The Ruins Movie Review

Content warning: this review contains spoilers.

I recently watched the 2008 movie version of The Ruins with my husband for our latest episode of His/Her Reviews on the Adapt Me Podcast. In it, he and I talk about adaptations of books we just watched. We discussed The Ruins based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Scott Smith in our most recent episode. While the book is better, the movie effectively captures its spirit with its gore and understanding of its schlocky-horror plot.

On the surface, the film is faithful to the novel. It retains the basic story of two American couples trapped in a Mexican jungle. However, there are some detailed changes that improve the film. This is due to The Ruins author Scott Smith, who wrote the screenplay. He did the same thing with his previous novel A Simple Plan, which garnered him an Oscar nomination in 1999. 

One of the main alterations involves the Greeks themselves, particularly Dimitri. They are not as part of the story as they are in the book. I didn’t mind this at all because the Greeks were almost pointless. Dimitri (Pablo in the novel) only comes because he’s the one who draws the map of the jungle the main cast goes to. Throughout the book, Dimitri is laid up after falling into a hole, injuring himself, and becoming the first victim to the plants. He spends more of the time dying. In the movie, he’s killed by the Mayans after Amy frightens them by shooting pictures. Matthias – the German tourist whose brother goes missing – takes his place as the injured man. 

Another is that Stacy and Amy switched personalities. In the book, Amy is “the prissy girl,” and Stacy is “the sl**.” It’s the reverse in the flick. Even though it was weird once I realized this change, I actually understood it, especially when it comes to Amy. She is dating Jeff, who is the smartest person and designated leader in the group. This creates a conflict as he tries to come up with plans to get out of the ruins while she messes them up.  It’s a similar relationship to what Moe and the third Stooge have in the Three Stooges.

One other change is that the main characters aren’t as stupid as they are in the book. They figure out some things like why the Mayans are surrounding them and keeping them on top of the ruins. In addition, they are more sensible as in they don’t do the things that occurred in the book (see my review of the novel for reference). I get why this alteration was made. Have them too stupid, and viewers won’t root for them. In the novel, Smith portrayed them as dumb and annoying, but I still rooted for them to a degree. For the flick, he made them a bit smarter, so they can be more likeable, thus more rootable. 

However, there were some changes that I didn’t agree on. One was that Stacy was the first American person to be injured and infected with the vine. In the novel, it was Eric. I’m not sure why Smith altered this. This especially true of how the plant gets into her body was executed awkwardly. The second was the lack of character development. There was time spent on character work in the book, but whatever that was present was deleted for the movie. To be fair, I kind of got bored when it was just the characters trying to figure out how to survive.

Of course, like I mentioned in the book review, this takes a back seat to emphasize the insanity of the plot. And, everyone who worked on the film, including director Carter Smith, understood this. At about 90 minutes, it’s a brisk movie with plenty of scares. The acting is good for this kind of horror movie, where everyone is desperate and terrified. There’s mainly one set with the Mexican jungle, but it looks convincing even though it was shot in Australia. 

Just like the novel, the best part is the monster. The plants are a combination of CGI and practical effects. They were well done, especially how they pulse once they’re inside their hosts. Also, the film doesn’t spare on the gore. Scenes like Matthias getting his legs amputated and Stacy cutting herself made me squeamish to the nth degree because of how bloody and horrific they were. It was one thing reading about them. Seeing them on screen added a new level of terror. In case anyone was wondering, we saw the unrated version.

The Ruins movie is a good adaptation of the book by Scott Smith. While I prefer horror movies with more character development, I was still engaged with it, even when I was squeamish and terrified. The biggest asset the film has is that it truly understands the core of the story: a group of dumb people attempting to escape a Mexican jungle. Every decision was made to serve how bonkers the story is. The monster is horrific, and the flick goes all out with the gore. I would recommend it to fans of horror movies set in exotic locations and that contain lots of carnage. Stay tuned for the His/Her Reviews episode discussing The Ruins on the Adapt Me Podcast! Keep an eye out for the link.

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