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Movie Overview
Cast
• Jonathan Tucker
• Jena Malone
• Shawn Ashmore
Director
• Carter Smith
MPAA Rating
R - for strong violence and gruesome images, language, some sexuality and nudity.
Theatrical Release
Apr 04, 2008 (Wide)
The Ruins (2008)

REVIEWS
NEWS
INTERVIEWS
OTHER
OFCS Rating: 59% Rotten
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3.5/5
"a shocking and disturbing experience that slaughters any comedic notions audiences may have after realizing they're watching a movie about killer flowers."  Filmcritic.com  Blake French

A-
"Near-perfect at manipulating its audience...it's a marvelous nightmare machine."  BrianOrndorf.com  Brian Orndorf

"The tourists' fears have infected their very beings, and their decisions are increasingly ineffective precisely because they are based on fear and ignorance."  PopMatters  Cynthia Fuchs

4/5
"It may be just another white-kids-get-killed chiller, but it's a solidly made white-kids-get-killed chiller; nothing new, yet expertly put together."  eFilmCritic.com  David Cornelius

2.5/4
"...one's interest tends to flag in between the appreciatively gruesome set-pieces..."  Reel Film Reviews  David Nusair

2.5/4
"Because the film works so splendidly for so long, the sole misstep that The Ruins takes is a major one, ending on a note of disappointment. What comes before this is superbly crafted and as tight as a vise grip, worth seeing for that alone."  TheMovieBoy.com  Dustin Putman

B-
"It may not be as fundamentally unsettling as the book was, but it's not a bad horror flick."  EricDSnider.com  Eric D. Snider

3/4
"Throw out your Chia Pets, burn your Daffodils, and kick your local Venus Flytrap, "The Ruins" is a very good little horror film..."  Cinema Crazed  Felix Vasquez Jr.

D
"At once silly, gross and boring...aims to be something more than a generic vacationing-twentysomethings-in-peril movie, [but] its pretensions make it even more ludicrous."  One Guy's Opinion  Frank Swietek

B-
"Apparently our greatest enemy is evolution itself. (Especially when it's taught in schools?)"  Cinepinion  Henry Stewart

3/4
"The Ruins does what a good psychological horror movie should do: rely on tension rather than gore to achieve its aims."  ReelViews  James Berardinelli

2.5/4.0
"Letting it get under your skin doesn't sound so bad once it gets inside your head."  MovieCrypt.com  Kevin A. Ranson

A
"The Ruins is one of the creepiest, most disturbing tales to hit theaters in months. If there is a film that is guaranteed to make your skin crawl, this one is it."  Film School Rejects  Kevin Carr

C+
"...like "Touristas" with a better cast, higher production values and a supernatural edge...hits all the novel's outer horror touch points, but director Carter Smith doesn't let them build so much as check them off a list that he's rushing through"  Reeling Reviews  Laura Clifford

B-
"The lack of explanations in The Ruins may prove unsatisfying to some, but the unknown is often more terrifying than the tangible. Such are the wages of fear."  Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema  Mark Pfeiffer

2.5/4
"It's just weird: the movie fixed the flaws in the book, but screwed up the stuff that was most effective on the page. Go figure."  Aisle Seat  Mike McGranaghan

2/4
"The film's depiction of deteriorating-under-pressure group dynamics comes to an abrupt end just as it gets going"  Slant Magazine  Nick Schager

2/5
"There are a handful of intense sequences and a few scenes of squirm-inducing gore in The Ruins, but not much else. The film is based on Scott Smith’s excellent book, but does little to capture the novel’s sense of terror and hopelessness."  Film Threat  Pete Vonder Haar

1/5
"The characters are so one-note and unlikable that most viewers will find themselves looking forward to their grisly demises because it means that they won't be annoying us anymore."  eFilmCritic.com  Peter Sobczynski

4/5
"It isn't one of the brightest lights in horror-film history, but it does its job remorselessly and well."  eFilmCritic.com  Rob Gonsalves

4/5
"It's both craftily creepy (in a subtle way) and powerfully visceral (in a kick-ass way), plus it delivers its payload in a slick and efficient 91-minute burst of nastiness."  FEARnet  Scott Weinberg

2/10
"There's really nothing in the film of any entertainment value, not even the inadvertent sort."  Antagony & Ecstasy  Tim Brayton
OFCS Rating: 59% Rotten
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