TURISTAS (2006)

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"Takes a long time to get where it's going, but dosen't do much when it gets there."

Turistas is as dull a film one could ever imagine. The movie proceeds at a slow moving pace before devolving into an incoherent mess during its final 30 minutes. The routine storyline seems to have been roughly assembled together from other, better horror flims.

Turistas centers on a group of tourists who are brought together in a rural area of Brazil, after a nasty bus accident leaves them stranded. Alex (Josh Duhamel) is on vacation with his sister, Bea (Olivia Wilde) and her friend, Amy (Beau Garrett). Pru (Melissa George), is a native of Australia. With Finn (Desmond Askew) and Liam (Max Brown) visiting from the U.K. Instead of waiting for the replacement bus, the group decides to go party the night away at a nearby beachfront bar. The supposed paradise dosen't last long when the gang wakes up the following morning, they soon realize they've all been drugged and robbed. A friendly local offers them shelter at a safe house, but little do they know they're being led into a trap run by a mad doctor with a warped sense of justice who targets the group for organ harvesting.

The sort of well-worn premise it features certainly could've been fashioned into a cliched yet entertaining genre endeavour. As for example when compared to Eli Roth's highly skilled Hostel. Instead it turns into a pretty mediocre, low-budget chase movie set in the jungle. John Stockwell's misguided directorial decisions become more noticible in the film's conclusion. There is little to none suspense or terror during this portion of the film, as the viewer is forced to squint really hard in an effort to figure out what the hell is happening on screen. This is because the difficult to comprehend sequences revolving around the survivors' efforts to make their way to freedom occur in the dark and worst underwater.

It's one thing to use darkness to set a tone and give the film an authentic look, but when it results in total frustration in a viewer who needs a certain amount of clarity especially during the climax, Stockwell fails to deliver on an admittedly intriguing premise by its lackluster presentation. This might be a more eligible alternative for those who thought Hostel crossed the line with it's many disturbing torture scenes, which as a result the only really gory set piece doesn't represents a movie's ability to generate excitement.