Lost Souls is the perfect title for a film about characters desperately in search of meaning. Unfortunately, the meaning here has little to do with the hero and heroine's character arcs, but rather with the story itself, a vague exploration of good, evil and the nature of faith. So it is that stars Winona Ryder and Ben Chaplin float aimlessly through the beautifully stylized, but purposeless world created by first-time director Janusz Kaminsky, Speilberg's frequent cinematographer, and writer Pierce Gardner.

On the positive side, Lost Souls is a commendable film that tries to personalize the exorcism genre by showing the more intimate consequences of Satan's coming to earth. It is, however, ultimately hollow, borrowing extensively from its more accomplished predecessors like The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby. Here, "exorcist" is more of a loose term, with part of the responsibility falling on fragile, but devout Catholic Maya Larkin (Winona Ryder). Possessed by Demonic forces as a young woman and saved by Father Lareaux (John Hurt), she joined Lareaux's little clique of priests, who believe that Satan will soon walk on earth. (Don't these films always begin like this?)

This time Satan is given a name and a more human face, courtesy of a possessed murderer who Maya and Lareaux try and fail to spiritually cleanse. That name is Peter Kelson (Ben Chaplin), a man who had a crisis of faith years ago when his parents were murdered. Peter, a renowned author who now specializes in murderers, seems an unlikely candidate for demonic possession. After all, he's already so self-possessed that there isn't much room for anyone else inside. But, the criteria fit and so Maya does her best to convince him that soon he will become the receptacle for the Antichrist. After a long haul, he finally believes her, although given the circumstances, he remains remarkably calm.

Despite everyone's attempt to make a spooky film, Lost Souls tends merely to go through the motions. A lot of reliance is placed on Kaminsky's stylized rendering of the world, which is artsy to be sure (he was a D.P. after all), but gets a bit out of hand in places. For instance, every time the priests head off to perform an exorcism, they walk in slow motion to impart the dire nature of their mission. Hey, it's Reservoir Priests! And, throughout, the entire film is shot through a blue-green filter, giving the images almost a negative exposure. Affective at times, the choice starts to wear thin after awhile. All in all, the visuals got a great deal more attention than the story itself.

One can certainly understand the filmmakers' hopes when they started this movie. In a world populated by slashers and pure thrill rides, an intense psychological drama is always welcome. But Lost Souls tries too hard. Both Maya and Peter are so earnest in their beliefs that they seem like caricatures -- the passionate lover of God, the pronounced disbeliever -- and neither of them ever really has a character arc worth mentioning. Maya starts out as a devout Catholic and ends up that way, all the more so after what she has witnessed. Peter goes from atheist to, for lack of a better term, agnostic. He never really believes anything. As a result, any sacrifices made are hollow. Perhaps, the message here, as much as there is one, is that it's lack of belief (in whatever) that condemns us. For Peter, his soul is an open book precisely because he believes only in himself. So much for self-determinism.

Movies about faith are difficult at best. The complex philosophical and psychological issues at work often result in a film that is either childishly simple (Bless the Child) or reliant on pyrotechnics (End of Days). Lost Souls tries to reach a middle ground here, never getting too flashy or silly. Unfortunately, in doing so, it also ends up being rather dull. Most of all, it's the film's ending that buries it. Without giving anything away, suffice it to say that it is supremely anti-climactic for the Antichrist. While there's nothing wrong with subtlety, this goes beyond subtle into just plain disappointing. After the moderate thrill ride you're taken on, it seems that the movie should end with a bang, not a whimper. But whimper it does, as if telling us that evil just isn't that scary. If this is the worst the Devil can come up with, we can all rest easy until the next Millennium.