Genre: Suspense/Thriller, Horror
Release Date: 4/4/2008
Running Time: 97 mins
Director: Carter Smith
Cast: Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey, Joe Anderson, Dimitri Baveas, Sergio Calderón, Bar Paly and Jesse Ramirez
Producer: Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld and Chris Bender
Writer: Scott B. Smith
Distributor: Dreamworks/Paramount Studios
Official Site: Click Here
Buy Tickets
Boxoffice
The Ruins
If you turn the first page of Scott Smith’s The Ruins, a friend said astutely, you won’t put it down—but if you know what it’s about beforehand, you won’t pick it up. So let’s just say that if this reworking never approximates the abandon-all-hope ferocity of Smith’s hair-whitening source novel, it’s still a superior shocker with a mood-altering edge of hallucinatory madness. In an absurdist set-up that resembles Beckett by way of EC Comics, five tourists (four American, one German) are forced atop a remote Mayan temple, where they face two options: a quick death from armed villagers who’ve surrounded the site, or a slow death from the snaky, insatiable tendrils of the ruins’ entrenched resident. What follows is a study in situational ethics, destabilized group dynamics, and existential panic, as each new choice between the lesser of two evils only brings greater evils. Though Smith adapted his own book, the briskly paced, neatly telescoped movie is too short to recapture its grinding psychological devastation, leaving a gory but strangely slight allegory of America’s dependence on creature comforts. But first-time feature director Carter Smith, working with resourceful cinematographer Darius Khondji, pulls off the neat trick of using the wide screen to claustrophobic effect. And the actors give such a convincing display of starvation-fueled fear that they deserve their own private craft-service table. - Jim Ridley
Theaters showing The Ruins
(Click on a showtime to purchase tickets)
AMC Crestwood Plaza 10
Watson Rd & S Sappington Rd
Crestwood, MO 63126
314-968-8500
2:40 PM, 5:15 PM, 7:40 PM
AMC Creve Coeur 12
10465 Olive Blvd.
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
314-542-4262
2:00 PM, 5:30 PM, 7:45 PM, 9:55 PM
AMC Esquire 7
6706 Clayton Rd.
Richmond Heights, MO 63117
314-542-4262
Wheelchair Access 2:55 PM, 5:40 PM, 7:50 PM, 10:10 PM
AMC West Olive 16
12657 Olive Blvd.
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
314-542-4262
1:30 PM, 3:45 PM, 6:00 PM, 8:15 PM, 10:30 PM
B & B Festus 8 Cinema
1522 Parkway West
Festus, MO 63028
(636)933-4033
(4:40 PM), 7:15 PM
Galleria 6 Cinemas
Saint Louis Galleria
Richmond Heights, MO 63117
314-725-0808
Special Engagement (1:00 PM), (3:10 PM), (5:15 PM), 7:30 PM, 9:40 PM
Great 8 Cinema - Union
5 Prairie Dell Plaza
Union, MO 63084
(636)583-8889
(5:00 PM), 7:30 PM
Great Escape O'Fallon 14
900 Caledonia Drive
O'Fallon, MO 63368
(636)300-9900
(12:50 PM), (3:05 PM), (5:20 PM), 7:25 PM, 9:55 PM
Hannibal Cinema 5
7 Northport Plz
Hannibal, MO 63401
(573)221-5038
(4:40 PM), 7:15 PM
Plaza Cinema 4
#7 Plaza
Troy, MO 63379
(636)528-4647
2:15 PM, 4:30 PM, 7:15 PM
Regal St. Louis Mills Stadium 18
5555 St. Louis Mills Blvd.
Hazelwood, MO 63042
(314)227-5503
(12:05 PM), (3:05 PM), (5:30 PM), 8:10 PM, 10:30 PM
Sullivan 6 Cinema
3001 North Service Road West
Sullivan, MO 63080
(573)860-7469
4:00 PM, 6:50 PM
Wehrenberg Arnold 14 Cine
1912 Richardson Road
Arnold, MO 63010
(314)822-2463
NO VIP after 6PM;No Coupon (3:15 PM), (5:40 PM), 8:05 PM
Wehrenberg Chesterfield Galaxy 14
450 THF Blvd.
Chesterfield, MO 63005
314-822-2463
DLP-Digital Projection;NO VIP after 6PM;No Coupon (1:20 PM), (3:45 PM), 6:15 PM, 8:35 PM
Wehrenberg Des Peres 14 Cine
12701 Manchester Rd
Des Peres, MO 63131
314-822-4903
NO VIP after 6PM;No Coupon (2:00 PM), (5:20 PM), 7:40 PM, 10:20 PM
Wehrenberg Jamestown 14 Cine
209 Jamestown Mall
Florissant, MO 63034
(314)822-2463
NO VIP after 6PM;No Coupon (1:25 PM), (4:15 PM), 7:05 PM
Wehrenberg Mid-Rivers 14 Cine
1220 Mid Rivers Mall Dr.
St. Peters, MO 63376
314-822-2463
NO VIP after 6PM;No Coupon (1:05 PM), (5:10 PM), 7:45 PM, 10:05 PM
Wehrenberg Ronnie's 20 Cine
South Lindbergh & Baptist Church Road
Saint Louis, MO 63126
(314)822-CINE
DLP-Digital Projection;NO VIP after 6PM;No Coupon (11:30 AM), (1:55 PM), (4:20 PM), 6:50 PM, 9:30 PM
Wehrenberg St. Charles 18 Cine
1830 First Capitol Drive South
St. Charles, MO 63303
(314)822-CINE
NO VIP after 6PM;No Coupon (12:30 PM), (3:00 PM), (5:25 PM), 7:50 PM, 10:10 PM
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