Spectrum


Movie Preview:
The Ruins
By Allyson Wilson

"I had some weird, crazy dreams while shooting The Ruins. When I was done with shooting I tried to just leave it there, and I knew that the next morning I had to return to it," admitted Laura Ramsey, one of the leading actresses from this month's first horror film release The Ruins.

The Ruins, directed by Carter Smith, is the film based on the 2006 Scott Smith novel with the same title. The Ruins tells the story of a group of friends who become "entangled" in a brutal struggle for survival after visiting a remote archaeological dig in the Mexican jungle, where they discover a carnivorous vine living among the ruins.

The Ruins features actors Sean Ashmore, Jena Malone, Johnathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey, and Joe Anderson - all actors you know, but never knew the name of.

The movie, which was filmed in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, was actually no more than a set built on stilts. In the book, the characters camp on a large hill covered in vines and red flowers.

"I've read the book, and it [the movie] stays very true to the book. I mean, there are certainly changes, characters, different things that happen in the book," said actor Sean Ashmore, who you may know as Ice Man from the 2006 movie X-Men: The Last Stand.

"The reason why it's [The Ruins] scarier, is because of the realistic factor" says Ramsey. "Like, you can actually picture yourself stranded somewhere having to deal with a life or death situation," she said.

"I think the scariest part and the most horrific things that happened in this film, [are what] our characters do to each other," added Ashmore. "So to see that sort of breakdown or transition that these characters go through from the very beginning in the film - where it's just these young kids sort of having fun on vacation - to going to this place of complete fear and survival mode is really extreme,” he said.

"People get sick of those horror films where, I mean, you creep along and take that long pause right before something happens. Someone gets naked and they have sex, and then someone gets killed. It's predictable. You're so used to seeing those types of choices," said Ashmore. "Whereas in a movie like this, you get to know the characters before anything awful even happens."

"I agree completely," said Ramsey. "I put myself in the situation and made it realistic for myself and they just add in the music and the scary sounds that go along with it."

When asked what other movies could best describe The Ruins, Ramsey and Ashmore compared it to a mix between Lord of the Flies and Deliverance.

To see The Ruins movie reviews, and other viewer opinions as well as movie spoilers check out:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20188997,00.html (Entertainment Weekly Review)
http://www.theruins.com
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0963794/ (The Internet Movie Database Review, Synopsis & Spoilers)



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