Lost Souls (2000)

(On TV, October 2020) Oh good, I first thought, a theatrically released 2000s horror movie I haven’t yet seen! Alas, there’s a reason why Lost Souls came out in 2000 and disappeared from collective memory soon thereafter: It’s really stupefyingly dull. Riding the wave of Catholic-themed apocalyptic horror movies from the turn of the millennium, it deals with a runaway sect convinced that our protagonist is destined to be the anti-Christ, and that’s pretty much it in terms of plot. Directed by cinematographer turned director Janusz Kamiński, the film is visually stylish, but so uniformly glum and dour (think a rainy day stretched over 97 very long minutes) that it just makes a dull experience even duller. Ben Chaplin couldn’t be blander as the protagonist, while Winona Ryder is just a bit too cute to be forgettable as the female lead. Far more moody than scary, Lost Souls deservedly slid into obscurity, and I see no reason to take it out from there.