First of all, what a pathetic title. Whatever happened to titles that make it easy for us to google them?!? Titles like Soylent Green, or Frankenhooker, or Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence? There's no way in hell you can find The Lost by googling it, without more information. OK, so, just so you have that information if you want it, it starred Michael Bowen, Marc Senter as the main character, Dee Wallace, Shay Astar, Megan Henning, Robin Sydney, Ed Lauter, Richard Riehle (Tom the co-worker, from Office Space) and Erin Brown, whom some of you may recall working unter the name Misty Mundae... hubba hubba hubba.

More info: The Lost was directed by Chris Sivertson, and was based on a... sort of a book between true crime and a novel, by Jack Ketchum, which was based on an actual psycho killer named Charles Howard Schmid Jr. Also, it was produced by (among other people) Lucky McKee! OK, if you remember just a few of those details, you should be able to remember enough to find it someday in the future, if you ever want to. I will stick a link to it in here somewhere, too.

Anyway, I started out with a negative comment, but it isn't really a bad movie. It's about a somewhat charismatic bad boy psycho killer guy, who draws people into his orbit, and who kills a couple of women early in the movie.

After the murder (it was actually only one of the women who died right away, the other lived on as a vegatable for four years, until the day the action of the movie resumes)... after all that, a couple of local detectives feel sure that they know the psycho killer guy (named Ray) was the one who did it, but they need more proof, or for his friends to step forward and tell the truth.

The two detectives are each sort of funny, in different ways. The Michael Bowen detective character is funny because he farts, and because he goes out of his way to make it very clear to Ray that he knows he is the killer. This is probably a difficult temptation for him to resist, but it is also pretty damned stupid of him, as we will see. The other detective, played by Ed Lauter, is supposed to be about sixty years old, and is dating a girl who is supposed to be about twenty. They seem to really like each other, but it just looks disgusting to see them together. I kind of wanted to slap my TV when he was shown with her. They actors really did have a forty year age difference when they filmed the movie, although Ed was sixty seven and the girl was twenty seven. Yikes.

The psycho killer guy Ray can be kind of entertaining and even amusing to watch, but you see evidence over the course of the film that he did not learn any kind of lesson from getting away with killing the two women at the beginning. You can tell, he could do it again, or something comparably evil, at any moment. He has one relationship with a female old friend, and another with a girl he met who seems to be kind of a bad girl. He wants to have ANOTHER relationship with Ed the detective's young girlfriend, although she makes it clear she is not interested. Also, he would basically hump anything that moves... hey, can't fault a single (-ish) guy for that.

One interesting thing about this movie is that they keep it sort of difficult to tell what decde the action takes place in. The true story that it is based on happened in the 60s, but most scenes could take place in the 70s, 80s, 90s, or early 2000s. You hardly see any references to pop culture to help place the film in any particular decade. The ways they entertain themselves usually could fit in in any decade.... you'll see what I mean, if you watch it.

Another interesting thing is that I suspect Ray might have been the model for the evil leader of the band in Jennifer's Body.

Anyway, the movie is mostly sort of a slow burn, as you gradually get a sense of what Ray is like, and what his friends and associates are like. I don't want to wreck anything, but it has a DOOZY of an ending, so it is probably worth watching just for that.

Anyway, yah. Had to share.