The Lost Boys [P&S]

Director: Joel Schumacher Joel Schumacher

Overview

In this hit '80s hybrid of the horror movie and the teen flick, a single mom and her two sons become involved with a pack of vampires when they move into an offbeat Northern California town. Lucy (Dianne Wiest) and her sons, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim), move to Santa Carla to live with Lucy's lovable but curmudgeonly father (Barnard Hughes). Lucy gets a job from video-store owner Max (Edward Herrmann), then begins dating him, while Sam hangs out with Edward and Alan Frog (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander), a pair of vampire-obsessed comic-shop clerks. Soon Michael falls in with some actual vampires after becoming enamored of one of their victims: Star (Jami Gertz), a gypsy-like vixen who is trying to hold on to her humanity even though vampire leader David (Kiefer Sutherland) wants to play Peter Pan to her Wendy. When Michael visits the cavernous hangout of David and his cronies and unwittingly drinks from a wine bottle full of vampiric blood, he becomes an unwilling member of the bloodsucker biker gang. Soon, it's up to Sam and the Frog brothers to destroy David and his ilk without killing Michael and Star. Shot on location in the coastal California town of Santa Cruz and directed by Hollywood pro Joel Schumacher, The Lost Boys became a pop-culture phenomenon thanks to its attractive young stars, offbeat soundtrack, and hip, clever marketing campaign. The film's tagline -- "Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire." -- perfectly captured its knowing mixture of attitude and gore. The effects team who transformed Sutherland and company into snarling bloodsuckers would go on to provide equally gruesome effects for Blade, another revisionist vampire flick, more than a decade later.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/04/2011
UPC:	0883929165162
Original Release:	1987
Rating:	R
Source:	Warner Home Video
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:37:00
Sales rank:	9,827

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Corey Haim	Sam Emerson
Jason Patric	Michael Emerson
Dianne Wiest	Lucy Emerson
Edward Herrmann	Max
Barnard Hughes	Grandpa
Kiefer Sutherland	David
Corey Feldman	Edgar Frog
Jami Gertz	Star
Jamison Newlander	Alan Frog
Brooke McCarter	Paul
Billy Wirth	Dwayne
Alex Winter	Marko
Chance Michael Corbitt	Laddie
Alexander Chapman	Greg
Nori Morgan	Shelly
Todd Feder	Surf Nazi #1
Christopher Petersen	Surf Nazi #2
Keith Butterfield	Surf Nazi #3
Gerald Younggren	Surf Nazi #4
Eric Graves	Surf Nazi #5
J. Dinan Myrtetus	Security Guard
Kelly Jo Minter	Maria
Timmy Cappello	Beach Concert Star
Jim Turner	Gas Station Owner
Tony Cain	Lost Child
Melanie Bishop	Child's Mother
Sandra Garcia	Runaway #1
Ian Guindon	Runaway #2
Jane Bare	Frog Mother
Jason Hain	Actor
Thomas Newman	Composer

Technical Credits

Jan Fischer

James Jeremias

Chris Columbus

Jeffrey Boam

Thomas Pope

Janice Fischer

Joel Schumacher	Director
Harvey Bernhard	Producer
Greg Cannom	Special Effects
Richard Donner	Executive Producer,Producer
Jan Fischer	Screenwriter
James Jeremias	Screenwriter
Mark Damon	Producer,Executive Producer
John W. Hyde	Producer,Executive Producer
Michael Bigelow	Special Effects
Rick Alexander	Sound Effects
Jeff Bushelman	Sound Effects
Charles L. Campbell	Sound Effects
Larry Carow	Sound Effects
Craig Clarke	Sound Effects
Chris Columbus	Screenwriter
Jeffrey Boam	Screenwriter
Thomas Pope	Screenwriter
Sandy Gimpel	Stunts
Greg Cannon	Special Effects
Janice Fischer	Screenwriter
Randy Hall	Stunts
John Meier	Stunts
Bernie Pock	Stunts
Scott Wilder	Stunts
Bob Stoker Jr.	Special Effects
Marion Dougherty	Casting
Chuck Picerni Jr.	Stunts
David Lebell	Stunts
Larry Nicholas	Stunts
Pat Romano	Stunts
Gene LeBell	Stunts
Steve Holladay	Stunts
David Burton	Stunts
William Perry	Stunts
D. Prior	Special Effects
David Ronne	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Few blockbusters can boast the easy charms of this delightful popcorn flick, which featured "the two Coreys" (Haim and Feldman) at the height of their popularity and set brooding Jason Patric up for endless "Why isn't he a bigger star?" feature stories. Although no fewer than five hands were involved in the screenplay, the film that emerges is a solidly cohesive effort that takes both its teen angst and its blood-n-fangs seriously even as it smirks slightly at its own cheekiness. From the deadpan antics of Grampa (Barnard Hughes) and the quirky likability of his flaky daughter, Lucy (Woody Allen favorite Dianne Wiest), to the classic "meet cute" of Star (Jamie Gertz) and Michael (Jason Patric), The Lost Boys uses standard-issue screenwriting devices to set up its vampires-in-seedy-suburbia scenario. It succeeds, however, thanks to its imaginative vampire mythos and its easy mixture of laughs and thrills. Kiefer Sutherland is actually quite menacing as the leader of the Rebel Without a Cause-style undead, while the Coreys and co-star Jamison Newlander have great fun spouting slang witticism and driving stakes through the hearts of the bloodsucking legions. The location shots of coastal Northern California punks cavorting on the boardwalk set an edgy pop-culture tone that's carried through in the music (by INXS, Echo and the Bunnymen, and composer Thomas Newman, among others) and especially in the shots of the so-hip-it-hurts vampire hangout. The real treat for horror fans, though, is the extended set piece of the climax, which includes so many inventive deaths (and killer plot twists) that it renders earlier vampire movies tame. Fans of more methodical psychological horror -- and older audiences in general -- probably won't find The Lost Boys too scintillating, but for youngsters, horror fans, and '80s survivors, it's a fun little flick that has held up remarkably well.