How appropriate that 20th Century Fox has named its new genre division Fox Atomic, because that division's debut feature, Turistas, is a bona fide bomb! Following the  trend in recent horror history, Turistas focuses more on the "torture" aspect of the genre, chiming in with its own refrain of characters enduring the most heinous situations in all of filmdom. But in the wake of the clever Saw series and the effective shock value of Hostel, the disappointing Turistas showcases a bunch of people traipsing through the jungle for 90 minutes.

A film that won't inspire many viewers to flock to South America for their next vacation, Turistas centers on a group of young men and woman ready to kick back and take in beautiful, scenic Brazil. After a nasty bus accident leaves them stranded, Alex (Josh Duhamel), Pru (Melissa George), and a motley crew of fellow tourists decide to party the night away at a nearby beachfront bar. The good times don't last long, though, for when the gang wakes up the following morning, they soon realize they've all been robbed blind. A friendly local offers them shelter at an uncle's place, but little do our protagonists know that they're being led to a veritable house of horrors, where a mad doctor (Michael Lunardi) with a warped sense of justice targets the kids not for their money -- but for their organs instead.

The major malfunction with Turistas comes from the undermining of an admittedly intriguing premise by its lackluster presentation. Although the film features the terrific idea of a doctor turning the tables on wealthy Americans who exploit the poor Brazilian economy for their own gain by harvesting the organs of tourists, director John Stockwell veers away from an opportunity to combine a meditation on medical ethics and a creepy thriller. Therefore, the movie quickly degenerates into a pretty bland chase movie set in the jungle.

The earlier German chiller Anatomy, about a med student who stumbles upon a secret society that performs medical experiments on still-living patients,  did a much better job as both an eerie thriller and thoughtful social study. In the end, Stockwell fails to deliver a flick with the sort of impact he presumably desired, merely ending up with a mediocre, low-budget descent into medical hell. 

Turistas embraces at least a couple of redeemable characteristics. The characters, although next to indistinguishable from one another, are at least likable and generate a little bit of sympathy. The movie also boasts some decent underwater cinematography (continuing Stockwell's obsession with water-logged stories after helming Into the Blue and Blue Crush) and, in a surprising change of pace, features just one really gory set piece, in which Lunardi's sinister doctor removes a victim's insides while coolly explaining his plans. This might be a more suitable alternative for those who thought Hostel went off the deep end in its many disturbing torture scenes, but on the flipside, only a single shocking centerpiece doesn't reflect well on a movie's ability to generate excitement. Even what could have been the most effective image in Turistas -- a moment where a woman takes a fatal dive off a cliff -- is ruined by some sub-par computer trickery. 

Turistas isn't awful, but it is awfully slow, taking forever to get where it's going and not doing much when it gets there. 

MY RATING: ** (out of ****)

(Released by Fox Atomic and rated "R" for strong graphic violence, disturbing content, sexuality, nudity, drug use and language.)