Lost Souls

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Year:	2000
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Janusz Kaminski
Genre:	Religo-thriller
Starring:	Winona Ryder, Ben Chaplin, Philip Baker Hall, John Hurt, Elias Koteas
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0160484/
Tagline:	Deliver us from evil.
Favourite line:	"The transformation is near."

Quasi-religious spookiness with a strong cast that gets a hard time, for reasons I understand, though in no way agree with.

Winona Ryder plays Maya Larkin, a devout Catholic who, together with a clutch of Priestly sorts, believes that Satan has a plan, about to come to fruition. Just as, 2,000 years ago Jesus came to Earth as a man, so too will Satan, and the hour of his arrival is upon us.
Through a series of cyphers and hidden messages, Larkin manages to determine the very man that Satan will possess, a best-selling author and square jawed Lothario Peter Kelson, and somehow manages to convince him that he is soon to be The AntiChrist ("It's what he was meant to be, his God left him behind, and set his soul to be free." Cue killer guitar riff and some fancy fretwork from Hanneman and King), even pinpointing the precise time of his tranformation, four o'clock the following afternoon.
Can The Ryder prevent Satan's awakening?
Can Philip Baker Hall ever appear in a movie without making you think of The Library episode of Seinfeld?
And what's with all the bloody chanting?

Whilst borrowing rather too liberally from other movies which have trodden similar ground, Stigmata, The Omen, The Exorcist to name but three, heck, you could even throw in Arnie's religo-actioner End of Days if you were feeling mischievous, this is nevertheless reasonably powerful stuff, with the central religious themes adding a sense of gravitas to proceedings.
The cast are well handled, all delivering suitably stern-faced performances, so it is a little puzzling that the reviews for this were so poor.
SPOLIER WARNING: WARNING SPOILER: WARN THEE, I AM ABOUT TO SPOIL THE FUCK OUT OF THIS MOVIE:
I can only assume that it is the relentlessly bleak ending that causes such distress as the transformation occurs and a bullet is fired into Kelson's brain, the very notion that a movie isn't all chocolate and daffodils, doesn't end with Winona skipping through a meadow whistling Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, her hair set in pigtails, bobbing in the breeze causing a sense of disappointment in the intellectually challenged.
Not every movie should be wrapped up perfectly, with all who leave the cinema grinning from ear to ear like freakin' simpletons.
Sometimes, it's ok to be bleak, to end on a downer because, you know, sometimes life is like that.
Most of life is like that, in fact.
Most days I go to bed thinking 'well that was shit,' not high as a kite on the joy of life.
Jesus H.
So, in summary, a pastiche of former cinematic glories, but a successful one.