Rating: 
Summary: Well-made and suspenseful.
Review: I'm suprised The Lost Souls received as many terrible reviews as it did. I mean, this movie is signifcantly better than Stigmata, Bless the Child, and The Ninth Gate combined. It's well-acted, directed, and the script is passable enough to work. Most importantly, though, is the fact that I cared about Ben Chaplin's fate, and thus sympathized with him. Winona Ryder delivers an equally strong performance and though she's been getting a lot of criticism lately, I do believe she'll still remain one of Hollywood's top actresses. The Lost Souls is most definitely worth watching. It has a few good scares, fine performances, stylish direction, an intriguing story, and even better, an ending that does not cheat the viewer.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent Psychological Thriller
Review: this was one of the most intelligent films i saw last year. the camera-work and color scheme added a great deal to the tone of the movie. this is one of the first psychological based thrillers to emerge from hollywood that called upon the audience to use their brains as a key aspect in the horror of the film. i fail to see why so many people disliked the ending to this film. nowadays hollywood paints everything in front of our faces in order to keep the viewers from thinking for themselves. this film was truly horrifying because it let you create the terror in your own mind. and as we all know, we can do a far better job at creeping ourselves out than any film director can.
Rating:
Summary: A Devilish Thriller
Review: Definately worth seeing, because of the excellent cinematography, and the sheer thrills. As compared to "The Exorcist" the film falls short by a long shot, but shows its audiences that you don't need some Linda Blair-esque teenager coughing up vomit and speaking in different languages to add increased thrill factor. The ending was a little weak, but the film successfully completed its goal. The audience will have to decide what the goal is, however.
Rating: 
Summary: Lost Cause
Review: Oh Winona, oh you poor brave girl, what a year it has been. If Ms. Ryder can find anything to me merry about this holiday season, it is that she cannot possibly do any worse in 2001 then she did this year. This was excruciatingly bad, as bad as everyone says, but what stuck in my mind, beside the ridiculous plot, and the plot was doomed from the start (another antichrist/prophesy mish mash) was the unintentionally funny scenes where Winona witnesses some aberration, a little girl twirls around in a diner and squeals "Jesus is dead, Jesus is dead" WInona cringes (as does the audiance....all three of us) what a mess. No one liked this, no one cared, what made this memorable (besides the hideous acting) was the weird, super 8 looking film stock, it said 35 millimeter at the end (I watched all nine million credits) but it looked more like someone's old VHS video tape from the late 70's. It didn't work. I hope we will see our girl get right back up on that horse and do better....anything would be better...we should all remember Winona Ryder this holiday season, when we think of those less fortunate. None of us (I don't think) was involved on Autumn in New York, or this stinker...God bless us every one. I still love you WInona and will remain your devoted, if long suffering fan.
Rating: 
Summary: An Interesting Failure
Review: Although everyone from Arnold Schwarzzeneger to Johnny Depp has taken on the devil in the last year or so, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan) pits Wynona Ryder against Old Scratch in a film that tries hard to be different but discovers that different is not necessarily better. Ryder plays Maya Larkin, a shool teacher formerly possesed, who works with the church in a sort of exorcist SWAT team. She discovers that an unsuspecting man is about to become the devil himself and sets about trying to stop that from happening. A few scenes are very original and the finale is certainly challenging, albeit anti-climactic, but the film is simply not entertaining. Maybe next time
Rating:
Summary: Someone sold their soul to get this one made....
Review: Deliver us from evil? Oh God, please deliver us from crappy horror films. I seem to recall "Lost Souls" was originally due to be released a year ago, when I first saw trailers. The movie itself plays like somebody's half-baked idea for an "Exorcist" sequel, though not nearly as excruciating as the first one that was actually made. Winona Ryder stars as Maya, a Catholic schoolteacher. After being possessed and exorcised as a teenager, she's helped out Father Lareaux (John Hurt) with exorcisms since then. When one such ritual goes awry, nearly killing the priest, Maya figures out that Satan himself is comin' to town, and he's going to take the body of true-crime novelist Peter Kelson (Ben Chaplin). Pretty soon, Maya and Peter join forces to find a way to stop the dark lord from claiming squatter's rights to Pete's body. A grainy and washed-out look adds a sense of bleakness that does wonders for movies like "Seven", but it's a distraction most anywhere else. Also, I'd like to note that any time I spend musing about the color palette the director chose is not time well spent for a horror film.I wonder, have people simply forgotten how to make these things? It's not that friggin' hard. The greatest decade for truly bone-chilling, pants-crapping horror was the 1970's. Strangely, that was the same decade that American filmmakers embraced a documentary-like realism. Coincidence??? I don't think so. What frightens us the most has to do with that which is most familiar. What director William Friedkin did for "The Exorcist" was to establish a mundane reality for the MacNeil family before tearing it to shreds. "Lost Souls" is just wall-to-wall stupidity. Friedkin also knew to take his material seriously. Even if he didn't buy into the Catholicism, he bought into the reality of the events he created. Kaminski, by his approach, holds everything at arm's length. The cast doesn't help much either, as Chaplin's performance is too cold and static to register the severity of what he's going through. At one point toward the end, he actually seems to be laughing, which is pretty much the reaction of the audience who saw the movie with me! And remember, kids, nobody but Beetlejuice laughs at "The Exorcist".
Rating:
Summary: Fighting the devil and The Exorcist
Review: Face it, Halloween 2000 was the rebirth of exorcism flicks. Warner re-released "The Exorcist" in theaters around the beginning of the month and shortly thereafter came "Lost Souls". After seeing them almost back to back, I admit that "Lost Souls" freaked me out more than "The Exorcist" because of the way it was filmed. Perhaps, the thing I love the most about many of this year's films is that the directors are experimenting new ways of filming movies for effect and whathaveyou. I guarantee you one thing, you have never seen a movie filmed like this before. The plot is basically simple, Ben Champlin is having all of these visions of Satanoic numbers and even writes breifly on the subject while Ryder is the deadbeat outsider. The supporting actors, especially Chaplin's family, are so pitiful that they can be laughed at. Especially whenever they all revolt against him at the church. A few unneeded scenes like the playground scenes with Ryder, I felt they were too stressed. What I felt the film needed the most was a more powerful score. "The Exorcist"'s tubular bells theme was what most remember most but there is just no real theme anywhere. The acting is descent except by Champlin in a few scenes, but the best performance by far is Ryder's. She has become one of my favorite actresses over past years with Edward Scissorhands and Reality Bites, but the thing that really keeps the film alive is the filming. This is way scarier than "End of Days", slightly tenser than "The Exorcist", but not nearly enough so to be a classic. Worth seeing and definately worth thinking about. Don't expect a re-release of this one in 25 years.
Rating: 
Summary: lovely visuals - worst ending ever
Review: a stylish movie, beautifully photographed, with some good performances, especially by winona ryder, who is suitably nerve-wracked throughout the picture. the title sequence is very imaginative. but this potentially good film is crippled by the crummiest let-down ending in years. though it is filled with religious elements, ultimately the film lacks any sort of religious or moral or spiritual goal, and this is what makes the ending so bankrupt and lacking in thought. yet it was quite elegantly made in some areas. the writers and director and the suits who guided this film screwed up again--a lost opportunity for a very talented team of visual artists.
Rating: 
Summary: full of suspense!
Review: lost souls is a great movie. full of suspense...kept me on the edge of my seat. one of winona ryders best films. I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: I'll never get those two hours back.
Review: Lost Souls is great, unless you are one of those fussy artsy-fartsy film viewers who demands acting, or continuity, or a plot. The "scary" scenes are so dizzyingly overblown and underdeveloped that motion sickness is their most likely effect. Ben Chaplin provokes much the same reaction in his role as the Antichrist-to-be. I've seen more convincing perfomances on Three's Company. And finally, the ending ("climax" is too strong a word here) is so facile and disappointing that the entire audience booed it...and believe me, it's difficult to get the young Southern California audience to react in any way, to anything. There's no way this movie could be enjoyable unless loud noises and flashing lights are enough to hold your attention, in which case you can save money by spending the two hours in the theater lobby. If the reviews can convince you not to see this movie, be glad that you only wasted a few minutes (and no money) reading about it.
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