ROLL M |
Lost Souls (starring Winona Ryder, Ben Chaplin, John Hurt; written by Pierce Gardner, Betsy Stahl; directed by Janusz Kaminski; rated R.)
I could have sworn that all the Millennial nonsense would vanish like the tissue-thin superstitious beliefs on which it was based, now that Y2K is nearly over. I was wrong. Not only do we recently have an all-new, digital, super-hi-fi, director’s cut, over-the-top, new-footage-added version of The Exorcist to remind us that evil is here to stay. No, this was not enough. So someone decided it was time to make yet another “devil among us” movie.
Lost Souls could have been called Rosemary’s Grown-up. That Antagonist to end all antagonists is back. Yes, folks, the Devil (capital “D” if you please) is back, and this time Ben Chaplin’s got him! Well, not quite yet, if Winona Ryder has her way. She stumbles onto a satanic conspiracy in which the Evil One himself is about to incarnate. And the chosen body? Why an atheist, of course. Non-believing crime journalist Chaplin is about to play host to Satan on his next birthday, and quicker than you can say 666, Ryder must try somehow to prevent this.
There are some good things about this film – the cast makes the most of the trite script, and the look of the film is fantastic, thanks to Kaminski’s top-notch direction; he was cinematographer on Schindler’s List, Jerry Maguire, Jurassic Park: The Lost World and Amistad, and his expertise with a camera shines through. But we’ve been down this road too many times before, and the premise is too hokey to be believable. There are a few scary moments, but not enough to make this one worthwhile.
TWO AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE OWL