Film Review of Lost Souls
Year: 2000 Reviewer: Chris Docker
Winona Ryder starts off a bit shakily but her well-timed screams increase in conviction as we get into the swing of this god-devil-and-exorcisms movie. It's helped by the use of photography with drained colour that creates a gothic feel even in ordinary surroundings. Ryder's character is herself psychotic, having recovered from a mental illness / possession episode. Now a helper-associate for the Roman Catholic Church (a branch specializing in devil-ditching) she deciphers the ravings of a possessed inmate, and works out a code that names the person who will become the devil incarnate. Cleverly balancing psychology with the extremes of Romanist belief in the devil, Lost Souls is closer in tone to Polanski's Ninth Gate than, say, the Exorcist or the rather lame Bless the Child. It's not the scariest or classiest movie made in the genre, but it holds its own rather better than I expected.
Rating: Unrated
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