When flowers scream to imitate a cell phone ring, it’s more funny than scary.

While “The Ruins” doesn’t have much integrity as a horror film, it certainly qualifies as a half way decent survival story.

While vacationing in Mexico, a group of friends (Jena Malone, Jonathan Tucker, Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey) follow a German stranger to the site of a remote and forbidden archaeological dig.

Soon, the friends become entangled in a brutal struggle for survival after hostile and armed local villagers trap the group on Mayan ruins, which happen to be covered in deadly vines.

The vines communicate; trick the friends by imitating sounds, and attack by grabbing hold of people or digging their way beneath the skin.

While the acting holds something to be desired, the movie convincingly reveals every bloody sequence.

One of the friends utilizes a dirt covered hunting knife to grab hold of vine that slithers like a snake beneath the skin or to cut off the remains of a fleshless leg.

Many of the scenes are very difficult to stomach, but needless to say are an improvement from the torture porn sadistic movie trend that has become increasingly more popular in recent years. It can be argued that the gore does have some merit because the characters are fighting for survival, rather than suffering at the hands of a twisted killer.

When the actors aren’t being chased by vines or cutting each other open, they just sit around waiting to die. They are inevitable victims that are annoyingly naive.

To the foolish optimism of Jeff (Tucker), who clearly hasn’t seen any horror movies or watched the news is actually quite hilarious when he declares without irony, “Four Americans on vacation don’t just disappear!”

And when the friends cannot decide whether or not they should amputate their German friend’s leg, Eric (Ashmore) says: “Raise your hand if you want to cut off his legs.”

The storyline, taken from a novel with the same name, is not horribly original and is fairly predictable.
But, the audience will keep watching to see what happens next.

“The Ruins” is worth a single watch, but is likely to disappear from recollection just like any other film in the genre.

Two out of five stars

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