Wonderful Movie

Simply A Masterpiece

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

I'd like to think that I am at least as insightful as an average person. Having studied the craft and written a couple of screenplays myself, I'm at a loss of words - which doesn't happen very often. Maybe one has to read the book, which I'm guessing is far superior to this cinematic mess, in order to follow or 'get' what the purpose of the film is. Three teens in the woods stumble upon two girls in the woods, they're shot. OK, good start... but then we jump to a cast of characters with a LOUSY setup. Who are they? How do they relate to the story? It takes too much effort to piece it together and my 30mins+ we don't really care - we're LOST! The setups in the film don't really have any satisfying payoffs and there's a lot of ON THE NOSE scenes that are placed in order to ensure the audience understands the plot that hangs together by a thread. Are we the audience suppose to root for Ray? I don't think so. Is there even a protagonist in the film? I don't think so. So are we the audience just sitting through a bad movie that showcases a villains dark side? Totally unsatisfying. Again, no comment on the book... I'm sure it's wonderful in a dark kind of way, but it's likely an impossible feat to convert that story into a successful film - this one has failed. Yes, the audience is the only thing about this movie that is clearly LOST and this is likely the worst or second worst movie I've seen in years.

OK. I saw all of these glowing reviews on IMDb and thought I'd rent it from Netflix. I was not disappointed. I'm not going to write a lengthy introspective essay on how well this film worked...it just did.I honestly thought that the actor portraying Ray Pye was not just good, but phenomenal! Yeah, he was. I could see that he had nailed this part from the get go. If you took Anthony Perkins and bolted on double turbo chargers, he still wouldn't have come close to this portrayal of a young man losing himself to his own mind.The Lost's lead actor was by far the best example of psychosis I have seen on screen--ever! Ray Pye's slow mental breakdown had my heart rate on full throttle. The scenes of violence were depicted in such a way that it was believable.The only flaw in this film was it's length and even that is arguable. All in all, this movie was very very well made and I whole heartedly recommend this to anyone. Warning: you may rip the arms of your seat off!

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.