Dawn Taylor,  Jul 11, 2008

In the movies, photogenic young American tourists always seem to be wandering off into the jungle and getting butchered by maniacs. It would be nice to think that this isn't true, that young American tourists are actually smart to enough, when asked by complete strangers if they'd like to traipse off the beaten track, to say, "No, thanks -- I'd rather not be killed in a foreign country," or at least, "Let me tell the hotel staff, and perhaps local law enforcement, where we're headed first."

Yes, it would be nice to think this. In The Ruins, one character even yells, "Four Americans on vacation don't just disappear!" But the truth is, they do. Statistics show that over 1,300 international travelers go missing each year. By "statistics" I mean "a number that I just made up," but you get my point. It happens all the time.

So you'd think that when four attractive, virtually interchangeable American vacationers are asked by a German fellow to accompany him into the Mexican jungle to see a super-secret Mayan ruin, they'd take a few precautions first. Like tell someone that they were going. Or even just wearing sensible shoes -- one of the girls, Amy (Jena Malone) whines about having to walk in flip-flops. I'm sorry ... what part of "we're hiking through the jungle to see Mayan ruins" did you fail to grasp? Apparently Amy thought that Mayan ruins are located on random village street corners in Mexico, much like our Taco Bells.

The German fellow, Mathias (Joe Anderson) is concerned that his brother hasn't returned from the ruins after tagging along with an archaeologist girlfriend. And since we already know from the DVD cover that this is a horror movie, we suspect that something bad has happened to them. This is confirmed when the group arrives at the site, quickly followed by some native locals who show up on horseback with guns to shoo them away. In the kerfuffle, Amy stumbles into some overgrown vines while taking a picture, and the natives freak out.

Everyone thinks that it's because of Amy's picture-taking, but it's pretty obvious that it's really about the vines. Especially after the natives shoot one of the travelers in the chest with an arrow. But as obvious as it is, it's still going to take the Americans about 20 minutes of screen time to figure it out because, as we're already established, they're pretty stupid.

The Ruins progresses from here like pretty much every other horror film that's been made in the last five years, with the obvious exception that everyone is quarantined by crazy natives on top of a Mayan pyramid that's full of killer plants. There's some very good, very creepy stuff. For instance, Stacy (Laura Ramsey) waking up in the morning to find that a vine has insinuated itself into her leg wound, and the discovery that the vine's flowers mimic sound to lure their victims. And then there's a lot that's silly and over-the-top.

For those who enjoy pure gore as part of their horror experience, The Ruins offers an un-anesthetized double amputation, and a pretty girl hacking at her own leg with a knife. For those who like suspense, there's a flat-out rip-off of The Descent, with the two girls making their way through the dark interior of the pyramid as they search for a ringing cell phone.

For those of you who look for something, well, fresh from your horror, you're mostly out of luck. The Ruins is a tidy little scare flick that falls somewhere between the torture-porn of films like Hostel and Turistas, and the excellent horror-thriller mash-up of The Descent, offering nothing particularly new or surprising but doing what it does with a workmanlike competence. It was scripted by Scott Smith (author of A Simple Plan) from his own novel, and perhaps the telling of the tale in prose form offered a more immersive experience -- and more scares -- than the film version. On the screen, it often feels like the filmmakers are marking off a checklist titled "Things That Need To Be In a Scary Movie About Carniverous Plants."

Young movie-goers who are fairly new to the genre may get some genuine chills from The Ruins, as they may be unaware of the hundreds of better films that came before the likes of Eli Roth turned the "dumb pretty American vacationers get butchered" story into the go-to plot for every other new scare flick. More seasoned horror lovers will likely shrug and say, "Eh," while hoping that someone comes up with something new to scare them really, really soon.

Now on DVD and Blu-ray, DreamWorks Home Entertainment's "unrated edition" of The Ruins offers the original theatrical cut of the film with a slightly different ending. Apparently, DreamWorks didn't submit this home video edition for a separate MPAA rating, making the "unrated" banner on the front rather misleading to consumers, who'll assume that they're getting a gorier cut of the film.

There's a nice menu of extras, though, including commentary by director Carter Smith and editor Jeff Betancourt, some deleted scenes, a decent alternate ending and the original theatrical ending, a "making-of" featurette, a couple of featurettes on designing the monster-plants and the sets, and a collection of trailers.

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Dawn Taylor never leaves the marked trail, always holds her buddy's hand, and stays far away from man-eating plants.