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| The hip, youthful poster for Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys |
The Lost Boys is a very 80's experience; a teenage vampire adventure comedy phenomenon based on the basic idea that Peter Pan could have been a vampire. In development and rewrites, this has been pushed very far out of the actual film though, so few people will ever think of Peter Pan watching the finished film.
It's about a small family of a mother, her two teenage sons and their husky dog Nanook, who moves to Santa Carla in California, where a youth gang of vampires have made the town 'the murder capital of the world'.
Very shortly into the film, it's clear that Lost Boys is a pretty crazy film and that it is squarely aimed at teen audiences, - in the 1980's!
Casting has obviously gone for the most psyched out punks as extras, and the film is accompanied by welcome pop and rock hits of its time (by INXS and Echo and the Bunnymen among others), fast cutting and extreme lighting. Many call this 'stylish', and it may be, but the overuse of colored lights in Lost Boys is not very elegant. The deep immersion in 80's fashion, (over)styling and music is fun and a treat for anyone with a penchant for it, but it's a galaxy away from 'hip' today.
Much of the action takes place in and around a theme-park, where Kiefer Sutherland's vampire gang hang around and cause trouble with no real explanation. Our hero is played by charming, frenetic Corey Haim (Lucas (1986)), who, - very symptomatically for the film and its audience, - receives his knowledge of vampires and how to slay them through comic books. They are actually passed on to him like the purest wisdom. One of the more experienced vampire hunters is Corey Feldman (Stand By Me (1986)), who is pretty bad in the film. The problem lies mostly in the script, which pushes so much for humor that almost all of the lines are silly, (and at least all of Feldman's.)
The plot in itself is silly, and some of the vampire rules seem to be taken rather lightly; (vampires entering the home without an invitation and the only girl vampire, who mysteriously never changes into one.) A few dramatic scenes might have helped elevate the film to the likes of Gremlins (1984), Back to the Future (1985) and The Karate Kid (1984), which are some of the similar, but better teen-favorites of the time. Dianne Wiest (Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)) is a great actress, and she's good as the mother, but the relationships and story there is very underdeveloped: The divorce, which is the underlying reason for the family's being without a father/husband, is only hinted at in one jokey line from her. - That's no good.
The details:
The Lost Boys is still an entertaining film, and older kids and teenagers may still love it.
My favorite character in it, - and the funniest one in my opinion, - was the grandpa, played by Barnard Hughes (The Odd Couple II (1998)), who's got several funny lines and great delivery.
There's also some cool effects and vampire make-up:
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| You've never seen Kiefer Sutherland quite like this before, in Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys |
The effects do, however, seem to run amok at the end, and continue and grow inexplicably out of control. It nevertheless seems well in line with the entire film's silly, amusing nature.
It is directed by New Yorker-filmmaker Joel Schumacher (St. Elmo's Fire (1985)).
Sadly, the charming lead Haim was already developing drug habits at the time of shooting Lost Boys, and would later go bankrupt and struggle with addiction for years, leading to his sad, early death at age 38 in 2010. R.I.P.
Watch the original trailer here
Cost: 8.5 mil. $
Box office: 32.2 mil. $
= Big hit
What do you think of The Lost Boys?
Have you seen other films with Corey Haim, and if so, how was he?
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