THE LOST (2006)
Special Edition Blu-ray
Label: Ronin Flix
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 119 Minutes 25 Seconds
Audio: English Uncompressed DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Chris Sivertson
Cast: Marc Senter, Robin Sydney, Shay Astar, Alex Frost, Michael Bowen, Ed Lauter, Megan Henning, Dee Wallace
When The Lost (2006) was first released I was quite interested in it, based on the same-titled novel by Jack Ketchum (The Girl Next Door) it was at least in part based on the true crime story of Tucson serial killer Charles "Schmitty" Schmid, the Pied Piper of Tucson. A few years before I did a stint working at the world-famous Toxic Ranch record store and the proprietor Bill Sassenberger told me the story of Tucson own serial killer from the 60's, which made national headlines. He also turned my onto the book Cold-Blooded: The Saga of Charles Schmid, the Notorious "Pied Piper of Tucson" by author John Gilmore, and it was quite an interesting story about a charismatic loser who killed three young girls here in Tucson, all the while so enthralling his teen acolytes that they went along with it. The story was made into a film with The Todd Killings (1971), which inspired the punk rock song of the same name by The Angry Samoans. There's a pretty good episode of the "A Crime to Remember" (2014) series that covers the crime as well if you're curious. Anyway, it was the true crime book that piqued by curiosity about the film when it first arrived on home video.
The Lost film is an adaptation of the Ketchum novel and the connection to the Tucson killings is more in spirit than anything portrayed here, keeping the element of a violent charismatic loser (who stuffs his boots with aluminum cans to appear taller and an artificially exaggerated beauty mark) who kills a couple of girls and enthralls his loser's club of friends into keeping it a secret for a number of years. I was a bit disappointed by that when I initially saw it, so I was pretty keen to revisit the flick with a good fifteen years since my last viewing to see how it held up. At the start of the film the Charles Schmidt stand-in Ray Pye (Marc Senter, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Break), his girlfriend Jennifer (Shay Astar, TV's 3rd Rock from the Sun), and his best friend Tim (Alex Frost, Elephant) are in the woods fucking around when Ray encounters a pair of attractive lady campers (Misty Mundae, Ruby Larocca), when Ray sees them kissing he is disgusted by it and suggest that they should "pop them". Sure enough, later than night Ray follows through and shoots both of the women as they talk around a camp fire. As he prepares to bury them one of them has recovered enough of run off into the woods, and before Ray can finish her off she is found by a couple in a truck on the road, but she falls into a coma and dies four years later, never able to identify her killer.
The Lost film is an adaptation of the Ketchum novel and the connection to the Tucson killings is more in spirit than anything portrayed here, keeping the element of a violent charismatic loser (who stuffs his boots with aluminum cans to appear taller and an artificially exaggerated beauty mark) who kills a couple of girls and enthralls his loser's club of friends into keeping it a secret for a number of years. I was a bit disappointed by that when I initially saw it, so I was pretty keen to revisit the flick with a good fifteen years since my last viewing to see how it held up. At the start of the film the Charles Schmidt stand-in Ray Pye (Marc Senter, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Break), his girlfriend Jennifer (Shay Astar, TV's 3rd Rock from the Sun), and his best friend Tim (Alex Frost, Elephant) are in the woods fucking around when Ray encounters a pair of attractive lady campers (Misty Mundae, Ruby Larocca), when Ray sees them kissing he is disgusted by it and suggest that they should "pop them". Sure enough, later than night Ray follows through and shoots both of the women as they talk around a camp fire. As he prepares to bury them one of them has recovered enough of run off into the woods, and before Ray can finish her off she is found by a couple in a truck on the road, but she falls into a coma and dies four years later, never able to identify her killer.
Detective Charlie Schilling (Michael Bowen, Night of the Comet, Kill Bill) has long suspected Ray of the killings but Jen and Tim have kept tight-lipped about what they saw and they've never been able to put together a solid case against him. Ray is still dating Jen, while also chasing after every girl he can, and Tim is still his pal, but both are abused by Ray, and Tim is crushing hard on Jen. Ray works as a motel manager for his mom, and it there that he meets new employee Sally (Megan Henning, I Know Who Killed Me) who catches his eye, but he becomes is frail ego is crushed when she brushes off his flirtations, as she is involved with a much older retired cop Ed (Ed Lauter, Cujo) who is Schilling's former partner. He is temporarily distracted the arrival a new girl in town, sexy daddy's-little-girl (Robin Sydney, Big Bad Wolf) Katharine who is immediately attracted to Ray seeming self assuredness and his bad-boy darkside.
The flick has a strong open, the killing of the two girls in the woods starts things off nicely, and establishes Ray as someone willing to pursue his darker impulses, and his friends as abused/enthralled toadies who will pretty much do whatever their told to do by the charismatic psychopath. The middle part of the film sort of settles into a dark hang out flick, we see Ray hosting drug-fueled parties at the hotel with underage teens, having sex with Jen and various women, we see Schilling following Ray around, trying to squeeze info out of him and his cohorts, and we see Ray's darker side re-emerge, especially once it becomes clear that not only does Sally have no interest in him, but that Jen, Tim, and Katherine are turning on him as well, and that's when things start heating up, gearing up for the final leg of this as Ray goes on an explosive kidnap/murder spree.
Re-watching this after the better part of 15 years I found the flick holds-up well, but a lot of what annoyed me about it the first time around annoyed me once more, if to a lesser degree. I was able to watch it at least without the Pied Piper of Tucson baggage, but the frenetic and disjointed style still irked me. There are scene where they use a degraded almost retro 16mm look in short flashes that just distracted me more than brought me into any mindset it might have been going for. There's also some interesting choices of music on the soundtrack that I love as well, but when combined with the at times jagged editing style sit still managed to annoy me. The soundtrack features songs from Boris, Blood Duster, The Baseball Furies, The Ponys, The Black Heart Procession, and the Oblivians - a lot of whom I fucking love, but the music cues just didn't work for me on the whole, so I was a bit conflicted. Still the flick still has a serious deranged and unsettling power about it, the core story here about a handsome and charismatic leader able to enthrall his friends into helping him cover-up a murder is strong, but at just a hair under two hours, the movie which starts off strong and closes with some potent unhinged violence, loses it's way a bit in the soft middle section, that probably could've been tightened up a bit.
The film was directed by Chris Sivertson (I Know Who Killed Me) and produced by Lucky McKee (May) who also co-directed All Cheerleaders Die (2013) with Silvertson. This was basically his first feature film, and despite some reservations about the aesthetics and editing I think it's still a bit of an early 00's banger worth checking out. Also be on the lookout for notable cameos from Dee Wallace (The Howling), the always lovable Richard Riehle (Office Space) and author Jack Ketchum. Notably, this was the first film adaptation of Ketchum's novels, and would be followed by The Girl Next Door, Red, The Offspring, and The Woman, several of which were directed by McKee.
Audio/Video: The Lost arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Ronin Flix in 1080p framed 2.35:1 widescreen, sourced from a brand new NEW 2K remaster produced from a 4K scan of the original camera negative completed by Ronin Flix. The flick looks better than ever with this new remaster, the previous Blu-ray was quite unsatisfactory with compression issues throughout and lossy audio, but here we get a cleaner more polished presentation that still has the film grain intact, the imperfections that were baked into the degraded footage is still there, it's part of the look of it, but colors and fine detail are nicely improved up, Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo and a newly created 5.1 Surround DTS-HD MA with optional English subtitles, a wonderful upgrade considering the previous Blu-ray only had 5.1 Dolby Digital. There are still some inherent low-budget source limitations but also quite an improvement.
Extras include a new Audio Commentary with director Chris Sivertson and producer Lucky McKee, and the archival Audio Commentary with Jack Ketchum moderated by writer Monica O’Rourke. Also new are 51-minutes with of New Interviews with actors Marc Senter, Robin Sydney, and Shay Astar; these interview are pretty great and feature the cast talking about getting into character by reading Ketchum's novel and researching Charles Schmidt, shooting scenes at a swingers club, the special effects, working off each other, Sivertson's directing styles and a lot more. We also get a host of archival extras by way of 7-min of Audition Tapes; 16-min of Outtakes; a 3-min Storyboard Sequence of the film's opening, plus the 2-min Original Jack and Jill Short Film by Chris Sivertson which features in McKee's May.
The single-disc release arrives in a clear keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, which is mirrord on the Limited Edition Slipcover (First-Pressing Only), the same key artwork is also featured on the pressed Blu-ray disc.
- NEW! Audio Commentary with director Chris Sivertson and producer Lucky McKee
- Historical Audio Commentary with Jack Ketchum moderated by writer Monica O’Rourke
- NEW! Becoming The Demon - Interview with Marc Senter (11:36)
- Historical Audio Commentary with Jack Ketchum moderated by writer Monica O’Rourke
- NEW! Becoming The Demon - Interview with Marc Senter (11:36)
- NEW! This Is So Real - Interview with Robin Sydney (19:51)
- NEW! A Tale of Survival - Interview with Shay Astar(20:32)
- Audition Tapes (6:56)
- Outtakes (16:17).
- Storyboard Sequence (3:29)
- Audition Tapes (6:56)
- Outtakes (16:17).
- Storyboard Sequence (3:29)
- Original Jack and Jill Short Film by Chris Sivertson (2:06)
- Limited Edition Slipcover (First-Pressing Only)
Screenshots from the Ronin Flix Blu-ray:
