Turistas is a film title referencing “tourists”, which is what some people are in viewing horror flicks, whereas others are natives within the genre sporting a collection of Freddy Kruger dolls and sleeping with a Critters poster tacked above the bed. So, how does Turistas stand up as far as entertainment value for the members of either audience?

The movie was directed by John Stockwell, who directed Jessica Alba in a bathing suit immediately prior to this. Oh, if it matters, that movie was titled “Into the Blue”, not Jessica Alba in a bathing suit. Josh Duhamel, of Transformers fame and the Tv series Las Vegas, and Olivia Wilde, recently seen in “Bobby Z” are the main leads playing brother and sister. However, the cast of tourists are rounded out by Desmond Askew, Melissa George, Beau Garrett, and Max Brown.

The plot of the film involves a group of tourists who become stranded in what they think is a Brazilian paradise after their tour bus crashes in route to their real destination. Soon , however, they realize paradise isn’t what it is cracked up to be considering the local market for drugging tourists to steal their organs and such.

The story is basically a take on an urban legend or what may actually be a creepy reality. The acting is on par for the film and the execution of the project overall is quite solid. Nothing excitingly new, and yet nothing to complain about. The movie is touted as being more intense and shocking than Hostel, however it does not truly live up to that sort of boasting. In fact it really becomes less of a horror and more of a gory kind of action survival flick; with there being only one true torture/ operating on someone while they are alive scene. Unless you want to count the amateur first aid that gets applied to one nasty head wound.

The special effects are well done and the filmmakers discuss them in the only real special feature that was on the Dvd I rented. They were proud of the realistic wounds portrayed and they should be, because each machete whack and gun shot was rendered in great bloody detail. There was one really fake looking falling off of a cliff scene, but the aftermath was visually gruesome in a way only horror fans could appreciate.

The reasoning behind the bad guys collecting organs should have just stuck to the basic urban legend of for profit, black market butchery. However, in this movie that aspect was made a bit preachy. The evil doctor tells his motives, ala James Bond villain style, as he operates, and quite frankly his despising tourists for taking too much from his country was a bit too over the top. I would have been happy with him just being a creepy dude who wanted to steal livers and kidneys.

Overall Turistas works well for horror genre fans and non-fans, though the gore involved may be too much for those non-horror fans to handle; unless they could stomach Saving Private Ryan and other violent films. The movie opens with a fairly exciting scenario, moves along a predictable and well-worn path with some fairly sexy actors, and ends with you having been more or less entertained. Solid movie, just not legendary. I could say the same thing about Into the Blue, but Jessica Alba in a bathing suit on the other hand: unforgettable.

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