If you have ever contemplated what type of movies the devil uses to torture those in hell, look no further. "Lost Souls," the directorial debut of Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski ("Saving Private Ryan," "Schindler's List"), will leave any viewer praying for the monotony to end.
Shelved for two years to avoid the recent onslaught of supernatural thrillers, production company New Line Cinema should have kept "Souls" in the closet for good. The story revolves around Maya Larkin (Winona Ryder), who was once possessed by a demon but later exorcised by Father Lareaux (the under-used John Hurt). Maya now tags along with Father Lareaux as a spiritual counselor, but he becomes bedridden after a disastrous exorcism of a serial killer.
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To make sense of the whole thing, Maya takes and deciphers the code the possessed killer has written down. It spells out the name of Peter Kelson (Ben Chaplin), who Maya believes will become the anti-Christ on his 33rd birthday. Kelson, of course, refuses to accept Maya's theory, mostly because he does not believe in "evil with a capital E." With increasing evidence, Kelson must face his destiny and find a way, with Maya's help, to stop the transformation.
Lately, supernatural thrillers have gone overboard in an attempt to set themselves apart from classics such as "The Omen" and the recently re-released "The Exorcist" (see review below). Newer movies concentrate so much on shocking cuts that the story gets lost in the shuffle. "Souls," however, ambles along in the opposite direction, and, as a result, it becomes mundane.
Pierce Gardner's and Betsy Stahl's story mimics the shallowness of other recent films, but the few horror sequences are so transparent and lackluster that they fail to be involving. Lacking the necessary scares to lure viewers away from its other faults, the dullness forces the audience to pay attention to the plot, and, in turn, realize its many holes. It is a sad statement, but editors have become so skilled that trailers often are more thrilling than the actual movie; they provide relentless action, an element sorely missing in "Souls."
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Even when Kaminski does employ horror sequences, they do little to advance the story and often do not make sense. For example, the serial killer attacks Maya with a knife several times throughout, but his purpose is muddled. Kelson also is attacked inexplicably by the serial killer, who really should be trying to protect him. After all, why would a demonically possessed person mutilate the body that the devil plans to invade later?
Even more curious is the fact that Kelson does not experience any of the nightmarish hallucinations that plague Maya. Depicting Kelson's transformation as proceeding slowly over time from his own perspective would have injected something fresh into this derivative schlock.
Then again, this might explain Chaplin's non-acting throughout. He often seems about as anxious as someone on a blind date. Ryder fares a bit better, but her range of emotions is curtailed by the story's limitations. It is a bit funny to note that the devil is supposed to be the ultimate incarnation of evil, and yet his comeuppance rests in the hands of the delicate Ryder.
Despite its many flaws, Kaminski creates an interesting atmosphere for the film by using washed out colors and bright backlighting to create a surreal environment. The movie's best aspect, though, involves a hilarious scene where Kelson plays a tape of the serial killer's exorcism at full volume on his stereo but fails to recognize the torture he causes the elderly lady next door, because all he hears is silence.
"Souls" flops around because of the indifference the characters exhibit toward Kelson's transformation and the movie's two-dimensional supporting characters. Perhaps the devil's best trick was not convincing the world that he did not exist, but rather creating a dull, pointless movie designed to rob us of two hours of our own existence.
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