The Ruins Reviews

This page contains reviews of The Ruins, a film adaptation of the bestselling 2006 novel by Scott Smith.

Two couples vacationing in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula embark on a fateful archaeological dig in the jungle, and stumble on a Mayan village and its nearby mysterious ruins. The discovery leaves them in a fight for their survival.

The movie received an average rating of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 42% on Metacritic.

The Ruins is lumpish, static, and obvious. It's a gringos-go-home cautionary fright flick done in the spirit of a cheap '50s horror movie, except that it leaves you longing for the competence of grade-Z studio-system trash. The film barely comes to life outside of several gory mutilation scenes, including one shockingly gratuitous double-leg amputation performed as a desperate act of survival — an unnecessary effort, really, given how little the audience has invested in whether any of these chuckleheads lives or dies. C- — Entertainment Weekly

Although The Ruins is unquestionably horror, as the central conceit confirms, it belongs to a shrinking sub-category of the genre: adult films more concerned with generating tension and promoting viewer unease than reveling in an orgy of unrelenting violence. In order to appreciate The Ruins, one has to be a die-hard fan of horror or bloody thrillers. Those in that category will discover that The Ruins delivers the goods. It deserves better from its distributor than to have been hidden from critics and slipped quietly into theaters. — ReelViews

• MiamiHerald.com (2.5/4): The Ruins Review
  • "with one major caveat, about as good an adaptation of Scott Smith's bestselling novel as Hollywood was ever going to make."

• Ain't It Cool News: Is The Ruins Any Good? Capone Surprisingly Says Yes!
  • "The Ruins will make you scream, squirm, cringe, bite your nails, perhaps even dry heave or throw up in your mouth. The one thing it will not do is bore you."

• Bloody Disgusting (0/10): The Ruins Review
  • "...it's really nothing new or all that original, but any hardcore horror nut will have a blast with it."

• RopeofSilicon.com: The Ruins Review
  • "For the majority of its 90 minute runtime The Ruins really works, and it only loses its appeal once; in the moments leading up to the finale..."

• JoeBlo.com (8/10): The Ruins Review
  • "...in its own frighteningly beautiful way, it is in fact one of the most refreshingly original horror films in the past few years."

• Variety: The Ruins Review
  • "The novel offered a certain psychological depth; not so the film, which comes off essentially as routine, conceptually silly horror content."

• The Hollywood Reporter: The Ruins Review
  • "Give neophyte director Carter Smith and Scott Smith, adapting his own novel, an A for making an effort to evolve a fresh horror flick but a C for execution and D for too many cheap thrills."

• The New York Times: The Ruins Review
  • "The Ruins could have been the most politically provocative horror film since Bug was released last year. It settles for gore and pain instead."

• Los Angeles Times: The Ruins Review
  • "Not even a fixer-upper, The Ruins should be considered a complete tear-down."

• Metromix (2.5/5): The Ruins Review
  • "At least the killer plant in Little Shop of Horrors could talk..."