The RuinsMovie Reviews

Poster art for "The Ruins."

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Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    A surprisingly effective little horror nightmare. Read full review

  • 70
    L.A. Weekly |

    First-time feature director Carter Smith, working with resourceful cinematographer Darius Khondji, pulls off the neat trick of using the wide screen to claustrophobic effect. And the actors give such a convincing display of starvation-fueled fear that they deserve their own private craft-service table. Read full review

  • 63
    Miami Herald | Rene Rodriguez

    The Ruins is, with one major caveat, about as good an adaptation of Scott Smith's bestselling novel as Hollywood was ever going to make. Read full review

  • 50
    The Onion A.V. Club | Scott Tobias

    Director Carter Smith suffers from another, more common problem: In trying to squeeze every plot point from the book into a 90-minute movie, he failed to capture its chilling essence. Read full review

  • 50
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    In the end, the gimmick is too risible and its effects on the characters too forced to sustain either suspense or horror. Read full review

  • 50
    Los Angeles Times |

    The characters never evolve past mere functionality, and the adherence to certain tried-and-true horror tropes -- the good girl who doesn't want to go but does, the generic naughty kids who get it first -- feels workmanlike, robbing the story of any real suspense or surprise. Read full review

  • 42
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    The Ruins is lumpish, static, and obvious. It's a gringos-go-home cautionary fright flick done in the spirit of a cheap '50s horror movie, except that it leaves you longing for the competence of grade-Z studio-system trash. Read full review

  • 40
    Variety | Dennis Harvey

    Ultimately less dependent on suspense or even scares than on squirm-inducing grossouts, this tale of Yank hardbodies vs. carnivorous creepers should flower briefly in hardtops, then spread like an invasive weed in ancillary. Read full review

  • 40
    The New York Times |

    More disgusting than scary, The Ruins is the latest in a long line of horror films about upper-middle-class travelers being terrorized in unfamiliar environments. Read full review

  • 20
    Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov

    As it stands, The Ruins is about as interesting as a pile of old stones and a monkey-dumb yanqui falling prey to the horrors of globalization. And that's pretty dumb. Read full review

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