The Lost Boys (1987)

 The Lost Boys (1987)

Two decades before Twilight arrived, the vampire genre received a boost with the game-changing The Lost Boys. Prior to this 1987 classic, vampires were seen as deadly creatures of the night a la Nosferatu or Dracula- older men with a neater, more distinct style. Joel Schumacher’s vision, for the first time, allowed teens and tweens to take the spotlight within the vampire community. In addition, this is not a straight-out horror feature. The film walks the tight line within the genres of horror, action, and comedy. Thanks to the delightful Frog Brothers, there are some incredible, laugh-out-loud lines that shows the film does not take itself too seriously. I do not think it ventures far into campy territory as well. Just enough scares, enough comedy to make for an awesome cinematic adventure. I was not expecting much, so I was very pleasantly surprised. Also, the creature design is great. I love what they did to the fangs of the vampires. Really creepy stuff!

The film received its origin in 1985 by first time screenwriters Jan Fischer and James Jeremias. The screenplay circulated on the black market until an indie studio picked it up. Later, Warner Brothers came on board to finance the movie. This screenplay was modeled after Richard Donner’s, who was set to direct, The Goonies. The age of the characters reflected that thought. After Donner decided to pursue other projects, Joel Schumacher came on board to direct. He also brought veteran screenwriter Jeffrey Boam to revamp (no puns intended) the script as he wanted the characters “older and sexier.” Schumacher gave his cast freedom to improvise (was an actual requirement for actor Jason Patric) and the producers/studio worried this style of vampire movie would fail. Luckily for them, it became a minor box office success and a cult classic.

Lucy (Dianne Wiest) is a recent divorcee and along with her two kids, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim), is forced to move in with her father in Santa Clara, California (which was modeled off Santa Cruz). This town has been shaken by these adolescent bikers headed by David (Kiefer Sutherland) and these mysterious deaths. Sam doesn’t mind until he meets Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman) and his brother at a comic shop and claim that vampires exist. At an amusement park, Michael meets the local girl, Star (Jami Gertz) and she draws him far within the biker gang. Sooner than later, Michael begins to exhibit symptoms of vampirism including sleeping during the day. With influence from the Frog Brothers, Sam must be ready to save his brother. There is a plot line that I do not think is quite as strong, and that is the blossoming relationship between Wiest and a local resident, Max (Edward Herrmann).

I think it was a good idea to make the vampires “too cool for school.” Kiefer Sutherland embraces that notion, and it works very well. Schumacher made an excellent casting choice after watching Sutherland’s bully portrayal in Stand by Me. Corey Feldman continues his strong run of 80’s films. Excellent humor decisions and has a deeper voice! Schumacher was surprised Wiest accepted this role coming off her Academy Award win for Hannah and her Sisters, but her presence is most accepted. I also liked Jason Patric’s performance. His character makes questionable decisions, but I did like his portrayal.

Overall, I enjoyed the heck out of The Lost Boys. It mixes humor and scares effectively without going too far on each end of the scale. The ending is traditional in terms of big sets and loads of action, but the home invasion sequence was done very well. The soundtrack is awesome! Thomas Newman handling the score and some good songs headed by INXS and Foreigner. The story makes a wise decision to turn the vampires into much younger beings which ties into the themes of adolescence, thus making this movie an effective teen flick as well. The character designs are excellent (those fangs!). If you like vampire films or 80’s teen comedies, give Schumacher’s film a taste. You’re bound to be thrilled and to laugh.

“Look at your reflection in the mirror. You're a creature of the night Michael, just like out of a comic book! You're a vampire Michael! My own brother, a …, ….-sucking vampire. You wait 'till mom finds out, buddy!” -Sam

My Grade: A-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Image
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” Ah, wise words from our new young friend, Ferris Bueller. In John Hughes’s 1986 film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , all Ferris wants to do is take a day and have fun. That is the most simplistic theme the movie has. You can go deeper, but the main takeaway is that it is okay to have fun. That is a motto I have taken to heart. I really loved the film. People consider The Breakfast Club to be Hughes’s best and most important movie. That’s a fine statement to make, but I would personally rank the film number two behind this particular one. The teen characters are instantly relatable, it has a memorable antagonist for the children, and this is basically a thirty-year-old travel guide for Chicago. Just how Woody Allen creates his movies as love letters for New York, this is applicable for John Hughes. A Chicago love letter!   Like all of his films, Hughes wrote
Read more

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Image
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) The James Bond franchise is one of those franchises that will never die. It has been going strong since the first movie rolled out in the early 1960’s, and new James Bond movies are still produced today. What makes this series unique is they use multiple actors to play the titular character over the years. They all bring their own gravitas to the role, and each Bond is a different man when compared to each other (although the martini, shaken not stirred and the beautiful women among other things remain a constant.) So my first James Bond review for this blog is 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. This wasn’t my first look at the series, but it was my first look at the older movies. I really liked what I saw. This is an old-fashioned story that combines a spy drama and an action-packed war movie into one package. Like many of the older Bond movies, the story can get borderline preposterous. The cheesiness of the plot did come to grow on me after awhile, even
Read more

Broadcast News (1987)

Image
  Broadcast News (1987) If you watched the trailer for James L. Brooks’s Broadcast News , you would be forgiven if you thought this film is about a romantic love triangle set in a news station. Yes, there are aspects of romance, but it is way more than that. Brooks is a very smart, adept director who makes a living in creating deep, meaningful characterizations. In my eyes, Brooks had ideas about how work can overtake personal lives and any romance for these workaholics is essentially just a front because quite frankly, these people love to work…as we see detailed with our main characters. In addition, this film is quite informative. Even in 1987, news stations were more about entertainment and the looks, rather than delivering the actual news itself. It was a newer trend that eventually took over networks. With all the insanity within the newsroom, this film manages to find humanity within its characters. This is a detailed human portrait that is engaging, emotional, and comedic. Ja
Read more