Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11524 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-10-08
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

Synopsis
A group of international tourists seeking fun and adventure in Brazil get a lot more than they bargained for in the suspenseful horror film PARADISE LOST. Written by first-time screenwriter Michael Arlen Ross and directed by John Stockwell (BLUE CRUSH), PARADISE LOST, the first American film to be shot completely in the South American nation, is set in the Brazilian mountains, where Alex (Josh Duhamel); his sister, Bea (Olivia Wilde); and her best friend, Amy (Beau Garrett), are preparing for an eco-tour. But when their bus crashes, they are stranded with a group of locals as well as a handful of other tourists, including Finn (Desmond Askew) and Liam (Max Brown), two Brits looking for fast times and hot women, and Pru (Melissa George), a beautiful Australian traveling on her own who takes an immediate liking to Alex. In the middle of nowhere, they find a little oasis in a surprise sandy bar, where they get to know each other, drinking and dancing until they wake up the next morning, having been drugged and robbed of just about everything, with all remnants of the bar gone. They walk into an unfriendly town, but the only person offering any help at all is Kiko (Agles Steib), who might not exactly be leading them to safety. PARADISE LOST is a well-paced thriller that features brutal torture, violence, and a terrific, breathless underwater chase through some very cool caves. The film also succeeds as an examination of the fear--warranted or not--that some Americans feel in the international community post-9/11.

Customer Reviews

Better than expected
A group of young people on holiday in Brazil narrowly survive a bus accident and are then left stranded in the middle of nowhere for 10 hours while waiting for the next bus to arrive. They do a little exploring and come across a beach and a bar and make the most of their time by swimming, drinking and partying. They are then drugged and wake up with all of their belongings stolen. Little do they know that the locals not only want their belongings but also their internal organs.

I had low expectations for this, giving that similar films like Hostel and the more recent Saw film have been nothing more than average, but this wasn't the torture porn horror that I was expecting to see, rather a tense and exciting thriller that was actually quite good.

The storyline was pretty basic but was well executed, building the story up slowly but still managing to keep my interest throughout. It also had a fairly decent reasoning for the killings, rather than just mutilating the tourists for the sake of it. The actual torture scenes were not in it all that much either, so if you have seen the trailer, it is very misleading in that sense, but all the better for it really.

There are some pretty gruesome effects but nothing that hasn't been seen before and there isn't anything at all original about it. However it is a fairly enjoyable horror while it lasts with lots of shocks and scares and plenty of eye-candy too for us guys with some hot young women running about in tiny bikinis for the whole duration of the film.

Overall this is well worth a watch if you like thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat and are genuinely quite scary if you imagine yourself in this kind of situation. Definitely worth a rent, at least.

An average film
A film about good looking travellers who get taken advantage of and ultimately tortured is perhaps a tad offensive to Brazillians, although does have the potential to be scary and nail biting. This film made a good effort but doesn't quite pull it off. The Americans are annoying, the Londoners cheerful cockney chappies that Americans seem to think is true of all Londoners and the Australian (Melissa George) is probably the best character as the mysterious lone traveller.

Probably the most terrifying moment is when the group awake dazed and robbed after having a fantastic night in a bar with seemingly friendly locals. After this, the film sinks into a cross between Hostel, Urban Legend and The Hills have eyes. It's not a bad film, although I'm not sure I would describe it as enjoyable, since it can be really nasty at times. I am not sorry I watched it but I am glad I rented rather then brought this dvd.

Fab!
Starts off light hearted, pulling in very real problems and fears that transpire from backpacking tourists - such as the photography of the little girl and the antagonism there. Immedietly Alex (josh duhanmel) and Pru (melissa george) hit it off, the dynamics of the group work really well and the scariest thing of the film i reackon, is that things like this actually can, and do happen. People get robbed, people trust the wrong locals. Okay maybe the cutting up for organs bit isnt going on but its not too far from the plausible truth.
In general a very good film, delivers sufficient scares, without being over the top, brilliant script, gorgeous location, and an good looking cast - who spend the whole film in swimming shorts and bikinis! what more can you ask for!
Buy it!