There are many places on earth that are still unexplored, from the deepest parts of the ocean to the mountain rainforests of the Amazon. In certain areas of the world, explorers have stumbled into villages where the people they meet were not too friendly and looked at them as dinner. Cannibalism is nothing new; it has been around for centuries, yet it really got its name when explorers entered the islands of Melanesia, a sub-region of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea. The tribes of these islands were known for their cannibalistic ways, yet recently many of them have abandoned the practices.
The Lost Tribe focuses on a group of archeologists who discover an ancient secret on a remote island. A group of friends who happen to be out in their boat get shipwrecked on the island and run into the team. However, their discovery is more than just prehistoric bones. What they find is a living tribe of primitive creatures with a taste for human flesh. The cannibalistic creatures live in the caves on the island and the band of shipwrecked survivors must try to find a way off the island before they become the next meal.
As a big fan of writer Richard Laymon, I figured this would be a film that took its idea from Richard Laymon’s novel The Island, which later evolved into his Beast House series of books. Also inspired by Laymon, Brain Keene’s Castaways is another novel that comes to mind. Those novels are masterpieces, so I figured I was in for one hell of a ride, as it seemed the writers of this film must have have been inspired by these books. That, however, was not the case, and unfortunately, this film does not start out with a bang, as it suffers to get the story going. The first hour of so of the film seems to be the setup of the plot before the real action begins. We are given the runaround essentially, and then out of nowhere the action begins, and although the last act of this film is action-packed with bloody violence and gore, it’s something we have all seen before.
The film has decent acting and its sets and locations are very well crafted. The special effects and visuals are great and the effects team did a great job in making the creatures look believable. Yet, their look was not original, as I felt that I was looking at the spawn of one of the creatures from The Descent and one of the Predators got it on. In a nutshell, the story is Predator meets The Descent on an island.
The DVD has a few features such as filmmaker’s commentary, behind the scenes of the film and the films trailer. Overall, The Lost Tribe is a film that starts off very slowly, yet hits us hard with a very graphic and bloody ending. This is a film that I’m mixed on. I appreciate where it was trying to go but it had a hard time getting there. I’m mixed on this one, and I think horror fans will be also. Check it out at your own risk and you decide.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
