I was scrolling though Prime since I hadn't watched anything on it in a while and was seeing what all was new and I saw The Ruins was on there now. I saw it back when it had come out in theaters. I think I also bought it on DVD, but I can't remember if I did or if I just saw it on TV/Netflix some time quite a few years ago (like 5-10 years ago). Anyhow, I remember really enjoying the flick back then so I figured I'd check it out again.
Small spoilers ahead, so if you've got Prime then go check it out now.
It really holds up. I've always been a fan of the kinds of films that take place in singular locations like Speed, Phonebooth, Saw (first one), Buried, and others like that. The movie spans a couple locations very early on but once acts two and three kick in they all take place around, on, and inside of a Mayan ruin/temple.
There were two primary things that I remembered really liking about the movie, the gore and the lead actor (Jonathan Tucker).
For the gore, the movie came out in 2008 and so there was still a fairly common trend of movies having a lot of gore in them after the success of Saw (2004) and Hostel (2005), two movies that I really enjoyed. The gore in The Ruins is not to the same level or quantity, but it's still very intense and grounded. One scene in particular is pretty rough to watch. One of the characters must have his legs removed and cauterized in order to prevent an infection into his revealed bones. The gore in that scene is tame compared to other parts of the film but it's still easily the most intense part.
All of the actors did a fantastic job and their characters feel real. They don't do a lot of completely stupid things like you see in most horror films and the things they do feel like a legit thing that a young college kid would do. The lead actor stole the show for me. I've always thought his acting was incredible and I really wish the actor did more films that I've seen. His character is a medical student and he ends up being the smartest one with some great experience for the situations that they go through.
Anyhow, I don't want to say much more about specific plot points or anything like that. Hopefully this got some people to check it out. Maybe I'm just being nostalgic about it and it doesn't hold up (some visual effects have aged a little over the years), but for any of you that have seen and remember the movie, did you enjoy it?
Submitted May 03, 2019 at 10:43AM by Craig1287 http://bit.ly/2JkohiP