Film Review: The Lost Boys

**Demon-Mask** · 04-07-2011, 01:12 PM

I got the idea to review movies from jozman, and I figured that I should start with one of my personal favorites. One of the last good vampire films, The Lost Boys.

Here's the trailer for it:

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First, a quick outline of the plot, I'll try not to reveal too much.
Micheal and Sam, as well as their now divorced mother Lucy move to Santa Carla, CA, a nice town with a slight gang problem. Micheal runs into a gang, is turned into a vampire and wants to become human again. The film focuses largely on Micheal's run-ins with this gang that turned him into a vampire, they explain it to him in pieces and he fights back. It is much more complicated than that, so I've given a spoiler intensive, rather detailed explanation of the plot below.
Massive spoilers ahead, so don't read if you don't want it to be spoiled. Luckily for you, I've used spoiler tags.

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Micheal and Sam Emerson, as well as their now-divorced mother Lucy, have just moved to the fictional town of Santa Carla, CA {which is clearly Santa Cruz, the city in which it was filmed}. This town is pretty nice, being California and all but, it has its problems. There is quite a bit of gang activity and several unexplained disappearances. They move in with Lucy's father, an eccentric old man who enjoys taxidermy.
The town's main area for recreation is the boardwalk amusement park, where Lucy gets a job at a video store, her boss is a nice man named Max. Micheal becomes infatuated with a beautiful girl, named Star, whom he sees on the boardwalk. The next time he sees her, she is with David, the leader of a local gang. David gets Micheal to participate in a motorcycle race, which he does to get Micheal to a cliff.
Somewhat impressed with Micheal, David invites him to a beautiful, old hotel that was sunken by an earthquake. It is a bit rundown, being sunken and all. The members of the gang are all passing around a bottle of wine, and they offer it to Micheal. Micheal accepts, and drinks the wine. He is then told it is blood. He then joins the gang in one of their favorite activities, hanging from the underside of a train-bridge. He is frightened as he watches each member drop into the foggy gorge below. He is unable to sustain his grip any longer, and falls. He awakens in his bed the next morning, disoriented as can be.
In a local comic book shop, Sam meets two self proclaimed vampire hunters, Edgar and Allan Frog, who offer to teach him about vampires and whatnot, as horror comics are a favorite of Sam. Sam doesn't make much of it, until Micheal attacks Sam. Sam is saved by the dog, but notices that Micheal has no reflection in the mirror. Micheal somehow realizes that he can fly, and goes to visit Star to inquire about all of these strange things happening to him. His sudden opposition to sunlight, his lack of a reflection, his newly acquired blood lust and his ability to fly.
Sam goes to the Frog brothers and asks for help, but refuses their suggestion to kill Micheal. They then tell him that if they kill the head vampire, any half-vampire {that is a vampire that hasn't made any kills yet}, would be freed. When told about Max, the Frog brothers suspect him as the head vampire, and they come over for dinner on the night Max does to test if Max is a vampire at all. Important to note, is the fact that the man of the house, Micheal, consented for Max to enter. When they test Max, they find that he is not a vampire.
Micheal resists joining in on the killing frenzy lead by David upon a group of surfers. It is revealed that David wanted Micheal to be Star's first kill. Micheal is becoming weak due to his lack of feeding, and he leads Sam and the Frog brothers to the sunken hotel. They are able to kill one vampire, but the commotion awakens David and the others, and they all flee.
That evening, Lucy and grandpa are out of the house. Micheal, Sam and the Frog brothers prepare themselves for an attack. Filling the tub with holy water, getting some wooden stakes and whatnot. Garlic everywhere. David leads a raid upon the house, and each of the vampires is killed in a giant, epic battle, each death is really epic {"Death by stereo"}. David is impaled on the antlers of a deer, and Micheal doesn't return to being human.
Lucy returns home with Max, who sees the carnage and reveals himself as the head vampire. He explains that he was able to pass all of the Frog brothers' tests due to the fact that you are powerless to a vampire who has been invited in by the man of the house. Max explains his ultimate goal to everyone, and is then impaled by grandpa, who had a wooden fencepost on his jeep, as he was aware of the vampire problem the whole time. Micheal is returned to normal, and grandpa goes to the refrigerator to get a drink, as though the house totally wasn't just the location of a bloodbath, the film ends on grandpa saying "One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach...all the damn vampires".

Music
The music in this film is nice, some haunting orchestral music, a good cover of "People are Strange", and some music that was popular at the time the film was made {1987}, that didn't make it into the film's official soundtrack.

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That above is what was released on the official soundtrack. The best example of a song in the film and not on the soundtrack is the Run-DMC cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way", this plays during a bloodbath when David and friends attack some surfers.
The music really fits and helps make the atmosphere, it is a fairly dark film and the music does a good job reflecting that.

Cast:
I don't know what to say about the casting, I thought it worked out well and here it is:

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Oh, Kiefer Sutherland really rocks the mullet here.

And finally, what do I have to say about it.
Vampires used to be cool, not sparky fairies, this is one prime example of that.
I recommend this to anyone who likes vampires that don't sparkle in the sunlight and fall in love with werewolves.

It is just an all around good movie, and I'd give it a 4/5.

**Dudebro** · 04-07-2011, 01:25 PM

Great nostalgic movie. I remember watching this as a kid and loving it. Nowdays it's pretty corny at parts and let's face it, it has the coreys so it's got some credibility issues. But it also has Kiefer and Alex Winter(Bill from bill and ted) so it's acceptable 80s retro.

**joz** · 04-07-2011, 01:45 PM

Nice pick. I really enjoyed this movie back when I first saw it. The muscle man playing the saxophone always comes to mind when I think of this movie for some odd reason...anyways, it's campy at times yet awesome with just enough violence and action to keep your blood pumping and just enough sexuality to keep your blood pumping elsewhere.

**elrod21** · 04-07-2011, 01:48 PM

Nice review and I love this movie. I showed it to my daughter last year and she really liked it too. She is not into the whole current vampire craze which has pretty much ruined the genre in my opinion.

Still have the song "Cry Little Sister" in my play list on my mp3 player as well.

**Demon-Mask** · 04-07-2011, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dudebro

Great nostalgic movie. I remember watching this as a kid and loving it. Nowdays it's pretty corny at parts and let's face it, it has the coreys so it's got some credibility issues. But it also has Kiefer and Alex Winter(Bill from bill and ted) so it's acceptable 80s retro.

Corny, yes. Awesome, yes. It is just a movie I really enjoyed for some reason.
A movie with Kiefer Sutherland is probably going to be awesome.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jozman3000

Nice pick. I really enjoyed this movie back when I first saw it. The muscle man playing the saxophone always comes to mind when I think of this movie for some odd reason.

The muscle man playing the saxophone, that just made me laugh. I don't know why, I just found that scene amusing.

**joz** · 04-07-2011, 01:50 PM

here's the saxophone part I was talking about.

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and in SNL

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**Demon-Mask** · 04-07-2011, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elrod21

Nice review and I love this movie. I showed it to my daughter last year and she really liked it too. She is not into the whole current vampire craze which has pretty much ruined the genre in my opinion.

Still have the song "Cry Little Sister" in my play list on my mp3 player as well.

No doubt about it, the current vampire craze sort of ruined vampires. It used to be, one could claim to like vampire films and not be associated with Twilight.

"Cry Little Sister" is a good song.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jozman3000

here's the saxophone part I was talking about.

I don't think that scene was intended to be humorous, but it just was.

**Dudebro** · 04-07-2011, 01:55 PM

When I looked at the picture I noticed I recognize the woman who played Star, she's the mother on that show Still Standing.

Still hot after all these years. Rawr.