Movie review of The Lost Boys

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The Lost Boys

July 10th 2007 00:52

“A last fire will rise behind those eyes/Black house will rock, blind boys don't lie/Immortal fear, that voice so clear/Through broken walls, that scream I hear … Cry, little sister - Thou shall not fall/Come to your brother - Thou shall not die/Unchain me, sister - Thou shall not fear/Love is with your brother - Thou shall not kill …”

Boy, did that song sing loud and clear to me and mine back in the day! Cry Little Sister (The Theme to The Lost Boys) by a one hit wonder Gerald McMann which was toyed with throughout the movie (the little children of the night chorusing “Thou shall not fall, thou shall not die …”), but played chiefly during the love scene between hunk Michael (Jason Patric) and dreamy Star (Jami Gertz).

The Lost Boys (1987) was pure Hollywood, from the true blue dream cast: Keifer Sutherland, Patric, Gertz, Dianne Wiest, right down to the two “Coreys”: Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, two bow-wow hamsters who went on to make numerous teen-flicks together but became best known for their coke-addled career deaths.

Michael the hunk

Director Joel Schumacher, one of the Hollywood gay elite, had previously made the very successful St Elmo’s Fire, and used his clout to have the original Lost Boys script changed from being about “Goonie-type 5th-6th grade (roughly ten year old) vampires, to older teenagers, because he knew it would be sexier and more interesting.

David the other hunk

Star the babe

Schumacher certainly nailed it there, because all the girls had the hots for Jason Patric and the undead boys and all the red-blooded males had the hots for Jami Gertz. I know I certainly did; I remember distinctly the first time watching the Santa Carla beachfront concert scene with the very macho, long-haired, bare-chested singer/sax player, the fire, and Star in her mod-gypsy outfit. I Still Believe. Ha!

I never identified with the Coreys though, mind you I was 18 or so, so they seemed like annoying dorks. I wanted to be cool like Jason Patric, he seemed so mature. Patric never embraced the Hollywood system, and so never become the leading man many wished he had. He went on to make some great pictures though (Rush, Narc). Kiefer did of course. Jami fluttered about like a butterfly, but her flame languished. Alex Winter who plays the gawky Lost Boy Marko went on to do the Bill & Ted movies.

It's fun to be a vampire

The Lost Boys was a real package, right down to a scripted sequel, The Lost Girls, which was never made (that Keifer’s character doesn’t vanish in a hellfire blaze hinted that he wasn’t in fact dead dead). Mind you, The Lost Girls title is listed on imdb.com for a 2009 release … The Lost Boys had Hollywood heavyweights Thomas Newman and Michael Chapman were the composer and cinematographer respectively. Schumacher even played the MPAA game to the hilt, thus not showing any graphic violence (in fact there is virtually no real bloodshed until the end of the movie). The movie is basically PG-13 horror-lite.

Sam (middle) and the Frog brother vamp killers

Watching the movie again now, twenty years later (sheeesh, has it been that long?!), it isn’t much of a comedy. Most of the humour lies with Michael's younger bro Sam (Corey Haim) and his mates, the Frog brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander), and it’s mediocre (“Death by stereo”). As a horror it’s about as scary as the vampire hairdos. The vampire makeup by Greg Cannom is cool (great lenses!), but most of his gore effects ended up on the cutting room floor.

A tender moment

The swooping vamp-POV camerawork looks dodgy compared to today’s elaborate and integrated CGI work. But there’s still a pervasive mood that sits comfortably with the movie. Even the tenuous theme of wayward, misfit teenagers looking for a home that isn’t broken manages to resonant just beyond the superficial gloss and glamour.

Grrrrrr!

But at the end of the day, The Lost Boys is very 80s, in that ghastly camp fashion: way too much pastel and over-stylised hair, earrings in one ear. The character, to be precise the orientation, of Sam is altogether dubious: he has a large Rob Lowe pose-ter in his bedroom (sure we all have our idols) and wears a t-shirt saying “born to shop” … Perhaps I’m reading way too much into this. But hey, director Schumacher would’ve no doubt tried all and sundry with laying in the gay sub-text, especially back in 1987.

The Lost Boys is ripe with symbolism. It’s ripe, full-stop. A time-capsule, a date-stamp. There are some neat little moments, but much of it comes across as silly, rather tame and a little provocative, rather than intense and gritty. But perhaps that has something to do with the conditioning cinema audiences have had happening over the past twenty years. There’s an irony at hand; The Lost Boys has aged …. But hey, in the real world, don’t we all.

Here’s the original trailer:

But better still here’s the I Still Believe sequence:

And here’s Cry Little Sister promo-clip (alternate movie trailer basically) for all the die-hards:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

15 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by James Rickard

July 10th 2007 01:38

unlucky_ fishermen.com
Angling Fish
Check this out...

Nice write up on one of my favorite movies. True, it hasn't aged well but,considering all the 80s schlock, I would have to say it's better than expected,

Comment by Cibbuano

July 10th 2007 02:36

Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak

super-awesome-fantastic-happy -time!

I haven't seen it since them good ol' days, but I remember being terrified at the atmosphere...

Comment by Nickoftime's Sanity Corner

July 10th 2007 03:03

Bryn,

The Lost Boys is probably my most favorite all arounf flick...love, intrigue, suspense, fright and *ah* love!

LOL

Thought the whole things was a really well rounded flick....

Great review!

Take care,

Nick

Comment by Damo

July 10th 2007 03:59

Great review.
I remember the promos from years ago.
Did you say 20 years have passed? Where did the years go?

I migh look out for when I need to be reminded what the eighties were like.

Comment by KylieW

July 10th 2007 04:51

Celebrity Obsession

Bryn,

Damn, I don't think I've seen the Lost Boys in about 10 years. Dated or not, I'll have to dig it out.

I was only about 13 or 14 when it came out, so the Corey's were the big drawcard for me. Loved the frog bothers. Keifer was good in the movie.

And Jamie Gertz. I loved Jamie. I watched everything she did.....and lets face it some of it wasn't good.

One of my all time favourite movies

Kylie

Comment by JohnDoe

July 10th 2007 06:58

Film & TV on DVD

Good one Bryn, let the schlock fly.

The film is worth revisiting just to watch Kiefer Sutherland when he was still an interesting and unique talent, unlike now where he has had a personality labotomy to play the empty Bauer.

Grandpa steals it for me, every scene he is in is a hoot...

Totally worshipped Jami Gertz as a kid, this and Less Than Zero were played excessively just to spend time with her.

The film has dated signifigantly but still has an edge that makes it superior to kiddie friendly bloodsuckers like Buffy...

"Walk this way, talk this way", the ferocious brutality of that scene, especially the scalping still registers

Comment by Bryn

July 10th 2007 12:53

Horrorphile

Worthy comments everyone .... I've got a cold at the moment and this post was written in a bit of a morning fog ... so apologies if it come across a little how's yer father.
Scalping? I must have missed that.

Comment by Miswanderlust

July 13th 2007 02:05

Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy

Bryn
I adore this movie...schlock and all.
Mis

Comment by Bryn

July 13th 2007 02:09

Horrorphile

Mis ...so what's your fave scene?

Comment by Miswanderlust

July 13th 2007 03:29

Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy

Well...grandpa's scene... if I have to choose. Did you know that the film was sampled for a British hardcore called "Dance by Stereo" by DJ Dance including "You drank someone's blood are you crazy?". There is also a US punk band called "Death by Stereo" One track off their first album is "If looks could kill I'd watch you die."
Mis
Loved the review btw