Author Jack Ketchum is notorious for writing uncompromised, brutal and extremely uncomfortable novels.  His stories and books are usually filled with dire, unlikable characters, innocents that suffer the most horrific atrocities and conclusions that usually leave you in a nauseated sweat rather than feeling safe that everything was wrapped up in a comfortable little package.  The guilty often go unpunished or avoid any real example of justice and his novels follow the same unpredictable skewed tangents that real life usually does.  It’s for all those reasons that Ketchum is a prolific and often praised writer and why his works are incredibly tough to adapt as motion pictures.  Ketchum’s novel “Off Season” about a clan of cave-dwelling inbred cannibals that slaughter all they come across and their encounter with a bunch of hapless city folk is considered on of his best works and is an incredibly vicious tale with uncountable pieces of extreme visceral gore and depravity that has catapulted the novel to classic status. Ketchum aficionados will usually point to many other examples of his work as their preferred “classic” and one of the titles at the top of the list is THE LOST.

The film is exceedingly dark and twisted at times, with Ray emerging as a truly manipulative danger to all those around him.  As the film progresses you see Ray for the true alien being he is; emotionally cold, calculating and removed from all those around him,  Ray’s madness is almost a character unto itself with frequent audio and visual stings accompanying his continually unraveling mind.  The maddening sound of buzzing flies, jumps in film stock and double exposure unmask Ray’s growing madness.  Couple that with a performance which is intense without falling over into caricature and you have an antagonist that is depressingly all too believable as a real person.  It’s almost as if the film stock itself has been created by Ray’s emotions and giving the movie a distinct visual feel based on Ray’s emotions is a wonderful tactic which adds to the unique experience this film is trying to convey.  Tim and Jennifer’s characters emerge as truly troubled, especially when confronted with not only the horrible secret they were forced to keep silent but with the realization that it can and will happen all over again.  Their motives can be called into question, but when you consider all the instances where real juvenile offenders have coerced or threatened others into a dark, secretive partnership Tim and Jennifer’s actions become all too topical.

Not a straight horror movie but more like a merging of a true crime docudrama and a dark comedy, THE LOST is a uniquely written film with many stellar performances by a cast of virtual unknowns.  The film humorously shows Ray for the swaggering, too confidant con artist he is, charming weaker people over while using flattened beer cans in his boots to add to his height and enhance his physical presence (while plotting truly atrocious acts all the while).  He is an all too human monster, lying to pump up his false bravado on the most trivial of matters while enacting feats of such cruelty without a second thought. 

Ketchum’s writing may not be populated by unearthly creatures or take place in fantastic realms, he shows that humans can be crueler and more dangerous than anything that can spring from the most inventive mind.  Ketchum paints a stark landscape where the monsters are us and our Hell is of our own making where there is not a stitch of salvation anywhere in sight.

THE LOST is a grim slice of film that makes you uncomfortable for witnessing its carnage.  The performances and writing are all top notch and the film, despite the directorial flourishes, entrances the viewer into watching something real and hopeless unfolding in front of their eyes.  The opening double murder is brutal in its casual execution but that is nothing compared to what you’ll witness at the conclusion of this movie.  The consequences of our character’s actions create an over the top coda which is unflinching and uncompromising. 

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