Throwback Thursday: The Lost Boys (1987)

Credit: imdb.com

“Sleep all day party all night. Never grow old, never die. It’s fun to be a vampire”. Is the motto for this horrifyingly humorous movie. Teenagers Sam (Corey Haim) and older brother Michael (Jason Patric) are moving with their now divorced mother, Lucy (Dianne Wiest) to the Californian beach town of Santa Carla. They move in with Lucy’s father (Bernard Hughes) who is a rather peculiar man. He collects all sorts of strange items…. The two brothers soon go out in the town to explore the wonders of their new home….


The family goes down to the boardwalk, and the brothers go to watch some music. Lucy finds a boy who is lost, and takes him into the video store. She asks the clerk if he can help her. At that moment the boy’s mother walks in. She thanks her, and the clerk admires Lucy, and proceeds to get her a job at his store. While watching the concert, Michael spots a rather attractive woman by the name of Star (Jami Gertz). Michael and Star make eye contact, but she soon walks away. Michael isn’t going to let her get away obviously, so he chases after her. At that time, Sam is at a comic book store, where he meets two peculiar boys, Edgar and Allan Frog. (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) They give Sam a vampire comic, and say that it will save his life. The brothers they say are also vampire hunters, and will stop at nothing till they are all dead.

Michael finally catches up to Star and things aren’t looking good for him. Star hops on the back of a motorcycle belonging to a punk-rocker looking man. This man is David, (Kiefer Sutherland) and his gang. They drive off into the night. The next time Michael goes to the boardwalk, he buys a leather jacket, and once again goes looking for Star. He follows her again, and finally gets a chance to talk to her. He asks her to dinner, and they proceed to leave when they are unfortunately greeted by David and his gang. David tells Star to get on the motorcycle and leave. Michael of course isn’t going to let that happen. David tells Michael to follow him to a location on the beach. Michael accepts it, and they all take a wild ride on the beach. They finally get to the destination. It is a giant cave full of dark things. David gives Michael a wine bottle. Star says to not drink it, and that it is blood. David does not listen, and proceeds to drink it. They make Michael do other daring things throughout the night, such as hang from a bridge and let go, which as Michael is falling he wakes up in his bed.

Sam is back home taking a bath, when Michael starts feeling a very deep pain in his chest. He walks up the stairs and attempts to attack Sam. Their dog defends Sam and bites Michael’s hand. Sam immediately questions him, and realizes that Michael’s reflection in the mirror is glowing, and that he is a vampire. Sam is petrified, and locks his room. A massive chain of events unfolds until they get to the final battle, with a twist you never saw (or maybe) coming.

By far not the best movie ever, but it is still one of my personal favorites, and I say that for many reasons. An all-star cast and well-written script is one reason. The Frog brothers’ sense of humor always makes you smile, and their courage is also great to watch. Finally, this is about blood-sucking neck eating vampires, not the awful, mediocre, sparkly vampires (if you can even call them that) these vampires have a sense of persuasion, strangeness, humor, creepiness, and pure awesomeness that all fans of horror can enjoy.