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The Lost Boys

Plot

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. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Review

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. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Cast

Jason Patric - Michael
Corey Haim - Sam
Dianne Wiest - Lucy
Barnard Hughes - Grandpa
Edward Herrmann - Max
Kiefer Sutherland - David

Jami Gertz - Star; Corey Feldman - Edgar Frog; Jamison Newlander - Alan Frog; Brooke McCarter, Jr. - Paul; Billy Wirth - Dwayne; Alex Winter - Marko; Chance Michael Corbitt - Laddie; Melanie Bishop - Child's Mother; Kelly Minter - Maria; Jim Turner - Gas Station Owner; J. Dinan Myrtetus - Security Guard; Nori Morgan - Shelly

Credit

Thomas A. Duffield - Art Director, Marion Dougherty - Casting, William S. Beasley - First Assistant Director, Joel Schumacher - Director, James Arnett - Second Unit Director, Robert Brown - Editor, Mark Damon - Executive Producer, Richard Donner - Executive Producer, John W. Hyde - Executive Producer, Thomas Newman - Composer (Music Score), Danny Gould - Songwriter, Michael D. O'Shea - Camera Operator, Michael Genne - Camera Operator, Robert W. Welch III - Production Designer, Michael Chapman - Cinematographer, Harvey Bernhard - Producer, John Warnke - Set Designer, R. Chris Westlund - Set Designer, Greg Cannon - Special Effects, Bob Stoker, Jr. - Special Effects, David Ronne - Sound/Sound Designer, Randy Hall - Stunts, Gene Lebell - Stunts, John Meier - Stunts, Bernie Pock - Stunts, Spice Williams - Stunts, Sandy Gimpel - Stunts, Steve Holladay - Stunts, Chuck Picerni, Jr. - Stunts, Scott Wilder - Stunts, David LeBell - Stunts, Larry Nicholas - Stunts, Pat Romano - Stunts, David Burton - Stunts, William R. Perry - Stunts, Janice Fischer - Screen Story, James Jeremias - Screen Story, Jeffrey Boam - Screenwriter, Chris Columbus - Screenwriter, Janice Fischer - Screenwriter, James Jeremias - Screenwriter, Thomas Pope - Screenwriter, Paul H. Goldsmith - Second Unit Director Of Photography

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