Lost Souls Review
by Christopher Null (cnull AT mindspring DOT com)October 14th, 2000
LOST SOULS
A film review by Christopher Null
Copyright 2000 filmcritic.com
filmcritic.com
It looks like Winona Ryder gets two strikes in a row in 2000, as
the long-delayed Lost Souls emerges as one of the worst duds of the
year. How bad can it be? Well, the only moments of terror in this
ostensible horror flick are brought about by the appearance of the words
"Producer: Meg Ryan," giving you chills in a way that only those words
can.
Hopefully the last in a line of man vs. devil movies let loose by
Y2K hysteria coupled with the success of The Sixth Sense (which wisely
steered clear of religious metaphors altogether), Lost Souls actually
ranks below End of Days and just about ties the pitiful Bless the Child
for sheer badness.
The story slowly (and I mean slowly) unfolds, revealing the
following plotline. Winona Ryder's Maya is the survivor of a demonic
possession during childhood, and she was one of the lucky ones that had
Satan exorcised right out of her body. Through some strange pact with
renegade clergyman Father Lareaux (John Hurt, beneath his station in
this junk), she is a kind of part-time assistant on other exorcisms when
they arise in the greater New York metropolitan area, a city in which,
according to Lost Souls, it is always raining.
Through some clever codebreaking during one such exorcism, Maya
stumbles upon the fact that the antichrist will rise up in a matter of
days to inhabit the body of writer Peter Kelson (Ben Chaplin of The
Truth About Cats and Dogs). And although Maya and her exorcist crew
have no idea how to stop it, they go out of their way to scare the pants
off of Peter, telling him it's pretty much inevitable that he's going to
turn into the devil.
What follows is mostly drawn-out self-discovery as Peter wrestles
with his nonexistent faith, while Maya is haunted by demons -- real and
imaginary -- that lead us to believe that possession by the devil isn't
just something you get rid of with a shot of penicillin. It's something
that stays with you for life!
And that's about the long and short of it. The moody lighting and
underexposed camerawork lead me to believe Lost Souls once aspired to be
great art, but it's ultimately another plot-to-foil-Satan movie with few
thrills aside from Maya's stylish hallucinations. Simply put, the story
is utter nonsense. Frankly, if the devil is stupid enough to choose
some lowly writer to be the vessel for earthly destruction, well, he
deserves what's coming to him.
If you're determined enough to see Lost Souls, I challenge you to
stay awake. But if Friday the 13th really has you itching to see a
devil movie, then I urge you, just go see the re-release of The
Exorcist.
RATING: *1/2
|------------------------------|
\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
\ *** Average, hits and misses \
\ ** Sub-par on many levels \
\ * Unquestionably awful \
|------------------------------|
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Janusz Kaminski
Producer: Meg Ryan, Nina R. Sadowsky
Writer: Pierce Gardner
Starring: Winona Ryder, Ben Chaplin, John Hurt, Elias Koteas, Sarah
Wynter, Philip Baker Hall
http://www.lostsoulsmovie.com/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=filmcriticcom&path=subst/video/sellers/amazon-top-100-dvd.html Movie Fiends: Check out Amazon.com's Top 100 Hot DVDs!
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