The Ruins – review

Director: Carter Smith

Release date: 2008

Contains spoilers

Thanks to Simon Bacon who put me on to this, suggesting it contains “all manner of vampy vegetation”. Based on a novel by Scott B Smith this does, in my opinion, if not owe a debt, certainly brings H G Wells’ The Flowering of the Strange Orchid to mind. That is no bad thing.

The film begins with a woman in the dark, terrified and alone. Soon something pulls her deeper into the dark. After scenes of rain forest we are by the pool in Mexico where best friends Amy (Jena Malone, the Neon Demon) and Stacy (Laura Ramsey) are with their boyfriends Jeff (Jonathan Tucker, Masters of Horror - Dance of the Dead) and Eric (Shawn Ashmore).

Jena Malone as Amy

Amy realises she has lost one of her favourite earrings when German tourist Mathias (Joe Anderson, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2) approaches with it. They get talking and he mentions being there with his brother who has gone off with an archaeologist to see a Mayan temple that isn’t on the maps and he is going out to find them the next day. He invites the gang along. That night Amy gets very drunk and, when Jeff goes to bed, dances with and then tries to kiss Mathias until Stacy stops her.

the ruins

The next day Amy is rather ill and doesn’t want to go but Jeff persuades her. They travel by bus, Greek Dimitri (Dimitri Baveas) going with them (his fellow travellers left behind as they are worse for wear after a boozy night). They take a taxi (read pickup truck) the rest of the way, the reticence of the taxi driver (Patricio Almeida Rodriguez) overcome by money. They are dropped by Heinrich’s truck and make their way on foot – Amy, in flipflops, not impressed. By a river they see a couple of Mayan girls on a cliff above them and Mathias moves foliage revealing a hidden path (the nature of it giving Amy bad vibes). At the end of the path they reach the pyramid, which is covered in vines with red flowers, with only the steps upwards clear.

the Mayans

They move to it when a horseman (Sergio Calderón) rides in. He dismounts and starts yelling in Maya language whilst waving a gun. More armed riders arrive and the gang desperately try to communicate. Amy takes a snap of him and he becomes angrier and Dimitri takes the camera and tries to take it to him but, as he approaches, a bowman fires an arrow into him and the leader shoots him in the head. The gang run up the pyramid and find the archaeologists’ camp, but no people, on the top and a shaft down into the structure. At the foot of the structure more Mayans arrive and create a camp. So, what’s going on?

at the top

As the story progresses, we discover that the vines are vampiric, and intelligent it would seem. They cover the pyramid, encroaching onto the top, and are also lining the shaft and spread throughout the inner temple – one might question how, given the lack of sunlight, but it is as well to read that the consumption of blood replaces the need for photosynthesis. The vines themselves seem to have spread – by touch – spores onto the clothing of the gang, which is growing like mold. The Mayan villagers are essentially quarantining the gang to stop any spread (we see them salt the earth around the pyramid), they kill if one of the quarantined move away from the pyramid but otherwise are content to leave them to the vines.

stealing amputated legs

The vines are fast moving and, in the night, Stacy gets one wrapped round her leg and feeding from a wound she sustained. They think they pull the vine out of the wound but later we see tendrils moving under the skin and spreading. Mathias breaks his back early on and Jeff (a med school student) decides he needs to amputate his injured and vine attacked legs (after incorrectly suggesting septicaemia is a bone issue). As soon as the lower limbs are removed (below the knees) vines reach out, grab the limbs and pull them away.

sucked dry

The vines can also mimic, through the flowers vibrating, luring into a mass of them by emulating a cell phone ring (which they believe is Heinrich’s) and also emulating voices and other sounds. It seemed that they were also able to manipulate Stacy, once inside her, making her think she hears the sound of Eric and Amy having sex (or possibly that was simply the result of her descending into madness because of the things moving inside her). We do, at one point, see the archaeologist who seems drained to a dried-up husk – so at times we get a sense of flesh eating but at others a sense that it is the bodily fluids (primarily the blood) that are wanted. There is an observation that birds and animals avoid the pyramid and one wonders then (given its remoteness and lack of knowledge of its whereabouts) how the vines manage to sustain life – they might fall back on photosynthesis perhaps, but it isn’t a question addressed in the film.

sent mad

This was actually rather fun and one I hadn’t really considered for watching until Simon mentioned it. Of course, it is good to see vampiric plants once in a while and I think this should get 6 out of 10. The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK