Review of The Ruins (2008) by Chads. — 04 Apr 2008
This is no mere ruins, this is "The Little Mayan Ruins of Horror". The menace in the Frank Oz-directed musical sang like an old school-soul stylist from planet Motown, his backup singers were green.
In "The Ruins", the adversary is more like Kraftwerk than The Four Tops; like a Korg with a built-in sampler. The tourists aren't portrayed as ugly Americans, they're just four young people caught in a situation that's way over their heads.
A film like "The Ruins" works better if the audience has a rooting interest in the characters' survival. When Stacy(Laura Ramsey), then Amy(Jena Malone), is lowered into the cavern, "The Ruins" looks like the toughest season of "Survivor" ever.
The four Americans are split into two teams, and the German is like Jeff Probst. Stacy wins the battle of the girlfriends after the round of knives. Contrary to most horror films in which a homicidal maniac tortures his victims, in "The Ruins", body parts are hacked off without the stigma of villiany.
Torture is disguised as a medical procedure which satisfies genre convention with tongue placed firmly in cheek. Jeff(Jonathan Tucker), the wanna-be doctor, so impassive as he works on the German, makes you draw parallels between surgeons and serial killers.
They both have no feelings.
This review of The Ruins (2008) was written by Chads. on 04 Apr 2008.
The Ruins has generally received mixed reviews.
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