Lost Island - Von der Evolution vergessen

This is not a very good movie. I watched it on the sci-fi channel so I wasn't expecting it to be Oscar winning material and it wasn't. The comparison to Predator is valid when it comes to the creatures and how they see the human targets (quite a bit of monster eye view scenes). The acting isn't great but then again, most of the time its just the victims running around, screaming. The plot is certainly weak but if you are looking at this movie and complaining about details such as how the radio still works after washing up on the beach, this is not your movie. Turn off the critical thinking.

The movie begins by laying down the premise. Woman archaeologist finds missing link. Church wants her dead and her findings covered up. She is killed and then assassins are killed by creatures. Main characters wonder in after all this and have nothing to do with the archaeologist and the church. The church wanting to cover up proof of evolution is not terribly hard to believe but sending a group of brutal assassins is certainly over the top but even that isn't a new concept as Tom Hanks has been battling Vatican assassins over the course of two movies now.

So after they crash on the island its a lot of running around and stupidity. There is an argument and a main character walks off (wanting to be alone for a bit) and we are completely shocked that he disappears. This sets off the rest to go searching for him and the hunt begins in earnest.

You don't see any of the 'lost tribe' until the last 10 minutes of the movie and I was pleasantly surprised to see them as they weren't terribly bad, I could even say they were rather well done. Hybrid creatures that show part human part ape. They look more ape like in the way they move but more upright standing and they obviously have a language they speak, ritual and hierarchy.

Acting is, by far, not the worst but far from the best, monster affects are better than your average low budget and are the best part of the movie but only shown in the last 10-15 minutes of the movie. Script and originality are the real weak points.

All in all it was better than I expected but I was expecting it to be so bad I would not finish it (like many sci-fi channel movies).

I did actually think The Lost Tribe would be sort of fun, due to its idea. But I didn't like the film very much. There are redeeming values and they were that it was beautifully shot, Emily Foxler is quite likable and although they're underused the creatures do have some menace to them. Otherwise, the story is unoriginal, all too similar to Predator and The Forgotten Ones, and is not helped by dull pacing and a ridiculous subplot involving a Catholic Priest. The script is unfocused and cheesy especially with Brianna Brown, with not enough mystery or character development, the characters I didn't care for at all either finding them stock or unnecessary. There are some scenes that were poorly done due to either bad acting or direction, I am especially talking about the scene on the beach which also had inconsistent continuity and the unintentionally funny scene in the cave. The climax was decent though, it just came too late to care. The acting is nothing to write home about, Foxler I liked, but Brianna Brown is wasted with some of the worst material of the movie and Lance Henrikssen tries hard but the unnecessary character and ridiculous subplot spoils things significantly. All in all, an unoriginal and dull movie, not an abomination but should have been much more. 3/10 Bethany Cox

million dollar budget? are you sure it wasn't more like a 1,000 and shot in somebody's backyard not a movie studio?

I watched this film in the early morning hours one day when I try to catch horror movies that don't get shown in prime time because many of my favourites are movies that get lower than deserved scores from critics who don't appreciate good horror movies.

This one on the other hand seems more like a student movie that was filmed in a back yard than a professional film. Hiding the enemy in the dark or in the forest cover so you only hear them before they strike can be useful if not overdone but when that is constant it make you wonder if it is an excuse to avoid using special effects.

also means that whatever tension did build begins to dissipate.

there is no real sympathy developed for the characters so why are we supposed to care if they become a meal for whatever it is that lives there ...who are kept separated from the rest of the world by ...the Roman Catholic church who is out to get everyone the stone age lost tribe misses.

although I thought it was a tribe of people who run around in bad gorilla suits.

Don't expect expect Lance Henriksen to work any major skills on this throw-away title. Putting in a total of 5 minutes on screen for a ridiculous subplot about an anti-scientific conspiracy within the (presumably Roman Catholic) "Church," Hollywood's go-to villain- for-hire phones it in for a paycheck.

And yet the film makers - who clearly missed the 1950 Papal encyclical stating there's no conflict between evolution and RC faith - waste the actors time and our patience on the abundantly absurd idea that finding the missing link - in the Americas, no less - is worth sending a hit-team after anthropologists. And that somehow, this species is still alive, and larger and more powerful than modern humans and (as is obvious to anyone who's taken high school biology), simian predecessors.

But this preposterous back story - which could have been ditched for a perfectly serviceable mutants-on-an-island movie - represents the only original idea here. A boatload of yuppie monster fodder crashes on an island. They're attacked by unseen mutants. You're better off wasting money on The Killer Shrews. At least you won't be annoyed by monsters barking faux Klingon, and all the Predator plagiarism (unseen killers in the trees; infra-red mutant point-of-view; and a protagonist blending in by being covered with muck).

On the plus side, the acting is competent, and the photography is pretty good. The mutant makeup is excellent. And yet, as Steven King notes in one of his essays, better stories never show the monster.

I first saw this almost a decade back on a dvd which I own. Revisited it recently on a fast forward mode. It is a rehash of the The Forgotten Ones by the same producers as they became obsessed with the idea of Predator, Descent n Ford Coppola's Dracula or mayb they wanted to splurge the money earned on interest. But the original cast n crew were not fools to reshoot the entire film.

Be careful to avoid wasting time on this turkey, so be aware of the various titles this film is known as, Primevil, Primal, The Lost Tribe, etc. I hope Lance Henriksen charged the producers good money for his 2 mins appearance.

The lead girl escapes the creatures many times/she is not killed by the creatures quickly while the other characters r jus bumped off quickly. The ending is very convenient n a real piece of cake.