'The Ruins' is Above My Satisfaction.

Dark and eerie, 'The Ruins' made conclusion to a tale that was once told in a Scott Smith book, a "thoroughly entertaining and intensely gripping experience". There is an exponentially growing list of underrated films and fact I can mention tons. You can smoothly add 'The Ruins' to that, a dark-fantasy themed psychological horror/thriller that is directed by a debuting director, Carter Smith back in 2008. It delivers the good as a horror adhering to the traditional convention of the genre: beautiful people as main characters, a little bit of skin, a subtle amount of spine-tingling (hey gore, thank you very much), and the horror...itself.

I got this on DVD at a very reasonable price and thought my money was not put to waste.

Jeff (Jonathan Tucker) and company: Amy (Jena Malone), his girlfriend; Stacy (Laura Ramsey), Amy's best friend; and Eric (Shawn Ashmore, I remember him from X-Men 2 as "Iceman") Stacy's boyfriend on vacation and of support for Jeff's trip through his dream of being a doctor. In one fateful event, they met Mathias (Joe Anderson), a brother of an archaeologist whose current goal is to go find his brother. Mathias presents an attractive offer to come with him in a 'secret' ruins where his archaeo brother is. Clumsily written, Jeff and Eric throws off the reason "that's the kind of thing I want to do".

Once they reached the ancient Mayan temple that once they called the "ruins", things become darker. Aloof Mayan locales, flesh-eating primitive botanic species, and the frightening twists of the human mind. Jeff and his friends now faces terror in the most mysterious ways that they can imagine.

There is an anxiety inside me if I am just utterly stupid to think that 'The Ruins' is a great movie, but then I re-watched it again. No. I'm not stupid. Perhaps the other critics are, to dub this "bad". Albeit I acknowledge and respect different people's different opinions, I still can't comprehend why they underrate 'The Ruins' too much. It was frightening, dark and gloomy in a shrewd fashion sense. Director Carter Smith is impressive and it's a pain to knowledge that since 'The Ruins', I've never heard of him anymore.

I shall applaud the actors for doing a remarkable job easily putting the audience to the edge of their seats. Jonathan Tucker pulls out the 'puzzling' among the characters that efficiently keeps the viewers to figure what is going to happen next. Is Jeff, his character, the one that is behind this, or is he going to be the one to bring salvation to his peers. In the climax sequence, we didn't felt like cheated, but we didn't felt like stunned either.

A generous amount of gore is impressive however critics dismisses this belief in this movie. There is no excess in the gruesomeness that this film had showcased. In my opinion, 'The Ruins' in terms of gore is above satisfactory level. The type that even grotesque sub-genre devotees would fidget. It was a tastefully gruesome gore-fest.

With all the goods delivered, perhaps the weakest foundation is the little things. The petty elements inside the movie gave an enormous impact to the film. The plot, is too stark that left us wanting for more.