LostBoys

The Lost Boys (1987)

What can I say about this movie? It is a classic and a favorite of my youth. Well okay I was 17 when the movie first came out, but is still my youth damn it! If you somehow haven’t ever seen the movie then let me give you a brief plot synopsis. After their Mom gets a divorce Michael and Sam end up moving to California to live with their Grandfather. Once there Michael meets a girl named Star and falls in with the crowd she runs with. What he doesn’t know is that she and her friends are vampires. They start to turn Michael into one of them, which needless to say disturbs his brother Sam (played by the late great Corey Haim). Lucky for them Sam has made friends with the local vampire hunters, the Frog Brothers, Edgar (played by Corey Feldman) and Allan. The rest of the movie is them doing battle with the vampires and they try and save both Michael and Star from undeath.

This is one of my favorite vampire movies, if not my all time favorite. The story is solid and moves along at a brisk pace. It is a nice combination of traditional vampire lore with a “hip” 80s vibe to it. Seriously the clothes and music really capture the best and sometimes the worst (that trench coat… damn) that the decade had to offer. The soundtrack for the movie is filled with some killer bands like Echo and the Bunnymen and INXS. That said I don’t think it is nostalgia for my youth that makes me enjoy the movie so much. One of the things that really bugs me about vampire movies today is that the vampires aren’t scary. I like my vampires to be monsters, not sweaty boys that sparkle in the sunlight. Now I’ll admit that the boys here do look like Calvin Klein models, but when they “vamp out” they are scary looking. These vampires will tear you up and murder you. This is how I prefer my vampires.

So I love the story, the music, and the vampires. But that isn’t all the Lost Boys has to offer. I can’t think of many movies that assembled a cast quite like this one. You have veterans like Edward Herrmann, Barnard Hughes, and Dianne Wiest in supporting roles. As much as people talk about the kids that director Joel Schumacher cast without the talented people I just mentioned the movie just wouldn’t be as good as it is. Hermann is wonderful as Max, and of course Hughes steals several scenes as Sam’s Grandpa. Hell his character fires off one last zinger right before the screen fades to black. Of course we also need to mention the young members of the cast including the vampires, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, and Jason Patric. All of them are very good in the movie. This is also the first movie that teamed up the Coreys, Feldman and Haim. God you can say what you want about Schumacher as a director, but he certainly had an eye for talent!

For this review I watched the Blu-Ray of the Lost Boys. On it were several special features that I wanted to mention. The first is The Lost Boys Retrospective. This 24 minute long feature is from 2004 and features interviews with the director Schumacher, producer Richard Donner, and actors Edward Hermann, Jamie Neulander, Kiefer Sutherland, as well as Haim and Feldman. Everyone talks about how they got involved with the movie, as well as sharing a bit what the shoot was like. My favorite part about this feature is Schumacher talking about the script and the changes he made.

In addition to this feature there are also several shorter ones as well. A Director’s Vision goes into more detail how Schumacher changed the movie after he was brought on. Comedy vs. Horror briefly mentions how uncomfortable the studio was with the blending of the horror and comedy genres. Fresh Blood: A New look at Vampires isn’t terribly interesting and honestly makes zero sense. There is also a bit about the potential for a Lost Boys Sequel. Lets just say some people seemed really against it, but then ended up appearing in it.

Vamping Out: The Undead Creations of Greg Cannon is a nifty look at the creator of the special effects for the movie. He talks about his background and theory of what he wanted to do with the look of effects work. As I’ve said already I’m a fan of how the vampires look, so this was an interested if too short (only 14 minutes) feature.

If you haven’t figured it out yet I’m a big fan of the movie. Though this was tempered a bit when my lovely wife (with some glee I might add) pointed out that the vampire’s blood sparkled in the sun. I never noticed this before, possibly because of my crappy VHS and DVD versions of the movie. Honestly I could have gone without ever noticing this. Still it doesn’t take away from how cool the movie is and I still highly recommend it.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer