History Film / TheRuins

* DaylightHorror: Because [[spoiler:blood-drinking ivy growing into open wounds]] is scary no matter how bright it is. However, [[spoiler:the vines themselves are mostly active at night and in the dark...mostly.]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: The novel picks apart the standard teens-get-lost-and-killed-by-monster/psycho story. You have annoying FinalGirl Amy [[spoiler: who dies first]]. You have Stacy, whose first bit of character information is that she cheated on her boyfriend, so she has to [[DeathBySex die]]. However, being the still cherished girlfriend of the [[TheStrategist strategist]] [[TheLeader leader]] [[spoiler: [[HeroicSacrifice that's willing to die for her,]] she survives the longest]]. Jeff, a resourceful Eagle Scout who starts to realize how completely over his head the situation is. Mathias, the mysterious German who leads the group to the temple where all the action takes place, is obviously responsible for the whole situation as some sort of Nazi experiment. [[spoiler: But he isn't, and is offended when the others joke about it.]] In the end, stupidity and gravity almost does more to hurt the group than [[spoiler: the monster vines do]].

* WeaksauceWeakness: Salt keeps the Plant on the hill/pyramid.

* QuarantineWithExtremePrejudice: The villagers keep the protagonists in the ruins at gunpoint and when one of them angrily tosses a vine that hits a child, they shoot him dead and throw his corpse behind the boundary.

** Heavy on the amateur surgery, [[spoiler: including Stacy ''filleting'' her leg on-screen trying to get at nonexistent vines, having been driven to it by the MadnessMantra below.]]
* HereWeGoAgain: [[spoiler: In the film Amy manages to get away, presumably uninfected in the original cut - but, as the movie ends, Dimitri's Greek friends finally show up at the ruins, unwittingly about to kick off the whole cycle again...]]
* HeroicSacrifice: In the film, [[spoiler: Jeff distracts the Mayans long enough for Amy to get away, and gets shot to death for his troubles.]]

* ItCanThink: [[spoiler:The unfortunate campers realize the plant-like entity they're trapped with is mimicking their voices to lure them into a trap. It also mimics a cell phone ringtone further inside the ruin because it knows humans will go to that noise. When it learns of one girl's strong desire to cut herself, it proceeds to [[MadnessMantra repeat her own words to her]] "I want to cut, I want to cut I want to cut IWANTTOCUT!"]]

* ManEatingPlant: A particularly disturbing example at that. [[spoiler:These don't simply consume people. They drink ''blood'', and will grow right into skin or orifices to get to it. Worse, it mimics the sounds made near it to lure unwary humans right to it - see ItCanThink and MadnessMantra below - and once you touch it, it will never stop until it gets your blood.]]

** The lead native [[spoiler: shoots Jeff as the vines begin dragging him away]].
** [[spoiler: Jeff does this earlier to a dying Stacy.]]
* NeverTrustATitle: They think they're going to the ruins, but they actually don't make it that far before they encounter the real villain - the vines.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:Narrowly averted in the movie. Played absolutely straight in an alternate ending, and in the novel.]]