Ruins (film)

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Movie
German title ruins
Original title The Ruins
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2008
length 90 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Carter Smith
script Scott Smith
production Chris Bender
Jeremy Kramer
Stuart Cornfeld
music Graeme Revell
camera Darius Khondji
cut Jeff Betancourt
occupation

Ruins (Original: The Ruins ) is an American horror film from 2008. The novel Thicket and the script are by Scott Smith . He already received an Oscar nomination for the adaptation of his first novel A Simple Plan . The film opened in German cinemas on June 26, 2008.

action

The four American tourists Jeff, Amy, Eric and Stacy are on vacation in Cancun, Mexico . There they meet the German Mathias, who is looking for his brother, Heinrich. He went to a Mayan archaeological site. The four Americans agree to help Mathias with the search. Together with the Greek Dimitri they set off. When they come to an old Mayan ruin, the way back is blocked by Mayans and the Greeks are killed by them. The five are forced by the Mayas to climb the pyramid-shaped temple and are forced to spend the night there. They discover Heinrich's corpse, which is wrapped in a tendril. From the hole in the middle of the temple they hear the ringtone of Heinrich's cell phone. Mathias wants to get it and lets himself down on a rope to do so; but it tears and he breaks his back in the deep fall. Stacy also injured his knee while rescuing Mathias.

Amy is desperate and wants to flee, but Jeff can stop her. At the foot of the temple, out of anger, she throws one of the plants at the Mayas - who are still draconian besieging and guarding the five friends. She meets a little boy who is then shot by the Mayans. Jeff begins to suspect that the Mayans fear only plants.

When Stacy wakes up the next day, she notices that a plant is growing into her wound on her leg. Mathias has a similar experience. Heinrich's cell phone rings again from the hole, and Stacy and Amy go downstairs to retrieve it. What they find, however, is the body of Heinrich's friend, who is holding a defective cell phone in her hand. The two of them are shocked to discover that it is the plants whose flowers have imitated the ring tone. Jeff decides to amputate Mathias' legs because he believes that he would not survive the day otherwise. Mathias survives the amputation, but is killed by the plants in the evening.

Meanwhile, Stacy feels the plant in her body and wants to cut it out with a knife. Jeff cuts some of the tendrils from her body, but Stacy notices them in her leg and head as well. Early in the morning, the friends find Stacy mutilated and covered in blood in front of the tent. They notice that the plants can mimic human tones as well, driving Stacy insane. When Jeff and her boyfriend Eric try to prevent them from mutilating each other any more, she cuts Jeff in the hand out of panic and stabs Eric in the chest, whereupon Eric dies. Because of her serious injuries and the killing of her boyfriend, Stacy also wants to die. This "wish" is fulfilled by Jeff.

Finally, Jeff tries to use a diversion to enable Amy to escape. Amy manages to escape - but Jeff is killed by the Mayas. Amy reaches the jeep after being chased through the jungle and drives away. In the last scene she dies because the plant has already buried its way into her brain, so the endeavors of the agonized Jeff, who is shot at the end, are in vain. In the final scene, two friends of Dimitris arrive at the temple to look for him.

Alternative ending

In the alternative ending of the DVD , Amy carries the plant when she escapes in the jeep. In the next scene you can see a cemetery gardener whistling a song after the work is done. He notices someone trying to imitate this song and discovers that these notes come from the red flowers of a plant growing on a grave. When you zoom in, you can see that this is Amy's grave. When the cemetery gardener leans curiously over the plant and touches it, the film stops.

reception

Reviews

The film received mixed reviews, while Kirk Honeycutt in the Hollywood Reporter described the premise as "silly", James Berardinelli praised it as " good psychological horror ".

Dennis Harvey summed up in Variety that the film lacks the psychological depth of its literary source and essentially comes along as routine. He praised the technical and creative aspects of the film, from Darius Khondji's camera work to Graeme Revell's film music.

Gross profit

Ruins played in the United States on opening weekend about 8 million US dollars and ended up with it in fifth place at the box office. In total, it grossed $ 17 million in cinemas in the United States. In the rest of the world, the film grossed about $ 4.7 million and had a worldwide box office of $ 22 million on a budget of $ 8 million.

production

Ruins represents the feature film debut of Carter Smith, who until then worked primarily as a fashion photographer and director of commercials.

The film was shot in various locations in the Australian state of Queensland .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Ruins , Review by Kirk Honeycutt in the Hollywood Reporter ( June 9, 2008 memento on the Internet Archive ), accessed July 31, 2008
  2. ^ Review by James Berardinelli on reelviews.net , accessed July 31, 2008
  3. ↑ The Ruins , criticism by Dennis Harvey in Variety of April 4, 2008 ( Memento of the original of August 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 31, 2008 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  4. ^ "Weekend Box Office" for The Ruins , entry on boxofficemojo.com, accessed July 31, 2008
  5. ↑ Entry on boxofficemojo.com , accessed July 31, 2008
  6. ↑ Entry on IMDb , accessed on August 24, 2012
  7. ↑ Short biography of Carter Smith in imdb , accessed July 31, 2008
  8. ^ Filming locations for The Ruins , accessed July 31, 2008