Moviestopped: Lost Colony- The Legend of Roanoke

At last, something not bad!  It's not great, but...it's not bad.  Thank you, Adrian Paul!  Today's Film is Lost Colony: The Legend of Roanoke aka Wraiths of Roanoke aka The Lost Colony, a 2007 Film based 'kind of' on History.  Have you ever wanted to happen to know what happened to that infamous Colony?  SPOILER ALERT: It's Ghosts.  Alright then.  The Film comes to us from a Director who has worked on Guardians of the Galaxy, The Hunger Games, Man of Steel and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.  He's a Concept Artist.  Was that last bit misleading?  My bad.  To be fair, he also Directed Epoch, Super Eruption and Time Machine: Rise of the Morlocks.  The Star here is Adrian Paul, right at the point where he was mostly just doing Sci-Fi/Syfy Channel Films.  This is before he started working on Asylum Films, but after his Co-Star Rhett Giles STOPPED working on them.  Poor Adrian here has yet to Star in one of their Films that was actually based on a hit, as opposed to AE: Apocalypse Earth and Apocalypse Pompeii.  The Film, as mentioned, is about the poor folks in Roanoke who learn a dark secret.  Will they survive?  Well, they are a lost Colony, so...no.  Mind you, The Messengers 2 was somehow a Prequel that didn't set up its more famous Film with a dark Ending, so...maybe they do.  This one is actually quite passable and even good at times.  To see if it all works out, read on...

If you don't know the Story, here it is.  It only took 1 Screen to tell it too!

In the Syfy Channel Opening, one guy is killed by the Wraiths (bye, Mystery!) and the other hangs himself to be found months later.

The Colonists return and Adrian Paul seems wistful.

On the plus side, he's not annoyed in every Screencap this time.

Outside of the Colony proves to be dangerous with Ghouls and deadly trees.  Is this Mandrake ?

Said Ghouls are legitimately kind of freaky.  Kudos.

In a B-Plot, there is tension with the neighboring Croatoans.  I should note that this guy is actually Australian.

In a weirdly-familiar bit, some Colonists attack the Natives, somehow blaming them for everything.

Yes, this does look like the opening of The Revenant, albeit with more cuts and worse Direction.

Things continue to get worse and worse as Paul blames himself every time.  Mopey Paul.

In the End, only our Heroes and the spouses remain...but they all die.  Paul manages to burn the bodies (they are angry Spirits of a Witch and her family killed by Vikings) though and end this.

Don't worry- they don't kill the baby.  She is just left with the Tribe and to history.

Well, unless you read that weird Batman-Spawn Comic that says otherwise.  The End.

Surprisingly-good stuff.  To be honest, this Film is why I even bought this set.  Although, again, buying is a relative term as I got 13 Discs, but only paid for 3 (and those were at 70% off).  There actually was a set with just Poker Run and Blood Creek- thank God I got this instead!  At least Grizzly Park gave me Ranger William Bob and 2 extra segments (one to come).   I actually kind of remembered this one, which is why I got it.  I remember seeing it on Sci-Fi (pre-name change) and it not sucking.  Paul and company do a pretty good job here, even if the Acting is very bi-polar.  They are happy, super-sad, super-scared, very happy, etc.  That doesn't make the Film bad- just a bit off-putting sometimes.  The basic Premise- killer Ghosts in the Colonies- is a good one and they play with it pretty well.  The obvious questions- like why not just leave- aren't ignored here, although your satisfaction with the answers may vary.  The reason for the Ghouls is a bit odd, but mostly works for me.  I still have issue with the 'lash out at everyone' idea for Ghosts, but that is just my hang-up.  Lost Colony is better than you would think it might be, thanks to the mostly-period look (IMDB is full of nitpicks, of course), good creatures and generally-good Acting.  Plus they found an excuse to have Adrian Paul swordfight in here- win, win.

Next up, more random Films as I work through recent purchases.  It is a mystery bag of crazy.  Stay tuned...