Ruins a refreshing take on the horror genre

“The…“The Ruins” Directed by: Carter Smith Starring: Jena Malone, Jonathan Tucker, Shawn Ashmore Based on novel, “The Ruins” by Scott B. Smith

out of

From the outset, “The Ruins” is engulfed in darkness.

It is a literal darkness – the first scene involves a mystery girl who’s completely consumed by it – but also somewhat figurative, a gloomy pall of exasperation as the tired motifs of horror movies are all hammered out in the film’s first 15 minutes.

However, in a surprising turn, “The Ruins” deftly defies all these expectations and ascends into the realm of truly terrifying horror films.

“Ruins” follows four Mexico vacationers – med student Jeff (Jonathan Tucker), his girlfriend Amy (Jena Malone), her best friend Stacy (Laura Ramsey) and her boyfriend Eric (Shawn Ashmore) – as they veer away from the trodden path and decide to visit a secluded Mayan temple on the last day of their stay.

These first few moments of the film are painfully generic, involving drunken revelry and gratuitous hard-body nudity.

While this part of “Ruins” is difficult to suffer through, it takes on a wholly different meaning in the context of the whole film, which changes completely the moment they stumble upon the ancient temple.

As the quartet comes upon the temple, they are confronted by a group of unintelligible Mayan villagers.

Unable to understand their angry shouts, the conflict escalates, and the group flees to the top of the temple out of fear. The Mayans set up a perimeter around the temple, threatening any who try to leave.

But this is not the only danger the temple presents. It is covered in a strange man-eating vine that threatens to destroy them.

The film then becomes an intense struggle for survival, with somewhat unsurprising results – but, then again, the plot itself is not what makes “Ruins” amazing.

The most exceptional aspect of the film is, without a doubt, the unique nature of the fear it capitalizes on.

Starting with their encounter with the Mayans, the inability to communicate becomes the vacationers’ greatest obstacle, as they cannot understand their warnings regarding the temple.

Once atop the temple, communication thwarts the group again because of a lack of cell phone reception.

This is not far divorced from the more common fear of being stranded somewhere without communication – although the temple is a more dangerous place than most – and as such, draws on a more genuine fear than that of typical horror movies.

In fact, there is no moment where “Ruins” relies on some kind of monster lurking in conveniently placed shadows.

The film’s “monster” – the plant – is much more terrifying because of this, as they are unable to avoid constantly looking at it, watch it encroach upon them and eventually take possession of the travelers completely.

This plays on the film’s other main horror: isolation. Isolation itself becomes a powerful presence as the group’s stay atop the temple lengthens and its resources and hopes dwindle, manifesting itself first as irritation that quickly devolves into paranoia.

But perhaps the greatest aspect of the film is where these two fears intersect.

As isolation grows and communication between the characters becomes more difficult, the group begins to implode, and here the film truly shines.

“Ruins” imparts a terrifying message about humanity through the travelers’ breakdown and the fact that none of the deaths in the film are caused by anything other than human interaction.

While the monstrous plant might catalyze some of this, the weed physically does nothing more than claim the corpses of the fallen.

This lack of killings by uncontrollable forces is where the film deviates most from the standards of the genre to great effect. The tension and terror are palpable from the moment the temple appears onscreen and only increase until the credits appear.

In this way, the typical horror-movie introduction takes on a subtle, deceptive quality.

Viewing the film holistically, it becomes pretty clear that the beginning is intended to lure viewers into a false feeling of security – that the motifs will continue and that they will encounter no level of fear beyond that of a typical entry into the horror genre.

This makes the film’s defiance of those cliches that much stronger and solidifies it as an artistic work.

The cinematography of “Ruins” is striking, too, with long, lingering shots of the landscape and the protagonists amplifying the film’s tension and eeriness. Powerful but not excessive use of gore and violence only further the terror of the film.

The dialogue is sparse, and that works well here – the characters feel no need to restate what’s happening around them, and some of the strongest moments feature restrained, realistically tense conversations between the couples.

The time the group spends atop the temple plays out almost more like a good drama than a horror film – albeit with a lot more gore.

All said, “Ruins” isn’t flawless. The acting is unexceptional, though Jena Malone manages to make Amy’s role as the group’s skeptic/realist believable while still portraying her as empathic and likeable.

The ending is also a bit weak. While it avoids horror-film cliche by not wrapping everything up neatly, the last scene still feels tacked-on and irrelevant to the thrust of the film.

Still, “The Ruins” is a cinematic adventure anyone, and especially horror fans, will enjoy.