Lost Souls (2000) |
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Lost Souls (2000) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Horror |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer-Temple Scene Selection Anim & Audio Audio Commentary-Janusz Kaminski (Director) & Mauro Fiori (Cinematographer) Deleted Scenes-10 Theatrical Trailer Filmographies-Cast & Crew dts Trailer-Experience |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2000 | ||
| Running Time | 93:53 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (62:05) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Janusz Kaminski |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring |
Winona Ryder Ben Chaplin Philip Baker Hall Elias Koteas Sarah Wynter John Hurt |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
| RPI | $34.95 | Music | Jan A. Kaczmarek |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | English for the Hearing Impaired | Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Lost Souls is an attempt to recreate the psychological thrillers of yore, ie. horror minus today's gore. Maya (Winona Ryder) has been possessed and has the demon exorcised from her at the beginning of the movie, so she knows what's what with the Devil. She discovers that the famous author, Peter Kelson (Ben Chaplin), is next on the list to be host to Satan himself, and she is determined that he finds out and does not let it happen.
Director Janusz Kaminski shows great promise with this, his debut film. The pace is slower than we are used to, scenes are slower to play out, and there is little in the way of sudden frights. Whilst it is not going to be remembered as a classic, it is certainly something different and will appeal to those who enjoy a decent, well produced and slick thriller. Winona Ryder is more gorgeous than ever, and her acting is as wooden and stilted as usual - which does tend to work for this role. It is always a pleasure to see John Hurt, albeit only briefly as a troubled priest, and Ben Chaplin puts in a very balanced and thoughtful performance.
Even if it does not make your list for purchase, it will make for a superb rent on a Saturday night.
The movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.
This transfer is amongst the very best Roadshow have produced. Incredibly sharp and detailed throughout, the image is always a pleasure to behold, never faltering for even a moment. There is a great deal of grain at almost all times, though this is as intended and fits the feel of the movie particularly well, making the film seem a little strange and different.
As is becoming quite popular of late, the movie was filmed using a "bleach bypass" technique which results in a very strange "otherworldy" colour palette. There are no bold colours whatsoever, with the movie having a general warm sepia look to it most of the time. Now and then, some colours would make it through the process, but on the whole tones were washed out and dull. I cannot say I am a big fan of this trend, however I do find it interesting now and then, and it seems put to good use in this case. Shadow detail did seem to suffer slightly from this processing, with blacks never being truly deep but somewhat greyish, with slight detail being lost in the shadows.
It has been my experience that most Roadshow discs exhibit MPEG artefacting to one degree or another. I can happily say that this disc was without artefact of any kind, and was a rock-solid presentation in the same manner as The Matrix - that is, utterly perfect. There was not a single film or film-to-video artefact in the traditional sense, with no aliasing, shimmering or edge enhancement at all. I did notice, however, that on a regular basis the image would skip a frame every few minutes, which seemed a little odd. I do not know if this was intentional, however the audio never suffered the problem.
A sampling of the English subtitle stream revealed it to be very faithful to the dialogue.
The disc is RSDL formatted, with the layer change occurring between Chapters 13 and 14 at 62:05. It was very noticeable, but nonetheless was well-placed between scenes.
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There are four soundtracks present on this DVD, all in English; good old Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1 (at the lower data rate of 384Kb/s), an English Audio Commentary and a cracking DTS mix. I listened mainly to the DTS mix, and sampled the 2.0 and DD 5.1 tracks intermittently.
Dialogue was utterly superb, being crystal clear and very easy to understand - though Winona Ryder does mumble from time to time. Apart from a scene with obvious looping, spatial integration was very precise and effective. There were no issues with audio sync.
The score is quite nice, being very spacious, warm and somewhat understated. The dts soundtrack had perhaps a slight edge in terms of perceived channel separation and detail, though both 5.1 tracks are superb. The Dolby Digital 2.0 track is a severe compromise, being neither spacious nor enveloping.
The surround channels were used almost continuously, offering a nice sonic atmosphere and plenty of discrete effects, the score often filling the room.
The subwoofer was somewhat under-utilised for my liking in this genre. It did pipe up now and then, and was effective at those times, but was generally inactive.
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NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The R4 version misses out on:
Lost Souls is an interesting if somewhat shallow movie, with little to offer other than a different style. The presence of Winona Ryder for me makes it all worthwhile. Excellent video, superb audio and good extras make this certainly a disc to check out.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Toshiba SD-900E, using RGB output |
| Display | Pioneer SD-T43W1 16:9 RPTV. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Sony STR DB-930 |
| Speakers | Front & Rears: B&W DM603 S2, Centre: B&W LCR6, Sub: B&W ASW500 |