Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Lost Souls Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson October 8, 2023

After shooting four of Steven Spielberg's films, Janusz Kaminski earned the chance to direct his first picture, Lost Souls. I am not entirely sure how the opportunity came to the cinematographer but my research indicates arrangements were made through producer Meg Ryan. Pre-production for Lost Souls began in late November 1997, with principal photography commencing in late September 1998. The movie was supposed to come out in either summer or fall the following year but New Line Cinema shelved it twice. In an interview with Kathryn Jenson White of The Daily Oklahoman, Kaminski cited the challenge of marketing the picture in a crowded field of supernatural thrillers like Stir of Echoes, The Sixth Sense, Stigmata, and The Ninth Gate as the primary reason for the delay. “New Line was afraid, right­fully, I hope, that Lost Souls would make no money. I per­sonally felt that the audience would get tired of this type of movie,” Kaminski opined to White. “We were marketing to­ward the millennium and hoping to come out then, but it was a business choice.” New Line opted to release Lost Souls on Friday the 13th in October 2000, just a few weeks after Warner Bros. put out the restored cut of The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen.

Maya Larkin (Winona Ryder), a French instructor at a Catholic seminary, was once possessed by a demon as a child and, now an adult, works as a "secular assistant" to Catholic priests who perform exorcisms. Father Lareaux (John Hurt), the priest who helped drive the demon out of Maya, recruits her and John Townsend (Elias Koteas), a deacon, to a psychiatric unit where the group hopes to perform a similar feat on Henry Birdson (John Diehl), an inmate who has been committed. But things go awry during the exorcism, placing Lareaux in a coma. Kaminski and his editors shift the action to a courtroom trial involving serial killer George Viznik (Brad Greenquist). Peter Kelson (Ben Chaplin) is a bestselling author covering the trial as a crime reporter. (In earlier versions of the script, it seems that Kelson was a prosecuting attorney. In a shooting script that I read, his role was changed to what it is in the finished film.) Peter is disturbed to see Viznik stare at him gleefully at the trial and through a one-way mirror. In his early 30s, Peter is already a big star in true crime journalism. After his parents died when he was very young, Peter was baptized and raised by his uncle, Father James (Philip Baker Hall). Peter is in a serious relationship with Claire Van Owen (Sarah Wynter), a magazine stylist. John and Maya have been working on cracking a Biblical code through the Greek alphabet and determine that Peter Kelson fits the criteria for Satan's next victim as an anti-Christ. Peter continues having a recurring dream with the letters XES popping up. Is there a connection between Larkin and Townsend's research with The Devil's supposed next target?

Kaminski's directorial debut is shot with a monochromatic look that's heavy on atmosphere. It's wonderful to see Ben Chaplin get a leading role as a conflicted young man who's intelligent, handsome, and brooding. Winona Ryder has the Nancy Drew role as a plucky sleuth who wants to get to the bottom of Satan's dastardly work. Kaminski's direction is generally fine but I thought it could have been better in guiding Sarah Wynter's performance. There's once scene where I expected her to act with more surprise and shock but Kaminski doesn't elicit the correct reaction out of her. The narrative is missing a key story event, which I won't reveal what it should been, that would have lent the story and premise greater credibility. Lost Souls wasn't received well by critics but in a syndicated review, Associated Press film critic Bob Thomas (over)praised it as "a classy thriller miles above Nightmare on Elm Street."

Note: Alfre Woodard, who portrays Birdson's psychiatrist, Dr. Allen, asked to take her name off the credits. One critic who reviewed the film said that her name doesn't even appear in the press kit. However, Woodard still attended the premiere of Lost Souls at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, CA as I found a photograph of her.

Lost Souls Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream Factory gives Lost Souls its global debut on Blu-ray courtesy of this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (disc size: 36.20 GB). Scream touts this transfer as sourced from a "new 2K scan of the interpositive." The picture appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1. Janusz Kaminski and his cinematographer Mauro Fiore talk two different times on the rehashed audio commentary about the intended aesthetic look and effects they sought. They visited a couple different labs and deemed Fujifilm the best stock. The camera negative went through the bleach bypass process with silver retention, which yielded different colors. A grainy texture and heavy blacks are omnipresent throughout the film.

This appearance is consistent on the New Line DVD I viewed along with Scream's transfer. The Blu-ray was produced by Cliff MacMillan and Jeff Roland. LaserPacific carried out production services for the DVD. Digital mastering for the New Line disc was performed by Lou Levinson at Hollywood-based Post Logic. Scream's presentation has superior contrast and color delineation. For example, see Chaplin's lips in Screenshot #17 compared to #16. In a similar vein, Ryder's lipstick is more prominent in #19 and #23 than it is in #18 and #22. I could hardly make out John Hurt's face on the New Line transfer in #24 but could see it clearer on the 1080p transfer. Scream has encoded the feature at a mean video bitrate of 34000 kbps.

The 97-minute film receives a dozen chapters.

Screenshot #s 1-15, 17, 19, 21, 23, & 25 = Scream Factory 2023 BD-50
Screenshot #s 16, 18, 20, 22, & 24 = New Line Home Video 2001 DVD-9

Lost Souls Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream Factory has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround track (2555 kbps, 24-bit) and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo downmix (1702 kbps, 24-bit). I compared the lossless 5.1 mix with the DTS track on the New Line DVD. Both have highly enveloping soundscapes that make full use of all speakers. I don't have technical specs on where Scream culled the audio mixes but do for the New Line disc. DVD audio encoding was conducted by Santa Monica-based Pacific Ocean Post. The "audio [was] mastered specifically for DVD by Brent Biles and Robert Margouleff at Mi Casa Multimedia, Inc." Biles and Margouleff were not part of the movie's sound design team so the DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes could have sounded differently in the theater than it does on disc. While the DVD and Blu-ray mixes are similar, some sound effects differ in their prominence. If I took an educated guess, I'd say that the Blu-ray is probably closer to the theatrical mix.

Spoken words are clear and audible. There are a lot of atmospheric sound f/x that make terrific use of the surrounds. Jan A.P. Kaczmarek's score is even better than the film it was written for. The strings are haunting and piano solos are beautifully performed.

Optional English SDH accompany the main feature.

Lost Souls Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Scream has ported over the major extras from the New Line DVD. The label hasn't retained cast/crew filmographies and New Line's "Script to Screen" feature, which used the InterActual Player (PC Friendly software) to watch the movie in a mini-window while simultaneously reading the screenplay in an adjoining space. However, if you own the DVD and use Windows, you can still locate the screenplay on a hard drive via this directory/folder structure. Go to BD-RE Drive > LOST_SOULS > new line > script > txt > script (Notepad text document). I converted the .txt file into a PDF using Adobe Acrobat Pro. It produced 108 pages.

• Audio Commentary With Director Janusz Kaminski and Cinematographer Mauro Fiore - this feature-length commentary track with Kaminski and his DP examines the themes of Lost Souls, the cinematographic aspects, and a discussion of the main actors. The most fascinating section is where Kaminski and Fiore delve into the movie business and Hollywood's industrial politics. They critique insurance policies for films and the preview process with test audiences. Both participants speak in English, not subtitled.

• Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary (27:03, upconverted to 1080p) - a compilation of around eleven omitted/alternate scenes from Lost Souls. They are interesting to see but were justifiably taken out of the final cut for reasons of pacing and redundancy. On the optional commentary track, Kaminski and Fiore describe the scenes in detail. In a courtroom scene, Kaminski explains why coverage in part of the scene was eliminated. In other scenes, he details various reasons for why they had to go. Kaminski talks a bit about where they originally fit within the narrative structure and how they reinforce plot points. The deleted scenes, which appear in 2.39:1 anamorphic widescreen, have been upscaled and come with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (192 kbps). In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:54, upconverted to 1080p) - New Line's official trailer for Lost Souls presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. While this is a decent-looking trailer on the grainy and contrasty side, it hasn't been restored. It boats an average video bitrate of 23862 kbps and is accompanied by a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo mix (1617 kbps, 24-bit).

Lost Souls Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lost Souls (2000) deserves another chance on home video. It is an underrated religious drama and supernatural thriller. I hope Kaminski gets another opportunity to direct a big-screen feature. (He has directed a couple other features since, in addition to his TV work.) Scream Factory delivers a solid transfer that's a noticeable upgrade over the DVD. Scream hasn't produced any new extras. The label has carried over the two major supplements, which are rather good. A MODERATE RECOMMENDATION.