Lost Souls

Satan is up to his old shenanigans in this tepid horror thriller that tries to pilfer the soul of such diabolical flicks as The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby and The Omen. Truth be told, it's not even worthy of comparison with End of Days, Arnold Scharzenegger's forgettable 1999 dance with the Devil.

Flowery Winona Ryder, donning a frumpy coif, plays Maya Larkin, a Catholic schoolteacher who participates in the exorcism of a notorious serial killer. From the hidden code of his rants she determines that the Antichrist-in-waiting is Peter Kelson (Ben Chaplin) the renowned author and expert on mass murderers. No one in the diocese buys Maya's hysterical claims -- until the signs of the transformation unfold. Directed by Janusz Kaminski, the fantastic cinematographer who shot Saving Private Ryan, Lost Souls is plenty stylish, but the plot, a series of hallucination sequences, offers no chills and is largely uninspired. We're told that the coming of the Antichrist will cast the material world into an "eternity of suffering." This movie comes close enough. At the Flagship, Hoyts Providence Place 16, Showcase, Starcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas.
-- Tom Meek