The Ruins is a thrifty little horror film that really made my skin crawl. It isn't necessarily groundbreaking in terms of plot structure, but it does offer up big time payoffs that may cause some film goers to cover their eyes.

The Ruins opens with a very familiar set up. A group of twenty somethings vacationing in Mexico decide to explore a whispered about must-see attraction that's off the beaten path. The moment they arrive at their reclusive destination, all hell breaks loose.

With elements of Hostel, The Descent, and Open Water, The Ruins gets a lot of mileage of some truly grotesque shock tactics, but you know what? This is a horror flick, and these particular tactics work like a charm.

Separating The Ruins from many other recent works of horror, is a respectable cast. Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey, Shawn Ashmore, and Jonathan Tucker, are all surprisingly effective even though the plot is incredibly rushed (The Ruins is just under ninety minutes long). Ramsey in particular, really comes alive in the final act when paranoia - or is it?– begins to set in.

The Ruins is an icky gooey creature feature in the same way that Slither and Cabin Fever are, but unlike those pictures, there's nothing funny about this one. It's straight up, balls to the wall horror! These characters are thrown into a dire situation and it only gets worse from there.

Based on the very successful novel by Simple Plan scribe Scott Smith, for a moment it seems as if The Ruins might take the cerebral route ala William Friedken's Bug. Rather, it takes the literal horror route introducing a monstrous force that horror fans are not accustomed to seeing in genre films.

Seriously, when was the last time you saw killer vegetation in a movie? I can think of a few – Little Shop of Horrors, Creepshow (The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill), and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes all immediately spring to mind), but these films all had a campy, comical slant to them. Not The Ruins. Again, this movie means business - and you will be afraid of these predatory plants - trust me.

The Ruins is gruesome, but it's also incredibly creative in terms of execution. The majority of the film takes place in one isolated location, and director Carter Smith makes the most of what he has to work with. And in an interesting change of pace, the ending of the picture isn't quite as bleak as you might expect it to be (which may please or anger devotees of the book. This isn't a re-invention of the genre, but with crap like Prom Night masquerading as horror, it feels like a godsend.