hyeristorm’s review published on Letterboxd:
If I had to rank all the horror movies I’ve seen so far, The Ruins would rank pretty high. Some of my favourite horrors are ones that make a seemingly innocuous ‘every day’ object, or in this case, nature: scary.
I will always remember the first time I watched this. It was on an abnormally hot day, where the joy of being a Brit is that you can count the number of heatwave days. The heat only intensified my watch, as we see a group of 20-somethings venture into a dangerous temple in Mexico.
To this day, I still cannot figure out whether The Ruins were sentient, aliens or angered ancestral beings. This, coupled with the isolation that our unlucky group faces, I find myself sinking deeper and deeper into this unsettling atmosphere.
The sound design stuck out to me more on this rewatch, especially how the vines use their powers of mimicry. Their eerie echoes inflict even more psychological terror on our poor tourists, and intensifies how it gets under your skin.
Both viscerally and…
…literally how we see the vines infect the people. It’s violent, bloody, and inescapable.
So is this a cautionary tale about being respectful of a place, culture and its people? Mhmm I’m not too sure the vines care about that. Or the creators here. The Ruins is designed to freak you out, and make you think twice about your next backpacking trip.
——
⚡️ Prev. Rev.: Assassination Nation
🏝️ 2024 August Watches
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