CULT CLASSIC: RELIVING THE CHARMED ‘THE LOST BOYS’

It’s an hour into watching The Lost Boys (scratchy and quite blurry video copy, and ‘not’ DVD) before new kid in town, Michael Emerson (Jason Patric), comes face to face with the truth everyone else knows—his new friends are vampires. (Yeah, We’re all been there before, Jason!)

Before Buffy the Vampire Slayer came to our screens, The Lost Boys was the first time we saw the cool teenagers as vicious monsters. Where family and friends band together against the big bad to save the day.

It’s really easy to believe vampires exist in Joel Schumacher’s rock and roll playground, where the people are strange and it feels like summer could last forever. The film has an all-star cast, including Kiefer Sutherland, the late Corey Haim, Jason Patric and Corey Feldman, The Lost Boys still holds up as a solid film all these years later.

The film gave us the first pairing of the two Corey’s together as this was Haim’s and Feldman’s first film together, and impressively was filmed in only 3 weeks. True to ’80s form, the film embraces some of the best excesses of American popular culture, employing ridiculous blood baths and an over-the-top rock-infused soundtrack as it depicts a family’s struggle to fight the small army of leather-wearing teenage demons swarming their town.

The Lost Boys tells the story of brothers Sam and Michael Emerson. Both brothers move with their recently divorced mother Lucy, to the small beach side town Santa Clara, California to live with their eccentric, Grandpa (Barnard Hughes). Inauspicious signs abound from the start. Several young people have gone missing!

Upon arrival to the new town Michael sees and instantly falls in love with the beautiful Star. He sees her standing in the crowd of a concert, while a muscled, sweaty man (below) plays the longest saxophone solo in cinema history, even longer than the one in Police Academy.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

So… we have Michael attempting to talk to Star but David interrupts. The mullet wearing bad boy with a chip on his shoulder who runs with a group of motorcycle riding vampires.

Meanwhile, Lucy (mum) gets a job at a video store run by head vampire, Max (Edward Hermann).

Then we have the endless party atmosphere on the Santa Carla boardwalk that fuels the fantasy of this fictional town, where monsters ride motorcycles, fledgling vampire hunters, and where young Sam meets some friends of his own.

Edgar and Alan Frog (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander). The brothers proceed to warn Sam about the town and the deep secrets it keeps. They give Sam a comic book about vampires and tell him to use it as a survival guide, they also give him their number and tell him to pray that he never has to use it.

Meanwhile Michael has begun hanging around with David and his pack of friends. David (played with bleached blonde mullet perfection by the voice of Kiefer Sutherland). They attempt to have Michael do crazy things to prove his loyalty to the group like engaging in a motorcycle race that ends with Michael almost plummeting off a cliff and a stunt that involves the group hanging off of a railroad trolley (eerie clouds included!).

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Michael is eventually accepted into the fold and spends the majority of the film dismissing the concerns of his younger brother, Sam (convincing him that vampires exist and that Michael might be one of them. He flat out ignores lost girl, Star (Jami Gertz), who warns him not to drink from the bejeweled bottle of blood offered by leader of the pack, (Cue one of many “Cry Little Sister” montages as Michael scoffs “yeah, sure” and takes a big swig anyway). And with that, after just one night out with the boys, he’s a half-vampire craving blood and levitating off his bed.

Welcome to Santa Carla. It’s “a haven for the undead.

Unlike the numerous cinematic tales of the recent reluctant vampire films (Twilight and others!), “The Lost Boys” don’t live a tortured existence. They aren’t clinging desperately to a sliver of humanity or questioning the morality behind killing to survive. They’re monsters and they embrace it. (They downright enjoy it, which is demonstrated at that one-hour mark when Michael looks on in horror as they rip into the flesh of their victims before tossing them on the bonfire).

It’s Michael who is the reluctant one, refusing to succumb to the killer inside him.

It’s family that ties Michael to his humanity. And who could blame him when Corey Haim is a ray of flippin’ sunshine as Sam, standing up for his brother even when he’s scared to death of him. It’s a goddamn shame the boy who had the charisma to make us love a guy in such hideous clothes is no longer with us.

Oddly enough it’s family that drives Max as well. After all, he enlisted “The Lost Boys” to turn Lucy’s sons to ensure she couldn’t say no to becoming his vampire bride.

Sure enough, a ‘Battle Royale’ ensues between Michael, Sam and The Frog Brothers fighting the horde of the undead. The forces of good and evil come to a head but will Michael be able to defeat David, save Star, Sam, the Town of Santa Clara and ultimately himself?

It was the ’80s, (and the period is in some kinda exploding reality at the moment!) it was another time, and the film was another world where pure fun, fantasy just kept on giving.

It doesn’t matter if you’re watching The Lost Boys (or the following sequels) then or now, if you’ve seen it hundreds of times, or you’re watching it for the first time. The film offers much more than style, nostalgia, and genre thrills. At its core, even three decades later, It’s about diving into the fantasy of the town, the vampires, the comics, the friendship… and most importantly, what it means to be family, and the knowledge that you are not alone.

We welcome ‘you’ to Santa Carla, and while you’re here… check out the boardwalk. Ride the roller coaster. Keep your distance from Hudson’s Bluff overlooking the point. And don’t drink from fancy bottles offered by bleached blonde strangers, no matter how cool he looks.

Thirty years later we’re still riding the roller coaster and The Lost Boys is still living up to its tagline: Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.