Film

Creatures the World Forgot

Name: Creatures the World Forgot
Genre: Adventure, Horror, Science Fiction
Released: 1971
Cast: Julie Ege, Brian O'Shaughnessy, Tony Bonner, Marcia Fox, Rosalie Crutchley

A 1971 prehistoric adventure where rival brothers battle for tribal leadership and a woman's affection after a volcanic cataclysm. Shot on location with genuine ambition, it's a sweaty, earnest attempt at something like *2001* for the caveman set—part anthropological speculation, part raw melodrama. For fans of pulpy sci-fi worldbuilding who don't mind wobbling on the edge between sincere and accidentally hilarious.

TMDb rating

2.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy old-fashioned cave-era survival stories where the landscape is as much the antagonist as the men, and you don't mind creature-feature fun mixed with blunt, earnest melodrama.

Skip it if you want sharp dialogue or subtle character work, since the talk is sparse and the rivalry plays out in familiar, soap-opera terms.

What it asks of you: Ninety-two minutes running mostly on quiet wandering and survival grind, with long stretches of open landscape and only occasional jolts, so settle in and let it unfold at its pace.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Quest for Fire1981

Another prehistory epic that treats early humans with genuine dignity, showing language, tool use, and social structure emerging in real time. Vastly more polished, but the same primal storytelling energy.

But Subtitled and deliberately paced—it asks patience, and there's minimal dialogue to cushion the slow build.

Neighboring Sounds2012

A French-Icelandic film about a young Ice Age hunter tracking a shaman across impossible terrain. Visually stunning and philosophically strange, it captures that sense of incomprehensible landscape and species memory.

But Very quiet, very cold, very far from action-movie rhythms. Some will find it too meditative by half.

Alpha2018

A boy tames the first wolf in prehistoric times. It's got genuine adventure, strong emotional beats, and treats its prehistoric setting as real rather than just a backdrop for spectacle.

But Mainstream and safe; if you want something stranger and rougher, this smooths all the edges.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Creatures the World Forgot

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Schultze Gets the Blues2003

Both films find drama in the collision between an outsider and an unfamiliar world, in bodies learning new terrain and survival through social belonging rather than triumph.

A retired German coal miner moves to rural Louisiana to live quietly and play accordion. It sounds slight—it's profound: a study of how we choose home, displacement, and the music that survives us. Funny, aching, completely unexpected.

But Slow and deliberately small. If you need narrative momentum or emotional obviousness, this will feel like nothing happens for an hour and twenty minutes.

The Blue Lagoon1980

Two shipwrecked teens make a life on an uncharted island, learning survival, sexuality, and danger together. Lush cinematography and genuine isolation—it has real stakes underneath the beauty.

But The sexual elements feel dated now, and the film luxuriates in danger rather than examining it. Some find it exploitative.

Eolomea1972

A wild Hungarian sci-fi film where humans land on another world and encounter an alien woman. It's as strange and sincere as prehistoric cinema can get—slow, haunting, deeply weird.

But Almost impossible to follow in places. The logic of the alien society is deliberately obscure, which frustrates as much as it intrigues.

The Land That Time Forgot1974

A WWI submarine crew discovers a hidden prehistoric continent. Earnest creature effects, adventure plotting that actually moves, and that sweet spot of ambition meeting budget constraints.

But The dinosaurs don't always convince, and the script leans on coincidence. Better the pacing than the effects.

Cherry 20001987

A post-apocalyptic love story with genuine heart: a man travels into a wasteland to recover a robotic lover. It's trashy but tenderhearted, action-packed yet oddly romantic.

But Wildly uneven tone—it can't decide if it's satire or earnest, and the tonal whiplash bothers some viewers.

The Lair of the White Worm1988

Ken Russell's adaptation of Bram Stoker about an ancient snake goddess. Surreal, sexual, deliberately overwrought—it has the baroque commitment to strangeness that 70s worldbuilding sometimes achieved.

But It's aggressively weird and sometimes incoherent. Russell's maximalism is a feature, not a bug, but it exhausts easily.

Zardoz1974

Sean Connery in a red diaper confronting immortal beings in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Nakedly ambitious, visually bizarre, structured like no other film. A genuine oddity that swings for something real.

But It doesn't always connect; large stretches are genuinely baffling. Fascinating failure might be kinder than success.

Prehistoric Planet2022

Both attempt to dramatize a world utterly unlike our own by imagining its emotional interior: what does it feel like to live there, to fear, to belong, to compete?

A six-part docuseries using cutting-edge CGI to show dinosaur life as it actually was: parenting, mating, dying, migrating. Stunningly beautiful and genuinely educational—you see the texture of an alien world.

But No human drama or conflict. It's pure observation, which many find boring or emotionally distant.

My Name Is Khan2010

Both are earnest films from outside mainstream cinema that refuse to soften their vision for palatability—they want to move you, they use every tool available, and they don't apologize for the mix.

Shah Rukh Khan plays a man with Asperger's syndrome trying to reach the US President after 9/11. It's a Bollywood masala film—big songs, color, melodrama—that also holds genuine social rage and tenderness.

But The mix of Bollywood spectacle and serious political content can feel awkward; some scenes are manipulative. It's messy by design.