The recently released DVD, Turistas, begins on a doomed Brazilian tour bus. The passengers’ vacation takes a shocking turn after a bus crash leaves the group stranded in the middle of nowhere. With no chance of getting help, some tourists team up and head down to a beach, where they drink and dance the night away. Upon waking up on the beach, they realize everything they owned was gone: money, passports, luggage, clothes, and even jewelry.
The tourists, Alex (Josh Duhamel) and his sister Bea (Olivia Wilde) began their trip backpacking through Brazil with Bea’s best friend Amy (Beau Garrett). After the crash, they go off with British men Finn (Desmond Askew) and Liam (Max Brown), and later find Australian traveler Pru. They look to a local, Kiko (Angles Steib) for aid after they are robbed, and he leads them in the search for transportation and police. To their dismay, Kiko actually lures them to a house in the hills where a man has some unpleasant plans for the visitors.
The captor, Zamora (Miguel Lunardi) has discovered the value of organs, and is supporting the black market for human organs. Zamora’s memorable line, “Don’t take this personally; if it makes you feel better I’m doing this for a good cause,” sums it all up. Who better to dispose of than tourists, who are not wanted in the region in the first place? In their captor’s eyes, foreigners have come into Brazil, taking their precious lands for rubber, sugar, and gold and are even using people as throwaway sex toys. Because of this exploitation, he targets tourists. After sedating the victims, Zamora removes the liver and kidneys, and without these vital organs, they die. However, captives rebel after the first is butchered. The rest of the movie revolves around Kiko returning to rescue everyone, and the struggle involved when escaping a man who has people working for him everywhere.
The movie lacks the gore that horror enthusiasts have come to expect. It has its gruesome moments but they are few and far between. The movie’s plot had potential but seemed to fall short, and was reminiscent of the movie Hostel. For those who are still interested in seeing it, the film is out now on video.