The Lost Boys (1987) Halloween Movie Review
*Note- I know I am really late on my Halloween horror reviews, I am sorry. A review of Poltergeist is to come.
The Lost Boys (1987)
This movie is the weirdest, worst, best, most awesome movie I have ever seen. It basically puts a bunch of things that wouldn’t usually go together together: vampires, the beach, a boardwalk, gangs, and mystical 80’s music. Most of the time it works really well, even though it is over-the-top almost all of the time. But sometimes it is a little too much.
The story follows a mother (Dianne Wiest) and her two male teenage children (Jason Patric, Corey Haim) as they move from Phoenix to Santa Carla, a beach town in California, which just happens to be the murder capital of the world. Because it’s the summer, the two boys have a bunch of free time to wander around the town. Michael (Jason Patric), the older boy, becomes tangled up with a motorcycle gang headed by David (Kiefer Sutherland), an older teen with a negative attitude. Sam (Corey Haim) is a comics fan, so he finds himself in a comic book store one day when two of the workers there corner him. They are Edgar (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander) Frog, two buff but cheesy young vampire hunters. Sam and Michael’s mother gets a job at a video tape store, and starts dating the store’s manager, Max (Edward Herrmann). Sam becomes more and more suspicious of Michael, after his brother starts sleeping all day, acting aggressively, and wearing sunglasses indoors. Michael also starts becoming suspicious of the motorcycle gang he is in the middle of joining, because of their strange and dangerous ideas of fun (hanging off of a bridge while a train crosses over it). Eventually Sam and the Frog brothers find out that Michael, David, and the other gang members are full-on vampires. Then they have some cool montages where they load up water guns with garlic-flavored holy water. In the harrowing finale (it’s not harrowing, I just wanted to say that), the good guys (Michael, Sam, the Frog brothers, and Star (Jami Gertz)) face off against the four bloodsucking gang members (David, Dwayne (Billy Wirth), Marko (Alex Winter), and Paul (Brooke McCarter)). In Sam’s vampire comic book guide, it says that if the head vampire is killed, then all of the half-vampires will return to normal.
The movie has tricked us into believing that David is the head vampire, but when all four of the vampires are killed and Michael and Star feel the same way, they realize that David wasn’t the head vampire. In the end, Max, mom’s boss, is the head vampire, and then Sam and Michael’s grandfather drives through the house, goring Max with a huge log-sized stake. As you can see, this movie is all over the place.
It’s definitely one of the most 80’s movies I’ve ever seen (that means that you can pretty much feel the 80’s-ness coming out of the screen). It comes complete with a big cast full of child stars soon to fall from grace (Kiefer Sutherland is really the only one that survived the child star massacre that happened in about 1995). There is also a great 80’s soundtrack. It’s great because it’s such a mystical movie in general. The hilarious blood and over-the-top dialogue only work because The Lost Boys has a mystique.
The acting isn’t amazing, and the special effects are mediocre at best, but it’s so cool and spastic and weird that it works so well (I’m aware that cool, spastic, and weird are three very different words, but that proves my point: it’s all over the place). There are some weird homosexual undertones, but who cares? When vampires wearing leather are riding motorcycles along a beach while music about the Ten Commandments plays, I don’t think anyone does.
The beginning and end are really where the movie is at its best. The middle drags a little bit in the middle because very little happens, but the first and last thirds of the movie make up for it.
The Corey brothers (Haim & Feldman) are both in this movie. Interestingly enough, they are actually getting a Lifetime biopic. I bet you didn’t know that, huh? Heh heh.
Anyways. If you haven’t seen The Lost Boys, definitely watch it. If you’re thinking, “I don’t like horror movies,” well let me assure you it’s not that scary. There are a few moments of goofy fake blood, but you most likely won’t be scared. And I’m not one of those internet slums who sits there and tells people to see horrifying things. I’m twelve years old. If you’re saying, “I don’t want to see an action film,” it’s not even that action-y. It just has some vampire fight scenes. So definitely see The Lost Boys.
Safety Chart:
Violence: 8.5/10- A fair amount of blood. Vampires and people are stabbed, electrocuted, punched, burned, etc. The vampires suck people’s blood, in their way of murder. David and his gang practice mean or dangerous things, and are a really bad role model for anyone. Max is stabbed through the heart with a giant stake. Vampires swoop down from the sky and kill people. In a scene that rivals Evil Dead II’s over-exaggerated-ness of violence, blood gushes out of a sink and bathtub and gets all over the house. There is a riot in one scene, but it’s not very graphic.
Language: 6/10- Less than you’d expect. Some sexual references.
Drinking/Smoking: 5/10- Teens drink and smoke on the beach and at parties. The vampires drink what Michael believes at first to be wine, but is actually blood. Sam and Michael’s grandfather grows marijuana in his house.
Overall, The Lost Boys is an extremely fun, watchable, and crazy 80’s adventure-horror movie. None of it is really Oscar-worthy, but it is all your time-worthy. It is one of those movies that if you say you haven’t seen it, people will be surprised. Just remember: don’t go around doing the things that people do in this movie. But do see it. I would give it an A as a grade. Not an A+, because it gets a little too insane for my taste sometimes, but I can really appreciate it as a big fun bloodstorm of a movie. Fun fact: I literally listened to the songs “I Still Believe” and “Cry Little Sister” from the soundtrack the entire time while writing this review.
