A woman who has survived the touch of ultimate evil must now save one man from the same fate in order to protect the world in this supernatural thriller. Maya Larkin (Winona Ryder) is a devout Catholic who is said to have been possessed by a demon as a child; she now works with Father Lareaux (John Hurt) and John Townshend (Elias Koteas), fellow believers who perform exorcisms on troubled souls they believe are controlled by Satan. While performing an exorcism on a mass murderer, Henry Birdsong (John Diehl), Maya, and her cohorts come in contact with Peter Kelson (Ben Chaplin), a journalist and noted authority on the criminal mind who believes the notion of "evil with a capital E" is absurd. Peter is an agnostic despite being raised by a Catholic priest; his uncle, Father James (Philip Baker Hall), raised Peter after the death of his parents while he was still a child. During their failed exorcism, Birdsong tells Maya that Satan will return to Earth, inhabiting the body of a man in order to reclaim this world. As Maya attempts to unravel the code of who the devil's victim will be, she comes to the awful realization that the most likely candidate is Peter Kelson. Lost Souls marked the directorial debut of cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, whose camera credits include Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, and Jerry Maguire.