Hitting the theaters Dec. 1, with holiday movie season in full swing, it's hard for horror films to hold up well in competition and, most of the time, they end up being a huge disappointment. "Turistas," directed by John Stockwell, attempts to break this horror holiday curse with an interesting story, but ultimately fails in achieving such a goal in just a measly 89-minute runtime.
The trailer for "Turistas" looks extremely scary, promising a twisted account of a vacation gone awry. It is a beautiful day on the beach in Brazil. Everybody gets drunk and passes out, only to find out, upon waking up, that they have been robbed. They walk into town, looking for help, but no one understands, or is indifferent to their plight. They are led to a mysterious house in the middle of the jungle. And that is where things start to turn ugly. A huge variety of passports are found in a drawer. The movie poster's portentous, "Go Home," piques curiosity and drives audiences to the theaters.
Once there, audiences will find out this horror film doesn't fare any better than any other horror movie released during the holiday season. For such hype, it is a great letdown. "Turistas" sets up an interesting storyline of missing tourists in foreign countries, but the movie swerves off the potentially-involving-plot road and ends up in a ditch in the backwaters of nowhere.
During the opening credits, an ominous mood builds with little bits of newspaper clippings showing tourists gone missing. The film truly begins as a bus careens up a mountain, out of control. The main characters have to walk to a local beach where they seem to get along well with the natives. At this point, everything seems all right for the tourists; nothing truly blood-curdling has yet to be seen. However, an uneasiness is heightened when the audience is introduced to a doctor character, who has been told that there are "gringos" around. Here the film takes a turn for the worse.
It can be argued that "Turistas" is similar to "Hostel" (2005) in the way of the vacation-gone-bad movie, but "Turistas" has only one truly gruesome part that leave a lasting image in the mind, while "Hostel" has many. With the gore and blood, this film takes it to another level - because these things seem like they can actually happen.
The doctor, Zamora (Miguel Lunardi), is an interesting character, though the film explains little about his character. The main characters don't make the classically stupid decisions found in most horror movies: their reactions seem close to what people in real life would do. Despite this level of reality, there should have been more emphasis on character development, so that the audience would feel more sympathy for them.
The film does get some things right. The exotic setting, in which the culture, lifestyle and language are unknown, contributes to the characters' apprehension. The underwater scenes are well done and add to the movie's scare factor in the end.
"Turistas" has its good points and bad. Overall, it is an interesting idea for a movie, but the disappointing result is not worth the money spent on a ticket and T fare.
