The Ruins

[King of Snake]

Well, I saw this at the Fantastic Film Festival in amsterdam the other day, then the day after I saw it again in the sneak preview in Utrecht (didn't know it was gonna be that movie of course).

According the Stephen King the original book by Scott B. Smith would be "doing for vacations in Mexico what Jaws did for beach weekends on Long Island" but as I haven't read the book (yet) I can only comment on the movie.

For the most part it follows the traditional "group of young kids on holiday get's sidetracked and encounters some deadly force that starts killing them one by one" kind of horror plot. But unlike some other entries in this genre I thought this was genuinely pretty well done, with believable characters and a gripping suspense combining isolation, claustrophobia and invasion of the body snatchers-type fears, and mixing it up with some pretty creepy (and) gory special effects. It works surprisingly well even though in contrast to most other horror movies this one is actually mostly set in daylight.

Recommended (if your stomach can take it)