The Lost is a nice example of the difference between telling a story badly and telling a bad story. Except for one scene where writer/director Chris Sivertson apparently decided that in each individual shot the camera would be a different, randomly selected distance from the actors, he and his cast and crew did an okay job here. Unfortunately, their efforts are wasted on a tale that has nowhere to go and takes too long getting there.
Ray Pye (Marc Senter) is a teenage malcontent who dresses like a singer from the do-wop group Sha-Na-Na and has two tagalongs, Jennifer and Tim (Shay Astar and Alex Frost), who are even more pathetic than he is. The film opens with Ray killing one girl in the woods and gravely wounding another, just for kicks. Four years later, the wounded girl finally dies in the hospital and Ray's fashion sense has improved to where he looks like a cross between John Travolta's Urban Cowboy and Elvis from his TV comeback special.
After beginning with such savagery, the next hour of this movie is like watching The Secret Life of the American Teenager or some other basic cable teen angst drama. Ray is living and working at his mother's motel and still leading Jennifer and Tim around by their noses. There's one subplot where Ray is a lecherous jerk hitting on Sally (Megan Henning), a new maid at the motel who turns Ray down because she's secretly dating Ed (Ed Lauter), a 60 year old ex-detective who investigated Ray for the attack on the two girls. Ed's old partner Charlie (Michael Bown) is still on the force and there's another subplot about him rediscovering his interest in Ray as a suspect and rattling his cage. Yet another storyline has Ray playing the little, lost bad boy who finally finds the girl that "gets" him in the irresolute Katherine (Robin Sydney), who happens to have her own back story of parental dysfunction. There's also a bit about Ray being a drug dealer where Tim is cheating Ray out of some of the drugs.
After that first hour, a few arbitrary plot points kick in and move the film toward a conclusion that features some good old ultra-violence and plenty of Marc Senter overacting. It all tries very hard to be shocking, but by the time it gets to Ray stabbing a pregnant woman in the belly off camera, you'll be rolling your eyes. None of it is poorly executed. It simply doesn't stand up to even the least bit of scrutiny.
For starters, if you took out the brutality at the beginning and end, along with blurring a few naked chicks in the middle, The Lost would be a PG rated mish mash where Ray plays the heavy in the Peyton Placey relationship of Sally and Ed and he's also the clichéd rebel without a clue who falls for the girl from the rich family on the other side of town. The meat of this thing does not validate or support the viciousness at either end. You're left waiting around for something to follow up on the assault on the two girls and by the time it arrives, it's been so long that you not only don't care, you can't take it seriously.
This movie also flounders on consistency. On one hand, it works hard with two different girls to establish Ray's sexual inadequacy. On the other hand, it shows him being a sex god who successfully beds and bangs a string of chicks. It establishes Katherine as being sort of a kindred spirit to Ray, then tries to set her up as the one we're supposed to root for in the last third of the flick. But if she's like Ray and Ray's a psycho, how exactly does that make her the hero?
I don't blame these filmmakers for any of the problems with The Lost. Even when Marc Senter starts chewing the scenery at the end, it's clear he's doing it because that's what the story calls for. The only mistake made here was the decision to do a film adaptation of a Jack Ketchum novel that very few people have ever heard of because it isn't that good. If you're a fan of the book, you'll probably like this movie. However, I can't imagine anyone who watches The Lost will feel the need to seek out the source material.
Ray Pye (Marc Senter) is a teenage malcontent who dresses like a singer from the do-wop group Sha-Na-Na and has two tagalongs, Jennifer and Tim (Shay Astar and Alex Frost), who are even more pathetic than he is. The film opens with Ray killing one girl in the woods and gravely wounding another, just for kicks. Four years later, the wounded girl finally dies in the hospital and Ray's fashion sense has improved to where he looks like a cross between John Travolta's Urban Cowboy and Elvis from his TV comeback special.
After beginning with such savagery, the next hour of this movie is like watching The Secret Life of the American Teenager or some other basic cable teen angst drama. Ray is living and working at his mother's motel and still leading Jennifer and Tim around by their noses. There's one subplot where Ray is a lecherous jerk hitting on Sally (Megan Henning), a new maid at the motel who turns Ray down because she's secretly dating Ed (Ed Lauter), a 60 year old ex-detective who investigated Ray for the attack on the two girls. Ed's old partner Charlie (Michael Bown) is still on the force and there's another subplot about him rediscovering his interest in Ray as a suspect and rattling his cage. Yet another storyline has Ray playing the little, lost bad boy who finally finds the girl that "gets" him in the irresolute Katherine (Robin Sydney), who happens to have her own back story of parental dysfunction. There's also a bit about Ray being a drug dealer where Tim is cheating Ray out of some of the drugs.
After that first hour, a few arbitrary plot points kick in and move the film toward a conclusion that features some good old ultra-violence and plenty of Marc Senter overacting. It all tries very hard to be shocking, but by the time it gets to Ray stabbing a pregnant woman in the belly off camera, you'll be rolling your eyes. None of it is poorly executed. It simply doesn't stand up to even the least bit of scrutiny.
For starters, if you took out the brutality at the beginning and end, along with blurring a few naked chicks in the middle, The Lost would be a PG rated mish mash where Ray plays the heavy in the Peyton Placey relationship of Sally and Ed and he's also the clichéd rebel without a clue who falls for the girl from the rich family on the other side of town. The meat of this thing does not validate or support the viciousness at either end. You're left waiting around for something to follow up on the assault on the two girls and by the time it arrives, it's been so long that you not only don't care, you can't take it seriously.
This movie also flounders on consistency. On one hand, it works hard with two different girls to establish Ray's sexual inadequacy. On the other hand, it shows him being a sex god who successfully beds and bangs a string of chicks. It establishes Katherine as being sort of a kindred spirit to Ray, then tries to set her up as the one we're supposed to root for in the last third of the flick. But if she's like Ray and Ray's a psycho, how exactly does that make her the hero?
I don't blame these filmmakers for any of the problems with The Lost. Even when Marc Senter starts chewing the scenery at the end, it's clear he's doing it because that's what the story calls for. The only mistake made here was the decision to do a film adaptation of a Jack Ketchum novel that very few people have ever heard of because it isn't that good. If you're a fan of the book, you'll probably like this movie. However, I can't imagine anyone who watches The Lost will feel the need to seek out the source material.