The Ruins follows a group of college students who are in the final days of their trip to Mexico. While sitting around the pool, the four befriend a German, Methias (Joe Anderson), who is headed out to find his brother Henrich at an archaeological dig near an undiscovered Mayan temple. The two girls, Amy (Jena Malone) and Stacy (Laura Ramsey) are leery about the trip, but Jeff (Jonathan Tucker) and Eric (Shawn Ashmore), manage to talk them into the adventure.
After arriving at the temple, the group finds an abandoned camp as well a group of hostile locals. After a member of the group is shot in the head, the rest panic and run to the top of the temple. At the top of the temple they find traces of a camp, as well as a deep shaft with a faint cell phone ring emanating from it. Since no one's cell phone works, the guys decide to travel to the bottom of the shaft and end up finding more than just a ring.
One of the major elements of any good psychological thriller is building up a strong cast of characters and breaking them down until they go mad. At times, it seems like The Ruins is heading in this direction, though it skips over the whole "building up strong characters" and goes straight into a bunch of mangled stereotypes. Some, like Jeff and Eric, are pretty good but the two girls seem to cross characteristics at times. This bit of inconsistency inspired my friends to create the game, "Who Goes Topless First?" (which served as a great companion to "Guess the Red Shirt" and the "Victim Betting Pool").
Another of The Ruins' major flaws is the "threat" the group faces. It isn't that threatening and at times reaches B-movie levels of stupidity. What's interesting is that this could have been tweaked ever so slightly and resulted in a better movie. The most interesting element of the entire movie is how these kids learn to cope on top of the pyramid, especially with a group of trigger-happy Mayans surrounding them. I couldn't help up wonder how much more interesting it would have been if the "threat" had just been something that was influenced by the locals and all been in the group's heads. In fact, one of the multiple endings included in the extras would have supported this really well. Unfortunately it wasn't used.
The Ruins also ships with a number of extras, including a few deleted scenes and commentary by director Carter Smith and Editor Jeff Betancourt. Neither are particularly interesting, nor are the "Making of..." features, which cover different aspects of production.
As psychological thrillers go, The Ruins falls flat. Even with the inclusion of "scenes too intense for theaters," few things actually work. There are some great moments, but the characters aren't relatable enough that you actually care about them. However, if approached as a B-movie, it can be a fun watch with friends.
