire film: grossing you out.

The story starts with four twenty-something young adults hanging out in a beach resort; suddenly they are invited to an archaeological dig somewhere “off the beaten path”by a fellow tourist. Of course, they immediately agree. The next day they have their bags packed and they get to their site and are very disappointed to find that instead of a fun relaxing day, they get shot at by a village that happens to reside right at the ruins. So they flee up the plant-covered temple that is known as “The Ruins” and the helpless foursome take refuge up there; helpless against the 1) homicidal village and 2) the homicidal vines that surround them. Unfortunately, number 2 comes too late in the film to really care, and there isn’t much buildup when it comes. It’s just like Bang! you’re dead.

The acting is humiliating. All of the actors are people that I’ve never heard of, or people who appeared in films that I’ve seen but aren’t that recognizable(Or maybe I’m just not good with names). One character, played by Shawn Ashmore (X2) basically rants on and on about how they are going to be rescued by somebody the entire movie. Well, that sucks, because there’s a homicidal village right below you, and they won’t get anywhere near where you put yourselves without getting impaled by an arrow or shot. They’ll just get the same treatment that you got. Also, the blond-haired girl played by Laura Ramsey (She’s the Man) is at least believable as the panicked person, but the character is annoying. Then, we have the two “heroes” played by Jonathan Tucker (Pulse) and Jena Malone (Into the Wild narrator) who actually aren’t that bad, if only they didn’t stand around talking the entire film.

Strangely enough, The Ruins happens to be based on a book. In fact, the author of the book wrote the screenplay for this movie. Also, director Carter Smith has his directorial debut. My main problem may not be that the movie is a mess, but that it’s just boring. The first half was actually very promising, and I remember thinking “hey, this isn’t that bad”. It hooks you in on the mystery of the ruins and sometimes, dare I say, it “gets under your skin”. But it takes a turn for the worse at the halfway point and just becomes a lifeless and overlong turd. I give Smith credit, however, because it’s his first movie and it’s hard to make a movie that only takes place in one setting, simply because the idea gets old. They overused the horror gag of picking off characters when no one’s paying attention, and there are some dumb decisions made by the group as a whole, such as waiting so long to get out of there.

Another disappointing aspect of the film is that it never gives you back story or anything about the ruins. They never provide you with explanation or any history, which was a big let down. They should at least answer their own questions in a movie; you can’t just leave the audience stranded. Maybe the book touched upon that more.

Overall, The Ruins was a nice concept, but ruined by the two-dimensional characters that you don’t care about, a boring setting, a thin storyline, and pointless conversations that really only take place to make the movie longer, which was the biggest problem! What could’ve made The Ruins better was to fix all of these problems, replacing the pointless conversation scenes with more storyline and action. It feels as if it flips a giant middle finger at the audience at the end. But if you’re a hardcore horror fan such as myself, you might enjoy being grossed out. Otherwise, stay away from The Ruins.