Wonderful character development!

This is How Movies Should Be Made

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

An okay indie thriller about the gradual meltdown of a psychotic teenager. It's a solid screenplay bolstered with some excellent performances, starting out with a dirty, gritty authenticity that's reminiscent of classic exploitation flicks of the past. But about halfway through, director Sivertson seems to be possessed by the muse of David Lynch. We have the bad-boy Greaser, the red-lipped femme fatale, the nighttime drives and seedy motel rooms, the graphic sex and violence, the contrast of raucous jazz with grating death metal. Unfortunately it lacks the all-important intellectual rabbit holes and surreal artistry. The tonal switcheroo is kind of distracting, and the second half drags terribly to an over-the-top WTF last act of shameless overacting. Sivertson clearly has talent, and he manages to convey a suitable sense of unhinged psychosis and disorientation. But he needs confidence in his own style and vision instead of cribbing from the playbooks of others.

First, whilst i'm sure the filmmakers did not have a substantial budget, I did not notice any telltale signs of a low budget production. Second, the story is fascinating. Characters at the polar extreme of an intriguing personality type make great film subjects. Despite the lead character's cavalier attitude to the murder of other HUMAN BEINGS(!) the story is nonetheless believable. This is a great credit to the filmmakers. The beer cans in Ray's boots to elevate his stature and the make-up to smooth over any cracks in a fragile (almost porcelain) veneer plainly expose the vanity of a seriously self-obsessed individual. Finally, the lead actor playing the part of Ray Pye ABSOLUTELY nails it.I don't like indie films generally but this was a winner. If you like films like 'seven' and '8mm' then i'd happily recommend this movie.

THE LOST is one of the most disturbing real life movies I have ever seen, period. I thought Ketchum's "Girl Next Door" was about as disturbing as you can get, based on a true life crime, but this one is much worse and very graphic. Actually, Ketchum took two real crimes, the first about two women that get shot in a woods because some psycho thinks they are lesbian, and the other crime which occupies the rest of this movie. Ray Pye is a twenty-something psycho, that with his good looks and car and crap attracts a few followers and girls in this small town. He puts smashed beer cans in his boots to make him seem taller. The movie moves ahead four years, after the girls in the woods are killed, and Ray is having a ball, balling who ever he wants, and partying and drugs and the whole nine yards. But his egomaniac world is starting to come crashing down along with his sanity, when his girls start to turn against him, especially the beautiful Katherine (Robin Sydney). He pretty much goes berserk, and the last twenty minutes or so of this movie are very hard to watch, even for this old gorehound. It turns into almost a cross between Last House on the Left and the Manson murders. Ray even references the Manson murders when he takes his hostages into an unsuspecting couples cabin, with a young couple, the wife being pregnant. Even Jack Ketchum says in the commentary how difficult the last twenty minutes were for even him to watch. This is incredibly brutal material folks, and the director holds nothing, and I mean nothing back. Ray looks to me like a young Tom Cruise, or maybe a cross between a young Elvis and Tom Cruise, that seems to be the look he is going for. When he snaps, and I mean snaps, it's like the devil himself has taken him over. This is a hell of a movie, and it did make me flinch a little, and that to me is very impressive. Not for the easily offended for sure, but for everybody else, put "The Lost" on your Want List immediately!!!!!!!!!!!! I could not recommend this extremely disturbing movie any higher. Very very well made by the way.

Stephen King's work is easy to synopsize and market because his premises are novel. There's a hotel that holds onto memories in "The Shining", a little girl who starts fires in "Firestarter", and a fan who goes nuts in "Misery". It's no surprise that King's work has been cannibalized to death by Hollywood because it's easily reduced to a marketing hook. Marketing King is like marketing a McDonald's hamburger. You know what you're getting. There aren't too many surprises. Jack Ketchum, though much admired by King, is a different kettle of fish. With the exception of "Off Season" and "Ladies Night", his work is not the stuff of Hollywood marketing hooks. The beauty of Ketchum is how he gets into his characters' dark heads. His work is much darker than KIng's and he makes few concessions to mainstream expectations. His horror lives in the house next door or in the mind of the person you're married to. Aside from "She Wakes", Ketchum steers pretty clear of the supernatural and focuses on the sort of people who get arrested every night on the news. Which brings me to "The Lost". It's about a sociopath, Ray Pye, who manipulates and bullies everyone around him. When not destroying other humans with a gun, he destroys them slowly by mere association. You don't want to meet the guy. You want to steer well clear of him. Especially if you're female. Now, this story has been done to death (in novels and films), but because Ketchum is Ketchum, his take on it is fascinating and chilling. The movie version of "The Lost" is less successful and less creepy than the novel because its horror is externalized. We get strange sound effects, bizarre editing shifts, and some interesting color treatments that attempt to internalize the mental dynamics, but what made "The Lost" book so disturbing is only half present here. Still, the movie is a good one. Marc Senter is strong and convincing as Ray Pye and Chris Sivertson's direction is solid. But because Ketchum's beauty is his point of view and not his plotting, the movie's plotting becomes predictable. It will come as no surprise to anyone that Pye goes on a rampage at the end after he is pushed into several corners from which he can't escape. Though the scenes of him blowing people away are potent, their power is diffused by their predictability. Part of me feels that Ketchum works better within the universe of the printed word. Poe is the same. The nature of King's work lends itself to cinematic translation, as does the work of James Patterson and Alistair McLean. With "The Lost", you get a smart, well made tale of horror, but you don't get the essence of Ketchum. You will only get that from a Ketchum novel. So if you can't translate Ketchum adequately to the silver screen, why see these movies? Well, that's the challenge for the filmmaker.