The Lost Boys [RSC Film Club 09]

[LimeGreenLegend 4,278]

The first half of our Halloween Horror double feature is the film that made vampires cool again, blazing a trail for stuff like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight.  Nominated by @Pb76, 1987's The Lost Boys.

Directed by the man who nearly killed Batman, Joel Schumacher (Falling Down, Batman Forever, Phone Booth) and starring an ensemble cast of established and up-and-coming actors like Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Kiefer Sutherland and Corey Feldman, The Lost Boys is the story of a new kid in town who suspects something is up with the local biker gang, led by the charismatic David (Sutherland).  I've got not much more to say, having not seen this before, but I know how iconic this film is so am looking forward to seeing why it has such a big cult following.

garlic don't work boys

 

Edited March 5, 2020 by LimeGreenLegend

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

Express viewing    

Well, I have mixed feelings about it but taking into account the time period, it's not half bad ! Here are my thoughts.

First thing I thought about is : where's the horror ? It starts like a nice movie, teens and their mom moving in in sunny California. Life is good even if the biker gang assholes ruin it a little. I haven't watched a lot of horror movies (not my favorite genre, sorry @Con) but they often start like this, people enjoying their life in a nice town or house but there is always something bad coming eventually.

The beginning of the film builds up its atmosphere of this weird/scary thing under what seems to be a paradise. There's been a lot of murders apparently and the town is known as the murder capital of America. Brrrrrr scary. Except it isn't really. Again, where's the horror ? We soon meet 80s Jack Bauer. I LOVE 80s Jack Bauer with his awesome 80s haircut and make up ! Best part of the movie BY FAR ! He's very stereotypical, him and his biker friends. They're a crazy bunch and people are pissed and/or scared of them. They're not welcome and they disturb the town. 

I said it before but I like the 80s. It's no surprise that I enjoyed the music thoughout the movie. Especially the 80s Glam Rock. Soon enough, the brothers go to a rock show and the older teen, Michael, notices a pretty girl (she is very beautiful) So of course he kinda falls in love with her. She notices him but he finds out that she hangs out with the 80s Jack Bauer biker gang. Bummer. By the way, Michael looks a lot like Billy from Stranger Things. Obviously it's the other way around so now I wonder if Billy isn't an homage to Michael from this film. I'll do some research about that. 

Anyway, the day after, the kids go back into town and Mike runs into the girl again. He wants to take up for a ride on his bike but 80s Jack Bauer biker gang arrives and Star (the girl) goes with them. She's definitely scared of them all and doesn't really have any other choice. 80s Jack Bauer taunts Mike to follow him. So he does, like every idiot in horror movies. Of course it's a trap ! They ride into the fog near the ocean, eye staring contest at 100mph and Mike falls off his bike just a second before diving into the raging ocean. Lucky him. 80s Jack Bauer biker gang take him to their lair, some kind of abandoned hotel destroyed during an earthquake. They offer him chinese food and they scare him by letting him think it's worms and other insects he's eating instead of real food. That part had me confused. How is he hallucinating ? I didn't recall them drugging him. Was it chinese of insects ? I couln't tell in the end. Finally, they offer him a drink and Mike being as confused as I am, drinks it, not knowing if it's blood or regular alcohol (it's blood). 

Mikey hangs around with the 80s Jack Bauer biker gang and they end up on a train track and the guys dare him to follow them again while they seemingly jump to their death. In fact they're hanging from under the bridge and Mikey ends up doing the same (weird hobby). A train comes and everything starts to vibrate and the boys let go one at a time and fall to their death ! WILLINGLY ! Mikey is scared but eventually he has to let go and surprise ! He doesn't die and regroups with the weird guys. Something is definitely off with him now. 

Meanwhile, his younger brother befriends two kids who warn him about vampires invading the town. Ha ha there's no such thing as vampires thinks Sam. so now we know this is a story about vampires. But 1 hour in and where are the fangs ? Story builds up slowly, maybe a bit too slowly for my taste. But I like that it's not too revealing at the same time. Still I'm not very hooked. We've had a few clues about this being about vampires. The 80s Jack Bauer biker gang only comes out at night. When they were hanging from the train track they kinda looked like bats and now, 1 hour in, they're perched on a tree and again they kinda look like bats. But no fangs. I was thinking that this was taking too long but just one minute later, as they are overlooking a group of people having a party on the beach, 80s Jack Bauer finally transforms into a real vampire, ALL FANGS OUT ! And they brutally attack the party people, killing them while Mikey watches and realises he has been turned. Finally a bit of gore ! 

Mikey has been turned but he's not a real vampire yet as he haven't killed anybody. His kid brother wants to help him but the wanabee hunters want to kill him ASAP. Not cool. We learn that Star and another kid have been turned as well but they're still half human. So Sam and the wanabee hunters start looking for the Alpha vampire because the vampire comic book said that killing the alpha would cure everyone. Good thing all the answers are in a comic book (sigh). They think the alpha is the store guy who's dating their mother but when they make him eat garlic, look at himself in a mirror and wet him with holy water, nothing happens so he's off the hook. The alpha has to be 80s Jack Bauer ! 

So they mount a killing squad to get the vampires in their nest in the hotel. They go there and the 80s biker gang are hanging out from the ceiling in a cave just like real bats. They are indeed vampires ! And one of the wanabee hunters stabs one in the chest and the vampire implodes in a gorey blast of goo with everyone screaming and the other vampires waking up, pissed and going after our heroes ! 80s Jack Bauer is PISSED ! The heroes manage to escape and the vampire can't follow cause it's daytime. 

They retreat in the house and start creating traps and vampire killing weapons. It's climax time and as the night falls, the vampire arrives. Long story short, they're killed one by one by the teenagers in a succession of graphic deaths. Mikey kills 80s Jack Bauer by impaling him in a deer head I think ? But Mikey, and Star don't feel different. 80s Jack Bauer wasn't the Alpha ! Mom and his boyfriend come back home to find that everything is destroyed. But store guy isn't scared at all and he's even kinda sad to find 80s Jack Bauer dead. HE'S THE ALPHA !!! He explains that he did all that because he wanted the mother to join him. He hoped that by turning all her family she would join him willingly. Scared for her kids, the mom agrees to join him and just as he's about to bite her in the neck, classic vampire style, Mikey comes back and pushes him into the fire and the Alpha dies ! 

The end. 

It may sound like I didn't like this film very much and it's partially correct. It felt a bit underwhelming because I wasn't scare once. When watching a horror movie, I'm always scared that I'm going to be scared. Even the atmosphere isn't very tense as you can see almost everything coming. I know that you need to take the context into account and with that in mind, it was a good enough movie. I liked how they played with the classic vampires stuff like the bats, the flying, the fangs, the blood sucking and drinking, how to turn into a vampire, how to kill a vampire. That was well done. They had all these things but adapted into a more modern time period. Good stuff. Make up and lighting were also great and the vamps were convincing and quite scary. Characters were a bit stereotypical (damsel in distress...) but I find it to be always the case in horror movies. 

That's a 7/10 for me

Assorted musing : I laughed when Sam is calling his friends and he's dialling the numbers like a maniac on a old phone where you had to rotate the thing to compose the numbers  

[LimeGreenLegend 4,278]

Damn! That was quick!

Gonna save actually reading it until I watch it myself, but I did see you gave it a 7, so it must be pretty decent  

[Con 5,719]

5 minutes ago, LimeGreenLegend said:

Damn! That was quick!

Gonna save actually reading it until I watch it myself, but I did see you gave it a 7, so it must be pretty decent  

Yeah I will hold on reading it fully because there are things in it Im sure I forgot ny now.  I was planning on watching it tonight too. Im sure I have watched it a handful of times but never with an adult brain, so I hope I dont end up shredding it.  

But I wont watch it until I finish my Dune review. 

 

Edited September 29, 2019 by Con

[djw180 6,985]

I thought I had seen this before but if I have I must have forgot most of it. The only bit I remembered is the bridge scene, which is probably one of the best in the film, but I could have just seen that clip somewhere. It's an entertaining 80s film, with some good music and outrageous hair styles. For a horror film it wasn't at all scary or gory, not that I mind that though, if anything I'd say it's maybe even a comedy. There's a couple of good performances from Diane Weist and Keifer Sutherland, the rest of the cast are OK, even the younger brother and the vampire hunters are OK compared to most children in films. The plot's not too deep with no unexpected twists, but that's fine, I don't think it's meant to be anything more than that. There's not much more I can say, I like it for what it is but certainly no chance of it getting on my all time favourites list.

 

3/5

 

[Spinnaker1981 974]

 

Ok, this is not horror is it? I enjoyed it. Its a pretty cool vampire movie. I do believe there are better Vampire movies out there, but this one is a simple teenager movie about Vampires, with a tiny bit of gore in the final fight, but nothing much.

The music is pretty cool and the final phrase is also pretty funny.

Nothing special or very serious, all very light and you can see it coming for the entire time. They could´ve made the plot a bit twistier, but when Max asks to be invited, then you are sure what he is and no surprise in the end... 

its a  or a 3.5/5 watchable, but not amazing.

[Con 5,719]

The Lost Boys (1987)

The nostalgia while watching this as an adult was strong, it really transported my inner self to 1987 when life was absolutely amazing, but I will not allow nostalgia to affect my review. As soon as Echo and the Bunnymen's version of "People Are Strange" starts up,  you just feel like you are going to watch something interesting and the song plays while we see the family's arrival to Santa Carla in the faces of the diverse population, starting with the standard punk looking folks and basically covering every segment of the populace, I loved that shit!!.... and I felt this was a perfect way to start the film as wherever this is taking place, there are a lot of people so I expected plenty of carnage. The moment I saw Sam (Corey Haim) arrive at Grandpa's (Barnard Hughes) and Sam had that oversized pastel shirt, I chuckled at how normal we thought that looked back in 1987 ---- and there was one thing that stood out to me while I watched this entire film----the perpetual smile on my face while remembering this era and story. 

I felt the acting was very good and felt that only some of the extras were weak but nothing awkward jumped out at me----especially nothing bad from the main actors.  Although at my current age, David (Keifer Sutherland) wasn't as menacing and threatening as he was back when I was 13 years old,  he still manages to pull a great performance as a cool motherfucker you dont want to mess with. I remember all the girls I went to school with were in love with the David character, I mean, these girls would rather make out with a damn vampire than me during the school field trip, lmao. I think Keifer pulls a perfect balance for David and I do feel David is a very underrated film villain---- I've seen Most Evil Movie Villain lists and rarely do I see David on them and he should be right up there as he is nothing to play with in this film. One of the top David moments for me was when Edgar (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander) try and kill David in the lair and the sunlight burns David's arm and we see that tear come down his face and we feel David's humanity for a brief second, I felt that shit was powerful as it added dimension and vulnerability to the villains, not just David...but it turns out that moment was just luck as the tear isn't from the actor acting but due to the contact lenses that hurt the actors and had them in tears, but without knowing that piece of trivia, you would think that tear should have won an Oscar. lmao. As for the Corey's, maaaaan, those cats were everywhere for a reason, their talent is unquestioned and they make the film's tension and suspense work at a level that would not have been as effective had their characters been the same age as the vampires. I also really appreciated that the phrase "The Lost Boys" is never mentioned in the film, it really is a trivial thing but I like being left to interpret who the "Lost Boys" actually are....we could debate this for hours. I also thought Michael (Jason Patric)  was portrayed very good, especially once he begins to transform as his performance had to be strong for him to sell us that inner conflict of the supernatural taking over but his human side fighting it and for me he sold that illusion fully. I cared about Michael and Sam but that is because from the moment they arrive at their new home, both Haim and Patric do a fantastic job at establishing this amazing brotherly love through their funny displays of affection and rough-housing before the shit really hits the fan. 

My favorite scene??? Take a guess....yes, the beach slaughter, I found it as disturbing today as I did when I first saw it. It doesn't last too long but what we see is pretty damn vicious as we finally get to see just how deadly these charismatic vampires are and we get limb ripping, scalp tearing, lifeless corpse burning, human flesh eating bloody goodness. All while Aerosmith's Walk This Way plays in the background...the entire scene is great, as it begins with them stalking their prey, I remember back at the first viewing always thinking they were going to steal their motorcycles and stuff so when they begin killing, it was a shock and it still kinda was this time around as the scene was pretty horrific. Honorable mention goes to all the comic book store scenes, they were all fun and I wish they would have followed the Frog Bros. instead of giving us the Star and Michael romance which was too rushed to be effective in my opinion. 

The production design highlighted the time period perfectly with the neon lights, the fashion, the hair...if someone ever asks me what were the 80's like, I will just direct them to this film!!  This film nailed every segment of the 80's, I feel one could write an entire essay on all the wonderful 80's imagery and fashion within. The cinematography was brilliant and only negative was them using the same overhead shots of the boardwalk at night, I know it was meant to be the vampires POV but i believe the same shot was used three times and is the only minor thing I can even criticize about the direction of photography, everything else worked. The scenes of the victims being pulled up into the sky were shot expertly and honestly were terrifying...like Pterodactyls snatching cavemen up!! They were very lucky to get Michael Chapman as he is a genius at his craft.

Let's talk soundtrack....Every song seems to help the movie move along and nowhere did i feel the combination of image and sound to be more perfect than the bike chase scene when Michael is trying to keep up with the vampires...you get that song "Lost in the Shadows" by Lou Gramm as they ride in the night, that had me hype and I think this is why I like the film so much, these shots of adrenaline throughout that come at just the right times, the film never gets pedantic and when it starts to, BAM, we are hit with scenes injected with either humor or action. The soundtrack compliments the film and how can I write this part of my review without mentioning what I like to call him ---- Conan the Barbarian on the Sax ---- a.k.a. Beach Concert Star (Tim Cappello), I thought that scene was hilarious and really felt like someone had handed a sax to a pro-wrestler and holy rubik's cube, if that scene wasn't more 80's, I don't know what will ever be, a fucking WWE look-alike, oiled up playing the sax singing with such conviction and violent gyrations that his minor character went on to play a huge role in the comic adaptations. The way this scene is framed and just how much energy is coming off the extras just had me smiling the entire time, come to think of it, I caught myself smiling a lot during the entire film as I remembered scenes I had forgotten. Fuck, I recommend all of you reading this revisit all your childhood faves now as adults!!! I can't promise you'll love your old films the same way but when you find ones that remind you of good times, you'll thank me. So yeah, the soundtrack works and never gets in the way or manipulates you to feel any certain way, they do play the "Cry Little Sister" theme a few times but it is the official The Lost Boys Theme so that's expected and I didnt feel it was overused or used at the wrong moments. 

Now some negatives...I think the one thing that bothered me was when Edgar and Alan go and try to kill the vampires while they are asleep. So these Frog Brothers (Frog is their last name) they have been hunting vampires for what seems like a while despite how young they are, afterall I got the impression that they had created the Vampire comics they give to Sam and while they sell their experience and knowledge to Sam, I was shocked that they hadn't built a "stake"-gun. I would have liked for them to take some type of homemade gun when they went to kill David while he slept. I liked everything about that scene except that they had to climb and try to put a stake through a hanging-swinging body, that was one of the moments where I questioned the behavior of the characters. The pacing in the third act kind of speeds up and did feel like some things are rushed, like the dispatching of the main villains, while entertaining with the funny deaths, I wish more time would have been devoted to outsmarting the vampires. Another thing I found odd was seeing Laddie (Chance Michael Corbitt) on the milk carton, meanwhile they take him to the boardwalk and beach at night and no one ever notices him in public?? "Hey that looks EXACTLY like the kid on the milk carton." anyone? I also feel that the twists were handled poorly and that's probably because they played them for comedy, take the revelation that Star had chosen Michael as her first kill, that could have been brought up earlier and we would've had that tension when Michael decides to save Star from the lair---that would've been her chance to kill him but instead we are cheated any quality moment because we have to cut to the comical Frog Brothers. While I appreciated the ending with the grandpa giving that funny last line, I would have wanted an end dream sequence where we see Sam walking in the boardwalk and suddenly everyone we see is staring at him in their transformed vampire state....because we needed more horror moments as I felt the comedy deflated some opportunities for it to be darker in places...like the end. Don't get me wrong, I thought Grandpa was awesome and the actor really injected great energy into the character but I would have prefered a more sinister line of dialogue in the end. 

I kept noticing reviews mentioning that the film has gay undertones and that Michael is too much of a stalker....for the first point, they use as examples, Sam's tub scene, Sam's Rob Lowe poster, the oiled up Sax man, and who knows what else, personally, back then and today, none of this undertone stuff grabs my attention. The director was gay so there’s that, so maybe that’s why we don’t get boob shots and get a Rob Lowe poster instead but who cares, I mean, I went to school with kids that had posters of the group POISON on their walls and all those hard rockers wore spandex, eyeliner and eyeshadow, and had big hair and no one cared because it was about the music, so for me it was about the film. So about Michael being a stalker, well this can easily be explained by the fact that Star had chosen him for her first kill and I could imagine how her natural beauty and her strong vampire magnetism were no match for Michael and he would have been forcibly attracted to her, and we see this element in Dracula films all the time as he always seems to get the hotties. Okay let’s close this review up...

Final Verdict...4/5...The Lost Boys, a truly charismatic horror-comedy hybrid with teen vampires and even younger vampire hunters, set in the late 80’s...and man is it still a fun watch. Yes I was still heavily repulsed by the rice-maggot scene, always will be, I just cannot stomach maggots in any form...I could raise any other insect but maggots...I’m about to puke right now! And that’s just it, personally the film took me back to an awesome time in my life that I will never get back. Back when it came out, I obviously related to the Coreys as I was almost the same age and after watching this that very first time, my friends and I would always be on the lookout for vampires at the county fairs and pop-up carnivals. Yes the film isn’t a scare your pants off horror film as only a few moments are truly terrorific but this wasn’t meant to be Evil Dead and was supposed to originally be lighter and more family friendly and it really is a great "scary" film to show your young kids. I enjoyed the film because I felt everything worked to tell an interesting story, although as a child I was far more scared by 1985’s Fright Night, this film still entertained me so much and having been alive and a teen in 1987--that just added a little more joy.  The Lost Boys went on to become such an iconic and influential film. This film single handedly introduced the concept of attractive young vampires and not the old farts we were used to seeing play Dracula-types and that young vampire concept might have been done before, but never like this, The Lost Boys was like catching lightning in a bottle and it went on to alter pop culture forever -----and is why I consider it a classic. So glad I got to watch it thanks to the film club, I had forgotten just how entertaining it is and like I said, it was a bit more special having been a teen during the same time period and subtly reliving great memories from the film and real life. Needless to say, I had a blast watching this so thank you again, film club!

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Con

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

WWE Sax guy is the best.

[LimeGreenLegend 4,278]

10 minutes ago, Fido_le_muet said:

WWE Sax guy is the best.

Best character in any film I think.  

I couldn’t take my eyes off him!

[Squirrel 5,180]

I’ll be watching this at the weekend. 

[LimeGreenLegend 4,278]

13 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

I’ll be watching this at the weekend. 

you seen it before?

[Squirrel 5,180]

1 hour ago, LimeGreenLegend said:

you seen it before?

Many many many times. I was a child of the 80s

[LimeGreenLegend 4,278]

6 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

Many many many times. I was a child of the 80s

Thought so, it just sounded like you hadn't.  Try The Killing of a Sacred Deer too while you're at it  

Edited October 8, 2019 by LimeGreenLegend

[Spinnaker1981 974]

I was born in 1981, so 1987 I was 6 and not allowed to watch horror movies. So my teens were the 90s not the 80s. This movie never before had fell in my radar. 
After reading @Con’s review, I have to say I do see a lot of ideas that were carried, but not the teenage vampire POV. 
I would attribute that to Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. The ideia was born there.

And nobody remembers Once Bitten? That might’ve been the tipping point.... 

I do really like the Bikers! They are mean. 

[Squirrel 5,180]

9 hours ago, LimeGreenLegend said:

Thought so, it just sounded like you hadn't.  Try The Killing of a Sacred Deer too while you're at it  

Lost Boys is a definite plan. Won’t take much to convince the gf to watch it. I’m going to let her choose which of the other two films to watch. She is a fan of horror though so she’s fairly keen with this months theme. 

[Pb76 3,952]

About 10 minutes into the film, my daughter says “Dad, this is sooo 80’s” and I think that’s what I like most about it. Ok, it’s not a groundbreaking, special effects laden horror-fest, nor is it a deep exploration of what it is to be human (or otherwise). It’s just a slice of 80’s fun that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s pretty well acted and the soundtrack is good, even now.........and for that reason I’ll give it a solid 7/10

[Con 5,719]

Rest In Peace, Joel Schumacher...it was a pleasure to share your film with my crew. 

[LimeGreenLegend 4,278]

50 minutes ago, Con said:

Rest In Peace, Joel Schumacher...it was a pleasure to share your film with my crew.

He was always overlooked as a director because of his Batman films, which I still maintain are excellent, campy fun with a real visual flair.  Outside of those, and The Lost Boys, he directed some other brilliant films; St. Elmo's Fire, Phone Booth, 8mm, A Time to Kill, and especially Falling Down.

RIP.

[Spinnaker1981 974]

Yup, I also enjoyed his movies very much, Batman included. 

[Con 5,719]

57 minutes ago, Spinnaker1981 said:

Yup, I also enjoyed his movies very much, Batman included. 

Yeah like Lime pointed out...films like The Client and A Time To Kill are phenomenal and i'd like to watch them now as an adult...or the fascimilie of it that I currently am. lol