“The Ruins” is a fun, nasty horror chiller.

The plot: A group of vacationing college students  decide to visit a secret Mayan ruin with a German tourist whose brother is doing archaeological work there. Immediately upon arriving at the site, everything turns to hell when the group is quarantined by a band of gun-toting locals. At first the group doesn’t understand what is going on, but it soon becomes apparent why they are not allowed to leave when they become terrorized by vicious plant vines.

After a slow flimsy plot set-up, “The Ruins” quickly takes off and winds up being an unsettling and engaging horror thriller. What sets this particular horror film apart from most is that it focuses on characters. We learn about each of the surprisingly well rounded characters and see them trying to work together and help each other. This film never once sacrifices characters for gore and horror mayhem, which is a rarity nowadays. Speaking of the gore and the vines, they are both exceptional here. The gore scenes (namely the cutting and amputation bits) are quite intense and even had me cringing a few times. The vines also turned out to be quite a nasty enemy. Who knew plants could be scary?

Note: The unrated version is different than the theatrical version as it contains more violence and a different, but superior ending.