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Lost Souls

Lost Souls

List Price: $9.97
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Huge Improvement Over "Stigmata" and "End of Days"
Review: "Lost Souls" is a tremendous improvement over the dreadful "Stigmata" and "End of Days". The cast is uniformely excellent and the plot while highly derivative is also compelling and absorbing. It's a low-key film--without gore and very little oncreen violence... and although there is an excorcism it happens mostly off-screen. What makes this one really stand out above the rest is the superb camerawork and atmosphere. Almost black and white in tone--it's like watching a nightmare come to life. Disturbing and very striking. The tone is always off-balance and creepy.

Regarding the performances, Winona is fantastic. Her large eyes are commanding and expressive in many scenes without dialogue. She has a nice chemistry with Ben Chaplin as the antichrist in question.

If you're expecting a an action filled, cat-scare horror film then look elsewhere or else you'' be severely disappointed. The DVD is on par with other New Line titles--excellent transfer, sound and an interesting commentary from the filmmakers. Highly recommended.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Omen + The Exorcist but didn' work.
Review: First of all, this movie is directed by Janusc Kaminski, director of photography from Steven Spielberg's Schinder's List, Saving Private Ryan and Amistad so how bad can this movie be right? Turns out to be real bad. Compared to this, Similarly theme also from 2000, Bless The Child (with Kim Basinger) looked like a masterpiece. This is a bad movie from beginning to end. Confusing, and boring. Wait until you get to the ending, I really can't believe the way the movie ended. The only star I gave for this DVD is for the outstanding sound quality (Both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS included). Get the Omen instead. Like already mentioned earlier, the not so good "Bless the Child" shines compared to this junk. Avoid this DVD !!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: If you saw the trailer, you saw the scariest scenes.
Review: This film, although it had its creepy moments, is a waste of time. Based on an over-used, apocolyptic premise, the film relies too heavily on visual effects rather than story-telling, resulting in a visually-stunning, yet disappointingly unclimactic finished product. Several times during the course of the film, I found myself wondering when something significant was going to occur, and more importantly, when is this movie going to end? And the surprise ending wasn't such a surprise.

The only thing the film had going for it was Winona Ryder, who gives a typical haunting performance as an ex-possessee. (Is that a word?) When she meets a young man whom she believes will become the anti-Christ, they try to figure out a way to prevent it from happening.

Don't waste your time on this one. The trailer makes it seem much more interesting than it actually is.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: CHILLING AND SUSPENSEFUL
Review: For 2000 years the devil has feasted on pain, waiting for the right time to take human form.

Maya Larkin (Winona Ryder) is a young woman overcoming hardship, as a youth she was a petty thief, a liar, and also possesed by the devil. But thanks to Father Lareaux (John Hurt), she was exorcised, and now she helps the Catholic church perform exorcism's on possessed souls.

At their latest exorcism, the man being exorcised has left behind an encrypted message. Maya, intrigued by the coded message, works relentlessly to crack it. Upon completion of the code it will reveal the name of the man to become the devil...that name belongs to bestselling author of non-fiction books on serial killers, Peter Kelson (Ben Chaplin).

After approaching Peter, Maya is dismissed as a quack. But after certain strange things begin to happen, Peter starts to question if what Maya has told him is true. Is he to be the satanic sacrifice?

Now Maya, and Peter must race the clock before the devil takes human form, and changes the world as we know it.

"Lost Souls" is a chilling, and very suspenseful thriller. It is more a thriller than a horror film, so horror buffs may be disappointed. Visually the movie is stunning; shot in sepia tones, to set a dark, dreary atmosphere in New York.

Nick Gonnella

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Lost Souls: Lost Answers and Lost Faces!
Review: Lost Souls is the movie title but the words more accurately describe the looks on the faces of the talented professionals involved in this production failure too!

To identify why talented professionals such as Ryder, Chaplin and Hurt fail to communicate as dramatic characters (and fail to make the movie communicate in the process), there is no reason to look beyond the script. It is filled with inconsistencies, banalities, and non-sequiturs. Worse, the script's failures gather force during the viewing of this movie and negate the attempts by the movie-production professionals (entire film crew through to director) to salvage and/or bring coherent merit to it.

Admittedly, the end of Lost Souls does suggest the possibility of philosophical/theosophical coherence to the script (i.e. you become whatever evil you fight against and/or the immorality of morality argument). Unfortunately, the script's denouement is too inconsistent to allow the movie's conclusion to be viewed as the summation of a coherent philosophical/theosophical argument.

To summarize the DVD viewing, Lost Souls certainly has an excellent acting cast, great quality of picture and sound, great special effects (even if presented in a curiously illogical isolation), and great camera work (even if it's difficult to determine the rationale for the more complex shots). Nevertheless, the one conclusion returns: Lost Souls fails as a movie because it fails to answer the questions its own script raises. Because of this failure, the well-intentioned cast, crew and director inevitably become lost too. The consistent professional polish of the movie does not compensate for the fact that there is nothing of coherent value contained within it!

If you want to see it, I'd only suggest renting it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: How do they think of this stuff???
Review: Spurious "Biblical" quotes (New Testament "Satan" in Old Testament book-interesting!) Melodramatic farce-Ben Chaplin goes from stoic cynic to psycho network prospect in record time. Long reviews are boring though, and so is this movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not the Apocalyptic Ending I was expecting...
Review: In short sum, I wholeheartedly agree with other reviewers with the mismatched or hacked up ending. As for originality of story,there was so much traces and nuances of Rosemary's Baby, Stigmata, The Omen,etc., that I expected to see Mia Farrow pop out any minute onto the set as Ryder's character's mom and Gregory Peck as her dad.Winona does a commendable job as an exorcism survivor helping the Catholic church battle the demons out of other posessed victims. One such exorcism fails and is tied into the major story or plot.She soon discovers that the arrival of the anti-Christ is close at hand. How can one waif-like, frail, woman alone with her faith stop the apocalyptic prophecy facing mankind ? Watch and find out. There is no gore,no green vomit,no nudity or sex; don't expect any startling revelations (no pun intended) or new takes on the prophecy of the coming of the anti-christ...

The real saving grace of the film is Rider.She is one of my favorite actors because she's always able to play these small frail personas with a lot of inner strength, integrity, and plenty of chutzpah !She's never loud,boisterous, or flashy. Maybe it's her big round beautiful sad puppy-peepers (eyes!) that convey so much turmoil and emotion in one scene and then a glimpse of happiness in another.Her character in Lost Souls also shows a lot of intellectual strength which in the end is the redeeming quality of this movie...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Horrifyingly bad filmaking!
Review: Fans of "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby" need to just rent those two movies and watch them in that order. It will save you money and be a lot more entertaining. This film is remarkably trite and dull and I cannot believe I paid to see it. I don't want to ruin the ending, but it is possibly the biggest no-sell in film history. I am shocked John Hurt and Winona Ryder did this movie. Ben Chaplin I can understand, after all he did the dog movie with Uma. It follows the formula straight down the line of the two aforementioned films: Woman gets premontition, guy is going to be born the devil, she tries to stop it and so on and so on. Do NOT buy this movie!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: good movie, bad ending
Review: I saw this movie in theaters, and I left disappointed. Not because of the movie itself, but because of the ending. It literally ends at the climax. They can take the story so much farther, but choose not to. There's no sense of finality. The plot lacks any falling action between the climax and the conclusion.

I would recommend renting this movie, but not buying it. You'll just be disappointed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Underrated solid horror
Review: "Lost Souls" has been dissed by many critics, but it is really a fun entertaining film filled with arresting images, and some real chills. People unfairly compare this to the Exorcist, when it is really not about exorcism at all, but the AntiChrist theme going on. Its not bad for its type, and is really improved by the performances of the brilliant Winona Ryder and Ben Chaplin. Its not perfect but is sure to please fans of the genre.


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