In the Lost Lands is a 2025 German-Swiss-American-Polish-Canadian post-apocalyptic action fantasy film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, with a screenplay by Constantin Werner from a story they co-wrote. Based on the short story of the same name by George R. R. Martin, the film stars Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista as a witch and a hunter, respectively, who journey into a dangerous landscape to find an artifact for a queen.
In the Lost Lands was first released in Australia on February 27, 2025, and was released on March 6, 2025 by Constantin Film Verleih in Germany and Praesens-Film in Switzerland, and in the United States on March 7, 2025, by Vertical in North American territories.
Contents
Plot
A bloodied man named Boyce directly addresses the viewer, warning them that what they're about to see is not a happy fairytale. Earth has become an uncivilized, dystopian wasteland called the Lost Lands. In a society ruled by the Overlord, order is forcibly maintained by the Church. Gray Alys, a witch, is being hanged, on the orders of the Enforcer and her followers from the Church. Gray Alys uses her powers to trick a man with illusions into helping her escape, but the Enforcer kills him for it and leads a group of men in pursuit of Alys.
Boyce is alone and unscarred in the Lost Lands, he walks through a tunnel and anticipates an ambush. He uses a two-headed snake as a weapon before shooting the remaining enemies and continuing his journey. Gray Alys finds refuge with a blind old woman. The Queen, wife of the Overlord, and the head of the Overwatch, Jerais, visit her. The Queen seeks Gray Alys' assistance, invoking a pre-existing agreement that Alys does not refuse requests from anyone. The Queen needs a werewolf's power by next week's full moon; Gray Alys is tasked with killing the beast and bringing its power to the Queen. Jerais secretly sabotages the Queen's endeavor, believing its failure is ultimately in her best interest. Gray Alys uses her powers to find a shapeshifter by entering its mind.
The Queen hates the ailing Overlord, who is on the verge of death. Alys seeks out Boyce in a pub to enlist his help in finding a shapeshifter. The creature is known as Sardor, meaning "Grey Wolf". The Enforcer is working with the Patriarch, who is secretly plotting to overthrow the Overlord and the Queen, despite serving the Overlord. The Patriarch orders the Enforcer and acolytes to capture Gray Alys, extract a confession, and then execute her.
Gray Alys and Boyce began their expedition into the Lost Lands, where Boyce encounters his old friends Ross and Mara. Boyce and Mara have sex before Boyce continues his quest with Gray Alys. The Enforcer captures and tortures Ross and Mara, seeking information about Gray Alys and Boyce. The group was supposed to go to Skull River, but they murder Ross and kidnap Mara instead.
Boyce and his friend search for Cyrus, but discover he has been hanged by the Church. Boyce and Gray Alys locate the Enforcer and her goons, but they have shielded their eyes to block Gray Alys' powers. The Enforcer kills Mara to further torment Boyce. He and Gray Alys are attacked, leading to a gunfight and a chase to an air tram where most of the goons are thrown to their deaths. The Enforcer orders the cable cut, and shoots Boyce, but Gray Alys uses her powers through a sniper lens to save him and escape.
Production
Development
In February 2015, it was announced that German producer Constantin Werner had purchased the rights to three George R. R. Martin short stories: "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr", "In the Lost Lands", and "Bitterblooms". Werner planned to adapt all three stories into a single film with Milla Jovovich playing Gray Alys, and Justin Chatwin playing Boyce. This version of the film never happened and the project entered limbo.
In 2021, the film re-emerged with Paul W. S. Anderson as director, Jovovich's husband who collaborated on the Resident Evil film series, The Three Musketeers (2011), and Monster Hunter (2020). Dave Bautista replaced Chatwin as Boyce, while Werner served as co-writer and producer. According to Werner, the film was planned to begin filming in late 2021 or early 2022, but was delayed to late 2022. In an August 2022 interview prior to filming, Anderson described the film as a "Western", saying:
At its heart, it's very much a western as it has all the iconography that one would associate with a western. It's set in a post-apocalyptic land, so on the surface it's not a western, but at its heart it is most definitely a western. It deals with a lot of western tropes and storytelling and imagery, so I am very excited to be doing that.
Filming
Principal photography began 14 November 2022 at Alvernia Studios in Poland. Photography wrapped in February 2023, after 46 days.
Visual effects
The visual effects were provided by Herne Hill Media, which had previously worked on Anderson's Resident Evil films and Monster Hunter.
Post-production
In February 2023, Martin indicated on Twitter that filming had concluded in Poland and was undergoing extensive post-production.
Release
In September 2024, Vertical acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the film. In November 2024, Martin revealed the film's American release date as February 28, 2025. In January 8, 2025, the film was delayed to March 7 the same year.
The German release date for In the Lost Lands was initially set for September 26, 2024, before being replaced on Constantin Film's slate by Megalopolis.
Reception
Box office
In the Lost Lands grossed $1.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $4.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $6.5 million. Therefore, the movie was a box-office bomb with its reported $55 million budget.
In its opening weekend, the film made $1.1 million from 1,370 theaters.
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 24% of 75 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Squandering George R.R. Martin's source material on an incomprehensible eyesore, Paul W.S. Anderson's In the Lost Lands could use its own map out of the wilderness." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 41 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Amon Warmann of Empire and Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian both gave the film 2/5, with Warmann writing: "Neither Bautista nor Jovovich can elevate this ugly-looking misfire. Fans of entertaining fantasy action need not apply...", while Bradshaw described the film as a "George RR Martin story flabbily retold in a dreary postapocalypse where Milla Jovovich has few spells to cast as a witch for hire."
David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote: "This eyesore of a film is so ugly and confusing to look at it that its fable-like story — incoherent even by Anderson’s standards — never has even the slightest chance to overcome how difficult it is to see".
Nick Schager of The Daily Beast gave a more positive review, calling the film "A Beautifully Bonkers B-Movie About Witches and Werewolves".