Horror flicks arriving with no advance screenings are well known now by both the distributors and audiences to be duds.  THE RUINS, another horror scare gore fest arrives with a late 10 pm promo screening before opening day.  So, the film must hold some promise.  For one, THE RUINS is based on the second novel by Scott B. Smith (A SIMPLE PLAN) though this might not mean anything.

Scott B. Smith’s script follows four American tourists in Mexico.  They accompany a German whom they met at their resort to a remote archaeological dig where they are trapped by killer vines.  With that as the story, I wonder what else the Smith’s novel could contain since he does not bother with a lot of essentials as to where the creepers come from or why no one else except the local natives have ever heard of the problem.

As far as gore goes, director Smith and the special effects crew succeed well.  That is, if that is what one is looking for.  The tagline goes: Evil is within.  In one scene, the vines enter Stacy’s (Laura Ramsey) skin.  She carves them out with a hunting knife.  In yet another segment, Jeff (Jonathan Tucker), the medical student of the group breaks the bones of German Mathias (Joe Anderson) before amputating the legs with the same hunting knife.  One figures the knife should be quite blunt by then.

If the aim of a film is to provide all out scares and gore with a minimal story line, then it should be judged on that basis.  As such THE RUINS delivers, but still it could have been better.  Many examples exist for some wry humor, EVIL DEAD style, which Smith should provide more frequently.  The best bit has Amy (Jena Malone) complaining about Mathias’s screaming to which Jeff replies that it is all right as Mathias feels nothing during the amputation as he has no nerves left in his knees. The screams are the result of visuals, he claims.  The film’s special effects are good (the flowers imitating the cell phone ring tones are classic), the actors are annoying but at least all good-looking (though there is no full nudity) and THE RUINS finally emerges as an ok but another forgettable piece of scary entertainment.