The Ruins (2008)

A group of American tourists who are enjoying their all inclusive holiday down in Cancun, Mexico decide to go and travel to a ruin as a couple of people didn't show up from a dig the night before and tries to find a taxi to take them there as they spot their vehicle but suddenly they are terrorised by Mexican locals while they go exploring in a jungle which angers them when one of them named Dmitri (Dmitri Baveas) takes pictures of them and kills him. The rest of them run up to a ruin nearby which is full of vines, creepers and red flowers as these people do not allow them to leave the place.
They hear a cell phone ringing at the bottom of the well in the ruin and one of them named Mathias (Joe Anderson) tries to go down to retrieve it as he uses a rope to climb down but it breaks and has a serious accident by breaking his back.
While he is rescued, two of the people named Amy (Jena Malone) and Stacy (Laura Ramsey) go to the bottom of the well as they spot corpses there plus the red flowers seem to mimic any sounds including a cell phone ringing and are lured by these plants. Also a couple of them seem to get a virus from these plants as they grow inside of these tourists too.
When they are attacked by the carnivorous creeping plants, they understand the reaction of the Mayan villagers.

The Ruins was indeed a creepy film seeing these vines act deadly against their victims and it's also a look with tourists struck between a rock and a hard place whether to stay up and die in the ruins or take a chance on escaping some bloodthirsty Mexicans that have weapons killing anyone trespassing on their land.
The film borrows some elements with other flicks like Saw and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Except no bodies were cloned but there were plants invading them which looked similar and more creepy too).
It looked great on a couple of tourists trying to figure out the inside of the ruin and to be terrorised by these flowers and vines but the plot weakens a bit as it goes around in circles. However, it is a real look on surviving this madness where they're at during the same time.
It kinda gives you the creeps on what happens if you leave your all inclusive resort in Mexico by going to these place since many parts of Mexico can be very dangerous in which this film brings out the horror of it adding some monstrous elements on deadly plants living off a ruin.

The acting is not too bad as lead actor Jonathan Tucker showed a great seriousness to his role and showed a good caring attitude too. He stressed his words out very nicely too. He had that guy next door looks to top it off and portrayed what he had to do nicely.
Jena Malone really showed good crying emotions with her temper and energetic through many of her scene's especially towards the end. She put everything she had into her role.
Laura Ramsey did well acting like a basket case after the hell she goes through in this film as well as acting wild and crazy too. She made sure she drew the audiences attention making her part disturbing by what's going on.
Joe Anderson knew his stuff as one of the first victims to the ruin and groaned very well along with acting weak in pain.

There's a brief breast and butt shot on Lauren Ramsey in her hotel room
We spot a butt shot on Jonathan Tucker after taking a shower in his hotel room

There are many brutal cuts after someone falls into a ruin
We see some gruesome looking corpses
Some vines are growing out of a couple people
A guy's legs are sawed off
Many holes are cut open on a woman with vines being pulled out
A woman strips open her skin with a knife
A guy is constantly shot with arrows

Carter Smith directs this piece with both psychological style and good terror too. He shows many good scene's with the main cast enjoying their trip in Mexico as well as a nice effective scene with both Shawn Ashmore and Laura Ramsey as a couple rolling around and enjoying themselves in their hotel room.
We have a good shot on a supporting cast played by Sergio Calderon, Jesse Ramirez and Balder Moreno as nasty Mexican locals surrounding the main cast with their arrows and guns towards them shouting to them in Spanish.
We have great intense reactions on the main cast after they shoot one of their friends with an arrow and then running up to the top of the ruin.
We have a good shot on Joe Anderson tied up to go down to the bottom of the ruin with Ashmore slowly pulling him down along with a great shot on the rope starting to break and everyone panicking trying to lure him up. There's a good shot on the rope broken off along with a good shot on Anderson falling into the pit.
We have a good moment with Jena Malone crying going to the bottom on the ruin and Jonathan Tucker assuring her they will get out safe which looked really natural. We also have a great aggression with Malone towards the cast as the Mexican locals screaming at them and throwing stuff.
We have a nice painful reaction on Ramsey after cutting herself inside the ruin along with a good shot on Anderson lying there injured and speaking weakly. We spot a great direction with Ramsey trying to pick him up so her friends can pull him up in which he does well yelping in pain.
We spot great reactions on both Ramsey and Anderson freaking out after discovering that vines have grown on them after taking off the cover on their sleeping bags.
There's many nice dark camera shots on both Ramsey and Malone holding torches inside the ruins and spotting the vines with good shots on the passageways as well as them spotting a body turned and then after turning it revealing that it's corpse which looked quite creepy. There's also a moment with Ramsey slowly going to a flower from the vines singing and about to touch it with suddenly a noise breaking out and the vines attacking which really makes you jump and the two of them trying to struggle away from the vines escaping.
We spot a good camera angle shot on Tucker giving Anderson a belt to bite on while he plans to saw his legs with great gruesome shots on him doing that too and Anderson hollering in pain. It's totally a great psychological direction.
We spot many good camera shots on the vines surrounding the main cast as well as the vines moving in too.
We spot a good moment with Ramsey losing her temper towards Ashmore and Malone accusing them of having an affair and going into a rant about it and then a good angle shot on Anderson lying down with the vines closing in on him and crawling through his nostrils. There's also a good shot with Ramsey plugging her ears after spotting the flowers copying her aggression and hugging Malone
We have a good shot on Tucker cutting open Ramsey with great shots on her screaming intensely while he's trying to remove the vines.
There's a great raging reaction on Ramsey stripping off skin while both Ashmore and Tucker trying to appraoch her and she goes wild with her knife towards them when they try to touch her.
Ramsey does well on the ground sobbing and moaning to just kill her which looked very realistic that she's in alot of pain.
We have many good shots on Malone racing away in a jungle.

We hear many nice drum rumblings throughout alot of the plots with the low sounding classical music too composed by Graeme Revell. We also hear the odd screeching sounds too with the vines creeping up etc. Plus there's good jungle thumping sounds during a forest chase close to the end of the film.

Archeologist #2: Help me!

Amy: We're being quarantined here. We're being kept here to die.

Jeff: Did you find the phone?
Amy: It's not a phone!
Jeff: Amy!
Amy: No! There is no fucking phone!

Jeff: What's going on?
Stacy: My boyfriend is fucking your girlfriend, that's what's going on!