It’s sad, but Hollywood seems to have moved away from movies that make you think, and toward movies that provide cheap thrills.

    Films like The Exorcist and The Shining have been replaced teen slash films. The horror genre was once a utopia for the thinkers, those of us who enjoy an actual scare rather then a sound or action that makes you jump. Luckily, Lost Souls is a breathe of fresh air in the usually mind-numbing horror genre.

    The title, Lost Souls, is actually as deceptive as the trailer. The film is not about souls, and especially not lost souls. It is a religious thriller.

    This voyage into the sea of unspoken religious horror revolves around a closed-minded writer named Peter Kelson, played by Ben Chaplin. His life revolves around science and strong evidence.

    So the news that he is going to become the antichrist hits him like a pillowcase full of doorknobs. The barer of this stomach-churning news is the delusional yet witty Maya Larkin, played by Winona Ryder. She reveals very slowly, over the course of the movie, that she also was possessed by evil at one time.

    Even though I entered the theater with a false impression of the movie, I couldn’t help but to be sucked into the slow moving, dialogue-driven plot. It’s one of those movies where you give your undivided attention to the movie because it is so complex and ever changing.

    This is supposed to be a horror movie, though--a movie that scares you. Sadly, this film fails to even scare me in a Sesame Street Halloween way. It’s more a movie full of surprises and abrupt plot changes.

    The cast of Lost Souls is what makes this movie shine. Winona Ryder’s frail and pail complexion goes hand in hand with the tone of this film. She is definitely not a Jenny McCarthy or a Neve Campbell type of movie star. Ryder’s character is well defined and interesting. There is little background on her, yet it doesn’t seem to hurt the plot.

    Crazy camera angles and strange lighting set the right tone for the film, but leave the audience rather annoyed. One moment the camera is facing the person speaking, the next second the camera is pointing out the window. The director even uses the Blair Witch method, of jerky camera views. The lighting in the film is very subtle. It’s as if everything is under a bright white light. Nothing looks like it would in real life. The colors have been de-saturated and moved towards the white side of the color spectrum.

    Besides the fact that this movie is simply not scary, Lost Souls is an interesting movie if you let it get into your head. The filming may be a little artsy for some, and the plot may be too complicated for others. If your going to this movie to get a good scare then you’re not in the right place. If your looking for a movie that will make you think beyond simple questions that are so obviously presented in the films of the teen scream generation, you won’t be disappointed.

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