My Favourite Movies: The Lost Boys

When their mother Lucy (Diane Wiest) loses out on her divorce she’s forced to move to Santa Clara California, a small coastal resort town, to live with her eccentric father while she finds her feet again. In the mix are her teenage sons Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) who take an instant dislike to the place after growing up in Phoenix – and that’s before they find out that their new home is the murder capital of America. The reason for such notoriety is soon in evidence when Michael catches the eye of a wandering teen girl (Jami Gertz) and follows her before she’s picked up by her boyfriend David (Kiefer Sutherland) and his gang of teenage delinquents. What the boys don’t realise, but soon discover, is that David and his friends are vampires who live the teenage dream of sleeping all day, partying all night, never growing old and never dying. Made in 1987 this is a teen movie literally to die for.  

Of course being a late 80’s movie this movie is a very self-conscious piece of cinema both playing homage to the vampire film whilst at the same time subverting the genre. I can’t remember teenage vampires before this film though it might not have been a completely new idea. But you can imagine how powerful the idea was to the 80’s teenagers – the very thought of extending their (at least potential) party lifestyle for ever, living a life – OK technically not ‘living’ a life – without a care and definitely without any responsibility, never having to grow up, never having any responsibilities, never needing a job and all of the crap that entails. Sounds pretty good on the face of things!

Yet the film is far from perfect. The soundtrack certainly rocked which didn’t do the overall feel of the film any harm though it helped to date it a bit (in a good way). The poorest aspects of the film where the young protagonists turned vampire hunters and in particular the Frog brothers (Edgar and Allen) played by Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander who were honestly terrible – particularly Feldman who hammed things up well beyond his acting skill level. But saying that Lost Boys is a creditable addition to the Vampire movie genre. It has some nice updates to the ideas behind the living dead and wasn’t afraid to have some fun. It’s a bit gory in places – the old bit of flying blood and almost cartoon violence – but nothing too graphic or too visceral. Taken for what it is, a light horror flick with its tongue firmly in its cheek, this is an entertaining film worth a watch at least once – though I’m guessing that some of you will be buying the soundtrack after seeing it so be warned.