A group of tourists meet up at a secret tropical paradise on the beaches of Brazil. After a few mishaps they find themselves robbed, chased through the jungle and that’s the best part of their day. Later they end up prisoners of a mad Brazilian who has intricate and unpleasant plans for them.

At first glance Turistas seems to be a Hostel imitator, and in a way it is. It preys on our American xenophobia like Hostel did. The surprising thing is that before Roth, no one really did as a horror genre, but it really works. The current amping up of anti-American sentiment due to our immoral foreign policies just fuel the fires of entertainment value so expect to see more and more flicks where innocent Americans are preyed on by all the evil foreigners and their crazy customs that are different from our crazy customs. Hey, in the real world the fact that our athletes have to pretend to be Canadian causes me great shame, but when horror flicks are involved, it’s all good, baby!

First let me point out that in some ways Turistas is much like Hostel, the innocent setup, the happy-go-lucky tourists that are more concerned with booze and sex than local sites and customs, and the minor mistakes they make snowball into life or death issues. That being said, that’s about it. Many will call this Hostel Lite, and it really is to an extent. The plot here is quite different, the elements are just the same. It comes down to this, for years we’ve seen many horror movies that get their power from fear of people who are different. It’s usually rednecks, but this time it’s foreigners.

Anyway, enough about impressions and the snap judgments, let’s talk about the actual flick.

It’s pretty good, if you watch it and feel like you didn’t get your money’s worth, you’re a cheapskate. It’s not great, it won’t go down in history like Hostel really might, but it’s entertaining, suspenseful and reasonably well done.

Right away I felt the overwhelming menace in the seemingly innocent setting, and that was used throughout the movie. Beauty hiding danger is the main theme, and it got to be quite nerve-wracking at times. In relation to this feeling, it was very well designed and maintained throughout the opening and introductory parts of the flick.

One thing that added to the effectiveness of the film was that although the characters were by no means perfect, they were all likeable, rather that being unrealistically bastardly, they were at worst a little annoying. This is an interesting change in horror flicks that I’m seeing lately. The old slasher idea of setting up strongly flawed characters to be machete fodder for our entertainment is switched so that we’re identifying with them more than just giggling at their massacres. I think this is a good thing, while most people embrace the 80’s as a great time for horror, I see it as the time when the goal of horror flicks turned from scaring the audience just to entertaining them. If you want to know why horror is looked down upon as less than serious art, I blame the 80’s. I want my horror to be scary, if I want wisecracks I’ll watch an Adam Sandler flick.

On the flip side, the main characters were done well, but the bad guy wasn’t. He was as one-sided at Mr. Burns but without the humor. He hated gringos, he hated the native South Americans, he hated his fellow Brazilians, and this all made his motivation seem put on. Maybe I was being over-analytical, though.

I was also annoyed by all the swimming and underwater action, it was really hard to believe and didn’t add anything to the movie. What’s more, it’s hard to tell who’s who in the dark, underwater. It really felt like the scene’s goal was to stretch the movie out some and it annoyed me considerably.

Anyway, if you’re looking for something as grim and disturbing as Hostel, prepare for some major disappointment, this film is not even in that realm. It’s got plenty of suspense, and while graphic at times, not really gory. It did keep me on the edge of my seat, but it’s not a twisted look at the sickest aspects of humanity. More like some examples of how Americans thinking we own the world might work out badly for us when surrounded by people we’ve deemed less valuable than ourselves. That’s a very real fear and it works pretty good here.

Also the cast is hot, I thought that if a woman wore a tiny bikini for an entire film, I’d eventually become desensitized to her buttcheeks. Not so at all.

In closing, as I said this film does deliver, but I’m concerned that the marketing will be it’s flaw. It’s not delivering on what the previews promise. Go for a suspenseful and entertaining horror flick and you’ll be pleased. If you’re looking for Hostel, watch it on DVD. This one will be hated by many just because of this poor decision.

6 out of 10 movies where my favorite part was the buttcheeks

I agree with just about everything the Horrorist has said about this movie. Great review, by the way. I liked the movie as well. I didn’t think I would because it came off in the previews as a direct rip-off of Hostel. While I liked Hostel, I didn’t want to like a movie that I thought was capitalizing on the fame of another movie. That’s why it took me about two years to watch it. I was mistaken. While it is similar to Hostel in theme, it is its own entity.

The story started slowly, but I was fine with that. I never got bored with it. I enjoyed the acting and the scenery was beautiful and dangerous. The characters were likable and I had an interest in them. The evil doctor did seem a little cold blooded and one dimensional, but not completely unrealistic I guess.

Man, there were times when I could feel the complete isolation of these poor tourists and the potential danger they could be in. Running around half naked, broke, no cell phone, no language, no transportation, foreign country, no police, no embassy. Wow.

I liked the swimming scenes in theory because they made the isolation even more apparent (and they were quite breathtaking). However, they were hard to follow and got annoying. They were a little long as well. Plus, there was one bad guy that looked just like the main good guy, so I was always confused on who the hell was doing what.

In general, I really enjoyed this movie and thought I would hate it. My bad. I give this movie 7 out of 10 eye-kabobs.