Plot: When brothers Michael and Sam (Patric, Haim) along with their mother Lucy (Weist) are forced due to financial difficulties to move to their grandfather’s house. Little did they know that this small Californian seaside town is plagued by a group of fun-seeking vampires – The Lost Boys.
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Kiefer Sutherland
Released: 1987
If you liked: 30 Days of Night, Dracula: Untold, Interview with the Vampire
When it comes to vampire films, it’s pretty hard to do something new. Even in the ’80s, it was a pretty varied genre, but somehow The Lost Boys managed to not only break the mould but also become a pop culture icon. Showcasing most of what was cool or hip at the time, the film even shoehorns in a sax solo. While I wouldn’t go as far as saying the film is a “horror classic”, mainly down to it being more of a comedy than a horror film, it is a classic and even 30 years later remains infinitely re-watchable.
Directed by Joel Schumacher, The Lost Boys does nothing extraordinary with its look or even the story, with a lot of character development missing, but what it does do, is modernise vampire myth, adapting the creatures to the time they inhabit, similar to the way Ann Rice took Lestat’s character in Queen of the Damned, but in the case The Lost Boys there is much more comedy. In fact, this self-aware comedy approach makes the film more enjoyable than other teen versus vampire films of the time such as Fright Night or My Best Friend is a Vampire.
The strong cast does a great job, Haim might well be limited as an actor, but he does a good job and was perfect for the role of Sam. Patric is solid but struggles when on screen with Sutherland, who oozes the type of charm and charisma you would expect from a creature of the night and believes himself to be untouchable.
Overall, The Lost Boys is a movie that successfully mixes vampire mythology with ’80s youth culture in a way that even to this day draws the viewer in and creates an interesting and entertaining cinematic world, it’s just a shame the sequels were largely forgettable.
Roses Have Thoughts 
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