TURISTAS is more of a wretched piece of dreck than it needs to be. The photography is somewhat polished and early on the script builds a little bit of tension but nearly every other opportunity and aspect of craft is needlessly botched. When the third act begins to unfold it is so choppy and so rushed that we feel virtually nothing while it occurs. This director offers you no opportunity to connect with anyone or to feel any genuine sense of fear. The social commentary aspect is overstated and clumsily written through expositional dialogue which brings an already lacking narrative to an even more grinding halt. Another point of frustration is just how dark the last part of the movie is. Through much of the climax you can't tell what's going on, who is killing whom...it's a mess. I just have to take a moment to say and this is not overstated...John Stockwell is a terrible director. Let's hope he has enough humility to stop making movies and never breed. Please God let none of his offspring ever go to film school.
This movie is basically Hostel without any of the creeping dread, inventive gross out visuals or memorably twisted moments. Although I was initially intrigued during the first act, there is no way I could ever recommend this movie to anyone.