Starring Jena Malone (as Amy), Laura Ramsey (as Stacy), and Jonathan Tucker (as Jeff), 2008’s ‘The Ruins’ centres around a group of friends that make the very clichéd bad choice of visiting a forbidden temple while on vacation. The results were more than devastating, with them getting swallowed up by carnivorous plants, shot by locals or, simply killing themselves. This Carter Smith directed film has average ratings on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, but fans of the genre have deeply enjoyed watching it. As if the film was not dreadful enough, it was found that an alternate ending to the film that never made it to the final cut was even more forlorn.
The original film synopsis
The story starts innocently enough as friends enjoy their holiday at a Mexican resort and later decide to visit a forbidden location. Once there, they encounter panicky locals, and things go sideways when one of the friends gets shot. As a result, they climb up the hill and cannot escape because they risk getting shot. However, the danger lies on the hill when they realize that they are surrounded by carnivorous plants that feed on them while they sleep and enter their bodies through any open wounds. They all drop dead one by one, with one particularly unforgettable scene that as fans squinting- Stacy carves up her entire body trying to rid herself of the plants moving inside her and accidentally stabs her boyfriend when he tries to stop her. In a final attempt to escape, Jeff and Amy try to fool the locals, and even though they kill Jeff, Amy can get in a jeep and get out. The film ends with the camera panning close to her terrified face, and the audience can see the vines moving inside her skin, knowing that she is infected too.
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Why the alternate ending was scarier
In the alternate ending, too, Amy escapes, but in a flash-forward we see that she has died, and now the same red flowers from the carnivorous plant grow on her grave. The people in the city remain unknown to its dangers, and hence this could mean that everyone is at great risk. This ending from an unrated version certainly seems more sinister than what made it to the final cut, but director Smith said that they wanted to give the viewers what would satisfy them the most, in his opinion.
