Vampire Flicks/Franchises: The Lost Boys. The Lost Boys (1987)

Ah, The Lost Boys. Without a doubt, the most well-known and iconic vampire movie of the 1980's, and a lot of people's pick for their favorite of all time, especially if they were either around at the time or grew up with it. And yet, even though I've likely known of it since around the same time I first learned of Fright Night, and long before I learned about Near Dark, it's the one I saw last. I did see the very beginning, where the security guard gets attacked after the boardwalk closes down for the night, when I was around twelve or thirteen, but I changed the channel immediately afterward. It wasn't because I was scared, but because, for whatever reason, it just didn't grab me. I don't know what it was, but I found wasn't in the mood for it, even though I actually sought it out when I read about it in our cable provider's guide for that month. That was when I was starting to get into more contemporary horror movies and I read in that guide that this movie, which I'd never heard of before, was a vampire movie. That was all I knew at the time, and that opening was all I ever saw for a while. However, I almost immediately began to realize that The Lost Boys was quite a popular movie, enough to where it was alluded to in the Disney Channel original movie, Mom's Got a Date With a Vampire, which I saw when it premiered in October of 2000. I also gradually saw more and more of the movie itself over time, as I learned, first, how popular both Corey Feldman and Corey Haim were in the 80's, and second, that there was more to Joel Schumacher than his two not so great Batman movies. And I'm sure I heard at least one of the songs from its soundtrack at one point or another. But, despite all of that, something was still keeping me from rushing out to see it, and I now believe it was something that tends to keep me from seeing a lot of popular stuff that I haven't yet. It seemed like The Lost Boys was so much a product of its time that, if I were to watch it as an adult who hadn't grown up with it, it wouldn't have the same sort of impact with me. That's why it took me a long time to finally see the Back to the Future movies, and also why, to this day, I've never seen The Goonies (I know I'm going to get a lot of shocked reactions from that statement). Also, for some reason, the well-known red poster artwork also turned me off, as it didn't look the poster for a vampire movie, even though I, obviously, knew it was. Despite that, I knew I should just break down and watch the damn movie, but it wasn't until late in the summer of 2021, when my friend Newt sent me the Blu-Ray, that I finally did, as I now had no reason not to.

And if you were holding your breath, waiting for me to come out and say that I ended up not liking it, you can relax, because I did. I'll always prefer Fright Night, but still, I immediately understood why The Lost Boys was such a popular movie, as everything about it is just cool. You have a downright iconic cast of characters, played by some great actors at the top of their game; a very stylish visual aesthetic, with some well done direction and editing; a type of setting that always appeals to me personally; memorable vampire makeups and effects; an awesome soundtrack; and, above all else, an engaging story. Also, like Fright Night, I wouldn't call this a full-on horror comedy, but it does have an appealing sense of fun and humor, and never takes itself too seriously. And while it is indeed a very 80's movie, as I always figured it would be, I think it wears that decade's vibe and aesthetics better than numerous other flicks of the time. I don't think it's perfect, but overall, I'm now happy to call myself a fan, if just maybe not a hardcore one like so many others (though that may also change over time).

The Emerson family, consisting of recently divorced mother Lucy and her two sons, teenager Michael and preteen Sam, as well as their dog, Nanook, have just moved from Arizona to the seaside town of Santa Carla, California. They move in with Lucy's eccentric father, who lives in an equally unusual wooden house out in the countryside. The two brothers, especially Sam, aren't exactly thrilled with the move, and then, they learn that Santa Carla has a reputation as, "The murder capital of the world," which their grandfather all but confirms. While out on the local boardwalk that night, Michael is taken with a beautiful, free-spirited young woman he sees among the crowd. However, he finds that she's the apparent girlfriend of the leader of a local biker gang who tend to frequent the boardwalk. Meanwhile, Lucy applies for a job at a video store on the boardwalk, run by a man named Max, and Sam finds a comic book store, run by Edgar and Alan Frog, two guys who take themselves a little too seriously. Edgar insists that Sam read a comic called Vampires Everywhere!, saying it could save his life. When he returns to the store the next day, the Brothers tell him that working there is just a cover for their "higher purpose," and Edgar pushes another vampire-oriented comic onto him, which has their personal number on its back. Going back to the boardwalk that night, Michael formally meets the girl, Star. However, his interest in her doesn't go unnoticed by David, the leader of the gang. He challenges Michael to keep up with them on his own motorcycle, and they end up at the gang's hideout, a hotel that was sucked underground by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. As he hangs out with them, Michael experiences some strange hallucinations but, regardless, when David offers him a bottle of red liquid, implying that it will make him one of them, he does drink it. Following a strange scene that occurs at a suspended railway bridge, Michael finds himself back at home. He slowly begins to change in a sinister manner, and Sam realizes his brother is becoming a vampire. Now, Michael must try to resist his growing thirst for blood and, with the help of Sam and the Frog Brothers, find and kill the head vampire before it's too late.

The Lost Boys was the creation of screenwriters Jan Fischer and James Jeremias, who are probably the only two major people associated with it whose careers never took off following its success. Fischer, who died in 2011 at the age of 63, had a couple of previous writing credits, most notably for an episode of The Golden Girls, and also had a brief stint as an actor earlier in her life, but only has one other credit on her filmography The Lost Boys; meanwhile, Jeremias, who mainly worked as a grip on a studio lot, has no other writing credits whatsoever. The latter wasn't for a lack of trying, though, as he's said he wrote more screenplays but none of them got made, and that was also probably the case with Fischer. Regardless, it seems like Jeremias was the one who actually came up with the idea, saying in a 2019 interview, "I had read Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire, and in that there was a 200-year-old vampire trapped in the body of a 12-year-old girl. Since Peter Pan had been one of my all-time favorite stories, I thought, ‘What if the reason Peter Pan came out at night and never grew up and could fly was because he was a vampire?’" Thus, the motivation behind the movie's title. Jeremias and Fischer, the latter of whom was a childhood friend of his, then wrote the screenplay together in 1984, and their initial version was much more kid-oriented, with the vampires being preteens and the main characters around eight or so. That, of course, changed considerably when the screenplay was bought by the studio.

It's likely because of how similar the original script was to The Goonies that The Lost Boys was initially slated to be directed by Richard Donner, who was hot off that movie's success at the time. According to Jeremias, Donner was the one who, "Wanted to make the boys older,'" adding, "He said, ‘Old enough to drive,’ but what he meant was, ‘Old enough to fuck.’" According to that same article, from Empire Online, Donner wanted Jeremias and Fischer to collaborate with him on another draft, but they had prior commitments. So, instead, he brought on Jeffrey Boam, who'd previously written the screenplay for David Cronenberg's film of Stephen King's The Dead Zone. But, as development went on, Donner began losing interest in directing the film. He himself said in the special features, "I have a problem that, if I'm on a project too long, before I get to make it, I've made it in my head so many times I lose my enthusiasm." And around that same time, he got the screenplay for Lethal Weapon, which he knew he wanted to make right away. While he would still be involved with The Lost Boys as an executive producer (the main producer would be Harvey Bernhard, who'd previously produced both The Omen and The Goonies for Donner), he opted to have someone else actually direct it. And since his wife, Lauren Shuler Donner, had produced Joel Schumacher's second feature film, St. Elmo's Fire, she was the one who suggested him.

Joel Schumacher himself said several times that he was offered The Lost Boys while he was having lunch with Mark Canton, who was vice president at Warner Bros. at the time. He also said that he, very brazenly, especially given how he'd only directed three movies by that point and only one of them had had any impact, asked, "Is this some little kids' vampire movie?" Even though Canton was clearly not pleased with that reaction, rather than chewing him out and rescinding the offer right then and there, he merely asked him to actually read the screenplay. At that point, it was still basically a kids' movie, and Schumacher, after reading it, was going to turn it down, but then said he came up with the idea of increasing the characters' ages and going for a much sexier approach. That, of course, contradicts what Jeremias said about that being Donner's idea, as is Schumacher's saying he was the one who brought Jeffrey Boam onboard to rewrite the screenplay, but regardless, Boam himself said that, in addition to those changes, he also added more of his style of humor. In the end, Schumacher was very happy he agreed to do The Lost Boys, given how it not only did really well at the theater, making $32.5 million on a budget of just $8.5 million, but grew into a beloved cult film once it hit home video and grew in popularity. I remember hearing him once saying that it was the movie of his that he got asked about more than any other and it's not surprising.

The two Emerson brothers are most definitely the main characters of The Lost Boys, as they're the audience surrogates in this crazy story, but from two very different perspectives. While, like his brother, Michael (Jason Patric) isn't thrilled about moving from Phoenix to Santa Carla, he's able to deal with it a little better. While Sam is complaining about their grandfather's, admittedly, strange home, particularly the lack of a TV, Michael tells him to cut their mom some slack, given how the ordeal she's been through with her divorce. Still, he can't help but goof with Sam about how weird the place is, as well as how Santa Carla has a not-so-great reputation concerning murder. Everything really starts to change for him, as well as Sam and Lucy, when the three of them go to the boardwalk that night. For Michael, it's when he catches sight of Star amid the crowd and, for lack of a better word, starts stalking her there. However, he's bummed when he sees that she's not only part of a motorcycle gang, but is also apparently the leader's girlfriend. That doesn't stop him from going back the next night, getting himself a nice leather jacket, and coming close to getting an earring, when Star shows up and he meets her formally. The two of them almost go off together to get some dinner, when the gang shows up and David makes her get on the back of his bike. When challenged to keep up with them on his own bike, Michael takes David up on it and races them to their hideout. Though he's enraged when David seems to intentionally try to cause him to go off the edge of a cliff, enough to where he slugs him and challenges him to a fight, he still goes with them back to their hideout after David asks him how far he's willing to go. There, he experiences some strange hallucinations, imagining the Chinese food they're eating to be maggots and worms, and yet, when David offers him a bottle of red liquid, Michael drinks it, ignoring Star's warning that it's blood. Following that, he goes with the guys out to a suspended railway bridge and hangs onto its underside with them. He also falls after them, unable to keep his grip, but then wakes up in his own bed back at Grandpa's house.

However, that's when Michael gradually begins to change. He sleeps until the early afternoon, becomes sensitive to sunlight and has to wear sunglasses, even while indoors, and starts to develop a rather rotten and sarcastic attitude towards his own family. When he's at home alone with Sam while both Lucy and Grandpa are out on dates, there's a moment where the gang seems to appear outside the house, but when he opens the door, there's nothing out there. But the most crucial change occurs when he's suddenly hit by

severe hunger pangs and comes close to attacking Sam while he's in the bathtub. Their dog, Nanook, saves Sam, biting a big, nasty wound in the palm of Michael's hand. And when both him and Sam see that his reflection in the mirror is transparent, Sam tells him that he's becoming a vampire. Michael's attitude soon becomes one of desperation, as he tries to talk with Sam but he locks himself in his room out of fear. Later, Michael finds himself floating in midair, first in his room and outside the house, specifically Sam's

bedroom window. Despite his fear, Michael is able to appeal to his brother and Sam helps him get back inside. Intent on working things out, he asks Sam not to tell their mom, and later sneaks out of the house and makes his way back to the gang's hideout. He finds Star, and asks her what's happening to him, but she says she doesn't know to help him. That doesn't stop him from sleeping with her, though. By the next day, his condition hasn't improved, and he goes back to the boardwalk that night and confronts David. This leads the gang to reveal their true nature, before they

murder a group of people who are partying around a bonfire. With that, Michael now realizes what they are and what he's becoming, and is horrified at the idea of feeding on the blood of innocent people. He later meets Star again, who tells him that he's actually a half-vampire, like her and Laddie, a young boy who's also part of the gang. Michael was meant to be her first kill, to make her a full vampire, but she couldn't do it. Despite being furious at Star for leading him into this, Michael's feelings for her prompt him to help her and Laddie, as well as help

Sam and the Frog Brothers try to find and kill the head vampire. However, that proves to be trickier than any of them initially realized..

I might've said this in another review, but it's worth saying again: it's a real shame that Corey Haim's life took such a sad and tragic turn, because here, he gives what is easily one of his best performances as Sam Emerson. Sam is especially unhappy about the move to Santa Carla and to their grandfather's home out in the countryside, where he's clearly out of his depth. Saying the house looks like it belongs in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, he's further crushed when he finds that Grandpa doesn't have a TV, because, "You know what it means when there's no TV? No MTV." He does find the boardwalk to be a bit more to his liking, particularly the comic book store, even if the Frog Brothers tend to weird him out. While they're initially ready to write him off as a dork who doesn't belong there, he impresses them with his comic book knowledge, to the point where Edgar insists he read some vampire-themed comics. Even though he doesn't like horror comics, Sam does read Vampires Everywhere!, as well as Destroy All Vampires, both of which later allow him to identify and deal with the real ones they come across. Speaking of which, since he and Michael are shown to be quite close, Sam is really turned off when his brother starts acting like a douche following his night with the gang. And when Nanook attacks Michael when he comes after Sam while he's in the bathtub, that, coupled with Michael's transparent reflection in a mirror, makes Sam realize that his brother is becoming a vampire: "My own brother, a goddamn, shit-suckin' vampire! Oh, you wait 'til Mom finds out, buddy!" Terrified, Sam locks himself in his room, telling Michael to stay away from him. However, when he calls the Frog Brothers and they tell him that he'll have to stake him in the heart, Sam says he can't do that, nor will he allow them to. And when Michael appeals to him, Sam does opt to help him, spending much of the rest of the movie trying to identify the head vampire, with the Frog Brothers' help.

A big reason why Sam is so likable is how he comes off as just an average kid, rambunctious little brother, and a nice enough guy, despite not being happy about the turn his life has taken. Even more than Michael, he's truly the audience surrogate, with how he reacts to the weirdness of both the house and Grandpa himself (though, what's cool is that he still grows to be fairly close to Grandpa), the Frog Brothers, their claims that there are vampires in Santa Carla, and that they're dedicated to hunting them, and his brother's

changing behavior and realization that he's becoming a vampire. He's also the source of a lot of the movie's humor, like when he's playing around in the bathtub, singing along to Ain't Got No Home (and completely oblivious to his brother coming to attack him, only for Nanook to intervene); is utterly terrified of Michael at first, panicking at the sight of him floating outside his bedroom window while he's on the phone with Lucy; wears garlic around his neck when he goes to bed later that night; and, along with the Frog Brothers, completely ruins Lucy's attempt at having dinner with

Max as they try out him as the head vampire. Finally, as terrified as he is of his brother's newly inherited potential to kill him without a second thought, you have to admire Sam for trying to find a way to break the curse and save him, telling him, "Even though you're a vampire, you're still my brother." It's also cool that he's willing to do the same for Star and Laddie, despite barely knowing them, and how he takes part in the battle against the entire gang when they come for them.

Lucy Emerson (Dianne Wiest) is sympathetic and likable in that she's just gone through a pretty bad divorce that's left her completely broke, and has moved to Santa Clara to try to get back on her feet. While she does find some really good prospects in terms of both a job and possibly even romance when she begins working at Max's boardwalk video store, she also has to deal with her two sons and their lack of enthusiasm about the move. Not only does Sam, in her eyes, appear to be acting out because he hates being stuck out in the sticks and is jealous of Max when she starts dating him, but Michael starts staying out all night long and coming home the next day looking and acting completely out of it, but won't say what's going on. Things reach a boiling point with her when, the day after Sam and the Frog Brothers mess up her second attempt at a dinner date with Max, Sam shows up at the video store, talking about how there are vampires all over Santa Carla. On the one hand, it is frustrating when Lucy refuses to listen to him, thinking he's still trying to sabotage her relationship with Max, but on the other, you do get why she feels the way she does. Still, when she's over at Max's house, she thinks back to what Sam said and briefly wonders if she should've listened to him, but tries to put it out of mind, until Max asks her to tell him. It's not until she returns home that night, after seemingly all the vampires have been vanquished and the house is a complete mess, that she learns firsthand how right Sam was.

While he does ultimately prove to be quite cool in his own way, Grandpa (Barnard Hughes) is still a pretty kooky, old hippy (it's not surprising that Michael and Sam spot some marijuana growing outside the kitchen window). When they first arrive at his home, they find him lying on his porch, seemingly dead, but it turns out he's just playing dead... for some reason. He  then establishes some rules for Michael and Sam, which include staying away from the second shelf in the refrigerator, as everything there is his; not to touch anything, as he's apparently OCD and has everything the way he wants it; and to stay out of a large room where he does his taxidermy (which he's apparently quite passionate about, given all the stuffed animals around the house). He also has a subscription to TV Guide, despite not actually having a TV, saying that he doesn't need one because he reads the guide and knows what's on, and never takes his car out of the shed, despite, at one point, telling Sam they're going to take a trip into town. When Sam is confused when he starts the car, only to immediately turn it off and get out, Grandpa explains, "That's as close to town as I like to get." The only times he actually leaves the house is when he goes to romance a local widow, intending to knock her out with his taxidermy talent (when he's out of aftershave, he, as Sam suggests, uses Windex instead), and given a comment he makes the next morning, it seems like it may have worked out for him. Sam, however, is less enthused about said talent, as Grandpa keeps putting various stuffed animals by his bedside. And when Sam, Michael, and the Frog Brothers bring Star and Laddie to the house after they've been to the vampires' lair, Grandpa, instead of asking who this woman and child are, merely tells them of a rule about, "Filling up the car with gas when you take it without asking." 

Despite how bizarre and off in his own world he can be, Grandpa has moments where he appears to know more than he's letting on. He doesn't deny Santa Carla's bad reputation, saying, "If all the corpses buried around here were to stand up all at once, we'd have one hell of a population problem." Also, when Max comes over for dinner, Grandpa seems suspicious of him and stays inside his taxidermy room the whole time. And at the end, he helps to save everybody from the final vampire when he crashes

into the house, leading him to be impaled by some sharp fence posts that Grandpa had suddenly put up earlier that day. That may have seemed like an accident, but Grandpa's final line, when he walks over to the refrigerator and gets a beer, confirms it wasn't: "One thing about livin' in Santa Carla I never could stomach: all the damn vampires." There's a disturbing undercurrent to that line when you think about it: he allowed his daughter and grandsons to come out there and live with him, despite knowing about the vampires, and for possibly a long time, too, given however many years he's been there. Again, Grandpa's not all there, so it shouldn't be too surprising, but man, talk about lacking common sense.

I knew a little bit about the Frog Brothers going in, but only that one of them was played by Corey Feldman and they were a pair of young vampire hunters. I'd also seen a few clips, but I really didn't know what their characters were when I first watched the movie. One thing that surprised me was how, despite being so popular, they don't have a lot of screentime until the third act. But they definitely make an impression when they first appear as Sam is browsing through their comic store, honing in on him because of his "civilian wardrobe" (which is pretty out there, even for the 80's). They initially think he doesn't belong there, as Edgar makes a comment about "the diet, frozen yogurt bar," but Sam immediately impresses both him and Alan (Jamison Newlander) with his comic book knowledge. Edgar then feels compelled to insist that Sam read a vampire-themed comic, and when he returns to their store the next day, the two of them tell him there are vampires in Santa Carla. They also tell him that working at their parents' comic store (their parents are always dead asleep behind the counter, likely stoned out of their minds) is just their cover, with Edgar adding, "We're dedicated to a higher purpose. We're fighters for truth, justice, and the American way." Pushing another vampire comic onto Sam, they tell him their number is on the back, with Alan saying, "And pray you never need to call us." But, of course, when Sam learns that Michael is a vampire, the Frog Brothers are the ones he immediately calls. It doesn't take much for them to believe him, but he's unwilling to stake his own brother, or to have them come over and do it themselves, as they offer. They continue insisting that they'll have to kill Michael when Sam shows up again the next day, but when he shares his suspicion that Max may be the head vampire, they're willing to go along with him and see if he's right. Though their putting Max through the vampire test ultimately proves to be a bust, they do manage to find the gang's hideout with Michael's help, and even kill one of them. However, this puts them at the top of David's shit list, and the Brothers, as well as Sam and Michael, have to load up and prepare for the oncoming attack that night.

It's amazing how a pair of characters can be such total dorks, yet really cool and badass at the same time. Despite how ridiculous they come across due to being so deadly serious and attempting to sound tough, with Edgar always talking in that overly gruff, macho voice and wearing that Rambo-like red bandana, the Frog Brothers are totally sincere when they talk about their dedication to hunting and killing vampires. That not only includes when they offer to stake Michael for Sam, but also when they say they believe that, 

"Ghouls and werewolves occupy high positions at the city hall," (who knows, they may actually be right), and when, during the third act, Edgar warns Michael that they'll kill him at the first moment he acts like a full-on bloodsucker. In fact, in that latter regard, they prove to not be 100% trustworthy, as during the climax, they attempt to stake Star and Laddie amid the chaos, despite being warned not to. That's to say nothing of how they go to the gang's hideout dressed in camo, and then check each other to make sure they 

have all the necessary weapons before heading down there. Naturally, a lot of humor comes from their personalities and the lines they're given. Though they do prove competent enough to actually stake and kill one of the vampires, they're immediately chased back out into the daylight when the others wake up and attack, screaming like little girls. As they're on their way back up to the car, covered in vampire blood, Alan laments how they failed, exclaiming, "We blew it, man, we lost it!... We unraveled in the face of the enemy!", while Edgar insists, "It's not our fault, 

they pulled a mind scramble on us! They opened their eyes and talked!" Despite the trouble they're currently in, Alan is initially unwilling to compromise his principles and ride back with Star and Laddie, saying, "We don't ride with vampires." But Edgar, considering the alternative says, "We do now." And during the climactic battle, when they, Sam, and Nanook have managed to kill two of David's cohorts, Alan and Edgar declare their badassness: "Death to all vampires!" "Maximum body count. We are awesome monster bashers." "The meanest!" "The baddest!"

They seal the deal by clasping their hands together, along with Sam... and then Laddie, having gone into full vampire mode, explodes out from under the bed, scaring the crap out of them, with Alan exclaiming, "Holy smoke! It's the attack of Eddie Munster!" And even though they're not the ones who dispose of the head vampire (they try to but it doesn't work out), when everything is over, Edgar asks Alan how much they should charge them.

So much about The Lost Boys has become iconic that it's hard to pinpoint exactly what or who is its most quintessential element, but if I had to guess, I might have to go with Kiefer Sutherland as David. He's definitely in the running for the coolest, most charismatic vampire character there's ever been, as he just radiates style and self-confidence. During the movie's opening, when he and his gang are introduced as they walk across the boardwalk's merry-go-round, it's clear that David knows he's untouchable, that he can go for any woman he wants, and anybody who interferes, be it the woman's boyfriend or the security guard, will pay for it. He's also very enigmatic and you never quite know what his motives are. He seems to take as much of an interest in Michael as Michael does in Star, even before he challenges him to keep up with him and the rest of the gang as they ride to their hideout. And when Michael slugs him and challenges him to a one-on-one after he nearly causes Michael to go off a cliff, David asks him, "How far are you willing to go, Michael?" Later, in the hideout, after he messes with his head a bit as they eat some Chinese takeout, David offers him a bottle of what later turns out to be his blood, saying, "Drink some of this, Michael. Be one of us." Once Michael drinks it, David and the others give him a glimpse of what he'll now be able to do, when they go out to the suspended railway bridge and hang on to its underside. But it's when Michael confronts him several nights later that David and the rest of the gang show their true, monstrous faces, before slaughtering some people partying around a bonfire. David then tells him, "You'll never grow old, Michael, and you'll never die. But you must feed." 

Star tells Michael that David originally intended for him to be her first victim, which would make her a full vampire. More than likely, this was meant to happen when he came back to Star the night when he realized he was changing, but when she couldn't bring herself to kill him, David instead decided to make Michael one of the gang. Speaking of which, unlike the psychotic and abusive Ace in Stand By Me, David, despite being a monster who has no problem killing and feeding on innocent people, seems to be a pretty

amiable gang leader. He never tries to make the others do what he wants through intimidation or verbal abuse, save for Star, whom he refuses to allow to go off with Michael that second night at the boardwalk. But even then, he does so by simply saying her name in a manner that has a lot of layers to it. Like the others, he's enraged when Edgar manages to stake and kill Marko, and after the boys manage to escape into the daylight, David vows revenge on them once the sun goes down that evening. He gets so worked up that he even sheds a tear when making that

declaration (that was actually because the contact lenses Kiefer Sutherland had to wear as a vampire were killing him, but it still adds another layer to the scene). Also, when he confronts Michael during the climax, he comes off offended that he's rejecting what was offered him, saying, "I tried to make you immortal." Michael retorts, "You tried to make me a killer!", and David, getting a glimpse of his own emerging vampire side, says, "You are a killer." And that actually proves to be his downfall at the end of the day.

I'm not just saying this because the movie was directed by an openly gay man, but there are hints that David has a possible homosexual attraction to Michael, what with the low and seductive tone he speaks to him in while trying to entice him to drink from the bottle and be one of them, and the enticing vision of him saying his name that Michael sees after he does drink from it. Also, the notion that David tricked Michael into drinking some of his blood in order to make him a vampire has some sexual

connotations all its own, as does the line near the end where David says, "It's too late! My blood is in your veins." Speaking of that, even then, when Michael has continued fighting him, David, once more, asks Michael to join them, and does so in a rather tender tone, with their faces inches away from each other, saying, "Stop fighting me, Michael. I don't want to kill you. Join us." And when Michael then manages to fatally impale David, the devastated expression on his face looks like that of somebody who just suffered the ultimate betrayal from their lover.

Even before you find out her backstory, Star (Jami Gertz) seems different from the other members of the gang. That's especially true given how, even though she rides with David on his bike, she seems to do it because she has no choice. Moreover, while she may seem to be his girlfriend, she takes a genuine interest in Michael when she actually meets him, and hates when David pulls her away from him. When Michael gets mixed up with the gang, she knows this isn't going to end well, but really can't do anything to stop it, other than warn Michael that there's blood in the bottle, which he doesn't believe. And when he comes back to her the next night and asks what's happening to him, Star regretfully and tearfully says, "I can't tell you. I don't know how to help you." Instead, she kisses him, and that leads to them sleeping together. But the next time he meets Star, when she shows up at the house and enters Sam's bedroom through the window, she explains to Michael that he, like her and the little boy named Laddie, is only a half-vampire. She says that David intended for Michael to be her first victim to complete her own transformation, but she couldn't bring herself to do it because she liked him too much. She also says that she hoped he could help her and Laddie, as it's getting harder for her to resist the urge to feed, but when he rebuffs her, she flees out into the night. However, when Michael, Sam, and the Frog Brothers arrive at the hideout the next day, they get both Star and Laddie out of there, and take them back to the house. That night, when the vampires attack, Star, despite never doing anything sinister or acting like her vampire side is taking over, is still threatened by the Frog Brothers, and especially comes into conflict with them when they talk about staking Laddie. And in the end, when David is killed, she realizes he wasn't the head vampire, as neither she nor Michael feel any different.

I used to think that Laddie (Chance Michael Corbitt) was Star's little brother, but now, I'm not sure what their relationship is exactly. Given how we see his picture on the back of a milk carton in one shot, it seems more like he was just a kid who was taken and made a part of the gang around the same time as her, likely by accident, and they just keep him around. Regardless, he's not as angsty as Star, and mostly acts like a normal, cheerful kid. What's more, the gang is good to him, so he has no reason to feel depressed about what's happened to him. Still, Star is very protective of him, and he's often not far from her side. Even when he goes into vampire mode during the climax, Star is determined to protect him from the Frog Brothers, who are intent on staking him. That's actually about the only notable part he plays in the movie; in fact, other than saying Star's name, he has no notable dialogue at all.

Getting back to the actual Lost Boys, David is the only one who has any personality; the other three, Paul (Brooke McCarter), Dwayne (Billy Wirth), and Marko (Alex Winter) are pretty interchangeable, especially while in their human form, save for their costumes and hairstyles, and even, Paul and Marko look so similar that I used to get them mixed up. They do little more than just go along with David and, like him, do whatever they please. They also do their fair share of teasing and messing with Michael when

he's first brought to their hideout. However, they chant to encourage and then cheer for him when he drinks the bottle of David's blood, and also act really chill when they jump down and cling onto the railway bridge's underside, much to Michael's horror. But, truth be told, they're most memorable in their deaths. Marko gets staked while hanging upside down with the others as they sleep during the daytime; Paul (who probably has the most dialogue out of the three when he corners and threatens to kill the Frog Brothers) gets dunked into a bathtub filled with holy

water, leading to the movie's bloodiest and craziest moment; and Dwayne gets an arrow through his chest, out his back, and into a stereo behind him, leading him to an electric and explosive demise.

Obviously, the concept of vampires in the modern day was nothing new by this point, but I think where The Lost Boys managed to stand out from both its predecessors and peers is that this may have been the first time where the vampires were definitively depicted as cool. Again, the Lost Boys are still monsters who feed on the blood of innocent people with no apologies, and vampirism is mostly depicted as a curse, one that threatens to upend and destroy Michael's life. But, this movie shows that there are 

also some major benefits to being a vampire that might make you consider partaking in it, such as coming off as effortlessly slick, suave, and attractive to others, as well as that notion of sexual potency and romanticism. But above all else, there's a sense of freedom about it, summed up in the movie's very tagline: "Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire." The Lost Boys virtually don't have to worry about anything. They can go wherever they want, do whatever they want, and they know that nobody or nothing can stop 

them. Society's rules don't apply to them, and anybody who gets in their way or messes with them is easily dealt with. And they don't even have to worry about aging, sickness, or even death. Of course, they're not entirely invulnerable, as they have to avoid sunlight, as well as worry about anyone who knows what they are and how to combat them, but they're few and far between, and even then, they're unlikely to convince anyone else of the truth.

One of the best twists in the story concerns the character of Max (Edward Herrmann). For much of the movie, he comes off as a pretty innocuous, nice guy who runs the video store found on the boardwalk. He takes an interest in Lucy from the moment he meets her, admiring her kind and generous nature after she helps a kid who became separated from his mother. When she asks for a job, he hires her, and the two of them immediately start dating, although their first two attempts at a dinner date end in disaster for various reasons. In addition, while it's initially left unclear whether or not he knows of their true nature, Max doesn't seem too fond of David and his gang, telling them to get out of his store when they pop in at the same time he meets Lucy. He even seems to be one of their targets, given the scene where he returns home after his first botched attempt at having dinner with Lucy, and they show up and taunt him from nearby. The first sign that Max may not be who or what he appears is when Lucy and Sam drive over to his place so Lucy can leave him a bottle of wine to make up for the previous night, only for Max's dog, Thorn, to viciously attack and chase after her. Talking with the Frog Brothers afterward, Sam suspects that Max could be the head vampire, with Thorn possibly being a hell-hound meant to protect him as he sleeps during the day. He also notes that Max never comes in to work at the video store until after dark, and that things started to get weird after Lucy started working there (that's not entirely true, but whatever). So, when Max comes over for dinner that night, Sam and the Frog Brothers pull all kinds of vampire tests on him, which he passes with flying colors. Though understanding about it, thinking that Sam is jealous of him and doesn't want him to replace his father or steal his mother away, Max tells Lucy, "Kids Sam's age need discipline. Otherwise, they run all over ya." Lucy insists that's not the case with her and Max remarks, "Protecting mother," before suggesting they have dinner together again, at his house.

There, Max notices how jittery Lucy is, inquires as to what's bothering her, and she, we can assume, tells him what Sam said about vampires in Santa Carla offscreen. And when they return to the house after Michael, Sam, and the Frog Brothers have killed all of the Lost Boys, Max, upon finding David's body, makes the shocking revelation that he is indeed the head vampire. He explains that the reason why he passed all the vampire tests is because inviting him into the house rendered them ineffective, then adds,

"It was you I was after all along, Lucy... I knew that if I could get Sam and Michael into the family, there's no way you could say no... It was all going to be so perfect, Lucy. Just like one big, happy family: your boys, and my boys." With that, he drops his human facade and tells Lucy that, even though his boys are all dead, he still wants her as his vampire bride. Proving to be quite strong, as he fights off Michael, then Star, and both of the Frog Brothers, he takes Sam hostage, before forcing Lucy to become part of the family in order to save her son. Fortunately, just as

Max is about to bite her, Grandpa comes crashing through the wall in his truck. While Max is distracted by this, Michael shoves him towards the truck's hood, impaling him on one of the wooden fence posts that the truck plowed through, and leading to his utter annihilation.

That idea that, once a vampire has been invited into a dwelling, the typical rules don't apply, was definitely a new one on me, and helped make Max's reveal as the head vampire even more surprising. However, it also seems like, in this instance, that's the only thing inviting them in does, as the Lost Boys are able to enter not only Max's video store but also break into the house during the climax with no ill effects. This notion of the classic rules not always lining up is actually kind of reflected in the movie itself, given 

how Edgar Frog clearly didn't know that's how the invitation rule works, and how the vampires don't glow in the dark, the way he figures they would. And while garlic is revealed to be ineffective, holy water, staking, and sunlight exposure all still work, and as Edgar says, they die in different ways, depending on how they're killed. Dogs are able to recognize them, but whether Max's dog, Thorn, really is a hell-hound, as Sam figures, or just accepts that his owner is a vampire but doesn't care for David and his gang, is left unanswered. Rather than sleeping in individual 

coffins, the Lost Boys' hideout counts as one big coffin, as Edgar also notes, and they actually sleep while hanging upside down from the ceiling like bats. Speaking of which, they, yet again, don't turn into bats or wolves, but are able to fly, and have superhuman agility and strength. And like most modern vampires, they're absolutely ravenous and ferocious when they kill their prey.

There's a touch of that old-fashioned ethereal nature to them as well, given how their presence is sometimes alluded to, such as when they seem to appear outside the house, and how their voices can often be heard, often calling to Michael. There's also a bit of the classic hypnotic power, given how David is able to mess with Michael's head and make him see their Chinese takeout as disgusting things like maggots and worms. And Michael's slowly becoming one himself after unknowingly drinking some of David's blood is another trope we've seen before, only given a new spin here (and adding a bit more to that gay subtext I mentioned earlier). 

The movie also presents the idea of "half-vampires," referring to those who've been cursed with vampirism but haven't completely turned yet, specifically Michael, Star, and Laddie. As we see from Michael, once cursed, a half-vampire slowly begins to change in various ways, such as becoming sensitive to daylight, as well as sluggish and lethargic during daytime hours; their reflection becoming transparent; they have trouble controlling their newfound ability to fly, causing them to float around like a balloon; and 

they develop a growing hunger for human blood, with the first feeding completing their change. While an interesting idea, it's kind of negated during the climax, when both Michael and Laddie go into vampire mode and seem to be just as potentially dangerous as the full ones. That's especially true of Michael, who's able to match David in battle and even kill him, when he, logically, should be a lot weaker. And just like in many other movies, killing the vampire who cursed them, or the leader in this instance, is all it takes to turn a half-vampire back to normal, so it's not quite as original as it may initially seem.

Unlike the exaggerated makeups in Fright Night and Vamp, Greg Cannom was told on The Lost Boys not to completely bury the actors under prosthetics and eye contacts, as Joel Schumacher wanted to maintain their attractiveness. Thus, the Lost Boys' vampire forms, as well as Michael's, aren't that over the top, consisting mainly of just some latex pieces on their foreheads and cheeks, as well as the aforementioned contacts and the fake fangs. The exceptions are Laddie and Max, who do become 

much more monstrous-looking. In fact, one of the reasons why Max comes off this way is because Cannom found it really difficult to make Edward Herrmann's face look sinister. Still, all of the vampire makeups look really cool and are shot quite well, though David's is probably the most awesome-looking. Also, while you only get a couple of shots of them, I really like their bat-like, clawed feet that they use to hang from the ceiling. Unfortunately, while Cannom did create some articulated dummies for a couple of the vampires when they get killed, little-to-no footage of them was used in the final film.

Kelly Jo Minter, whom horror fans like me will know from A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs, originally had a fairly nicely-sized supporting role as Maria, a coworker of Lucy's at the video store. But, even though you can still see her name in the opening credits, all of her instances of dialogue were deleted, and the only time you get a good look at her is during the first scene at the store, when the Lost Boys come in and briefly flirt with her. And one last character I

have to briefly touch on is the big, burly guy (Tim Cappello) who performs at the boardwalk the first night the characters are all there. Shirtless and glistening with sweat, he not only sings the song I Still Believe, but also has a saxophone that he plays a sweet solo on. Like so much else in this movie, he's so utterly 80's that you can't help but get a kick out of him.

As Joel Schumacher himself said, The Lost Boys was very lucky with the talent it managed to accrue both in front of and behind the camera. One of the major examples in the latter category was cinematographer Michael Chapman, who'd previously worked with directors like Philip Kaufman, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Schrader. Thanks to him, this is a very good-looking movie, with a lush and colorful visual aesthetic that it makes it look as though it was made for far more money than it actually was. It makes 

Santa Clara look like the kind of place I would love to hang out at (minus the vampires, of course), with the bright, beautiful, and warm-looking daytime exteriors, and the equally well-shot nighttime exteriors, both of which give off that summertime vibe that I adore. The nighttime scenes are mainly shot to look cool and mysterious, never exactly spooky or eerie, but there are some spooky and atmospheric moments, like the dark, empty carnival during the opening, when Michael looks out at the empty driveway after the gang seemingly shows up 

outside the house, and when Max returns to his house after Lucy stands him up. There's also a great use of atmospheric fog and backlighting for the sequence where Michael follows the Lost Boys back to their hideout, and for the scene at the railway bridge. As for the color palette, there are two colors that I most associate with The Lost Boys: gold and, especially, red. The gold comes mainly from the surreal-looking scene where the gang kills that group around the bonfire, and there are a number of scenes that involve 

a lot of red lighting. That really becomes true of the climax, where the interior of Grandpa's house is nothing but red in some parts, thanks to the only light being the red glow from his taxidermy room. And there are plenty of plain memorable images to be found throughout the movie, like the wide, nighttime shots of the lit up boardwalk, that moment where Edgar Frog is explaining how vampires die while Sam fiddles with a bow, the creepy close-ups of David's vampire face, a half-red, half-shadowy shot

of Michael and Star near the end, and many images of the Lost Boys themselves, like when they're on their motorcycles, sitting around in their hideout, hanging from under the bridge, when they're in the tree, reading to pounce on the group at the bonfire and when they stand atop the hill, looking down at Michael, after they've killed that group. 

There are several lovely, sweeping shots of the landscape and the moonlit ocean, one of which opens the movie, as well as many flying and swooping shots from the vampires' POV, such as when they claim their first few victims early on, when they fly into and out of their hideout during the second half, and when they converge on the house during the climax. On the one hand, this is a stylish way to suggest their presence without showing them, but, according to Schumacher, it was mainly a cost-saving measure, as 

they didn't have the budget to actually show them flying. In a similar vein, the scene that starts the climax, where the vampires awaken and fly out of the hideout to get revenge for Marko's death, was a miracle of editing on Schumacher's part. While cutting the movie together, he realized he forgot to actually shoot that sequence, so he just put together some miscellaneous shots that hadn't been used to create a montage of the boardwalk and the beach as the sun goes down, some random shots from inside the hideout, and then reversed an earlier POV shot of 

the vampires flying in. In fact, there's a lot of really good and memorable editing in the movie, including a really well done transition during the motorcycle ride to the hideout. The camera pulls far back from the bikes' headlights, which are then obscured by some thick mist that blows in, and that becomes a close-up of the side of Hudson's Bluff, with the camera pulling back further to reveal a lighthouse next to the cliff. Some of the editing is very music video-like, such as this slow, dreamy 

montage of everything happening around Michael after he drinks from the bottle, which first features a close-up of him drinking superimposed over a shot of the Lost Boys walking through the lair, and then a wide shot of everyone milling around, with him in the upper left corner, while the image of him in the center gets closer and closer to the camera. Once his image has filled the screen, one of a concerned Star watching him appears behind him, only to then be replaced by various close-ups of David's face as he 

enticingly says Michael's name. Similar in tone and vibe is the moment a few minutes later, when he falls off from the bridge, and seems to float and then fall through the mist below, before it dissolves to him falling safely onto his own bed. And the scene where he sleeps with Star is done as another sensual, slow-motion montage, with dissolves to close-ups of their faces, the drapes around the bed, and such, before cutting to a shot soaring through the clouds, whirling and rotating, as the sun rises in the distance. It soon becomes clear that this is another shot from the vampires' POV, as they fly back to their lair after a night out.

If I were ever going to move away from my life in Tennessee, it would likely be to a seaside town akin to Santa Carla, albeit, again, without the vampires or reputation as the "Murder Capital of the World." During the opening montage, when the Emerson family first arrive in town, it's appropriate that the song People Are Strange is playing on the soundtrack, as there are a good number of oddballs mixed in among the more typical everyday people, from emos and Goths to punks and obvious druggies, and even what looks like some hippies. There are also

some unusual spots in the town itself, like this building with a whale snout poking out of its side and a truly bizarre dummy riding a chairlift in one shot (I had to pause the movie and look closely at the screen just to figure out what it was I was looking at). And to reinforce its not so great reputation for murder, the camera often focuses on a number of "missing persons" fliers strewn about. A significant location, particularly during the first act, is also introduced in this opening: the boardwalk and accompanying amusement park. You see the big, wooden

rollercoaster, the Trabant, and various old style carnival games, but it's at night when the place really comes alive, as it's all lit up and people are rocking out by the stage, with oil drums burning amongst them. Two significant spots on the boardwalk are Max's video store and the Frog Brothers' comic shop, both of which are very bright and colorful. In the case of the former, it's due to both the paint job and neon lights, and there's other memorable stuff like a picture of Al Pacino on the wall next to the door, and a

couple of figures of what I think is meant to be Nipper, the dog you see sitting next to a phonograph. And that display of TV sets in the back makes me think back to when that was a common sight. The comic store's color scheme mainly comes from its bright neon lighting, which ranges from red to green and even a bit of purple and blue, and it makes it pretty cool-looking, although I think the Frog Brothers' attitude and the sight of their parents dead out behind the counter, as crappy 50's B-movies play

on a TV set (I've seen stuff like that in retro-vibe stores nowadays), might prompt me to get out of there as quickly as I can. One final notable spot on the boardwalk is the merry-go-round at the beginning, where the Lost Boys make their first appearance, and where that security guard seals his fate by attempting to subdue them.

Being somebody who's always lived in a very rural area, the location of Grandpa's house out in the sticks near Santa Carla does appeal to me, even if it doesn't Michael and Sam. It is quite a bizarre place, though, as it's this large wooden house, akin to a fancy log cabin, surrounded by a yard filled with all sorts of old junk, like various wooden carvings, a wooden head that has an axe jammed into it, bones (hopefully animal), a turkey leg, and feather hanging from a tree, an old shed, and even a small, long abandoned trailer, as well as lots of plants like small palm trees, cacti,

and even some marijuana growing on the property. However, it does have a nice, wide field with some horses out in the back, and the large front porch and its walkway look quite lovely in the scene where Lucy tries to talk with Michael when he comes back from his night with Star. When you first see the house's interior, it is more than a little off-putting, as the living room feels like the main lobby of a country lodge, with a stuffed lion, a pair of antlers, and a mounted fish around a large fireplace beneath the 

second floor landing. On one side of the room is a pair of big, sliding doors, behind which is a red-lit room filled with all sorts of animals that Grandpa has either put through or is in the process of putting through his taxidermy. The other rooms don't look too bad, such as the kitchen (though, when they first arrive, Grandpa has his laundry hanging up in it), the nice dining room over to the right, the upstairs bathroom, which connects Sam and Michael's rooms, and said bedrooms, which each member of the

Emerson clan manages to make into his or her own personal space. However, Sam has to put up with Grandpa constantly putting stuffed animals, like a groundhog and, later, a big owl, by his bedside.

The other major location in the story is the Lost Boys' hideout: an old luxury hotel that got sucked down into a cliffside at Hudson's Bluff during the major 1906 earthquake of San Francisco. While people access it via a walkway that goes down to the shoreline and entrance, the vampires, obviously, just fly in and out of it. Along with the interior of Grandpa's house, this is where production designer Bo Welch, who would go on to work on several of Tim Burton's movies and the original Men in Black trilogy, really gets to show 

off. The main chamber is what was originally the hotel's lobby, and you can tell that the gang has taken it and made it their own. The centerpiece is a large chandelier that's crashed into an old, empty fountain, the gang lights up some fuel drums when they first bring Michael there with them, and the surroundings are decorated with various type of drapes, mobiles, a poster for Munster, Go Home!, a big photo of Jim Morrison, and so on. There's also an old bed with a canopy and drapes in this room, where 

Star and Laddie sleep, while the others hang upside down in another chamber off from the main one, which is hard to get through for humans, as it's on the other side of a narrow tunnel that's filled with all kinds of obstacles and is found up a steep slope. Overall, this place is the complete opposite from Max's home, which is a nice, comfortable house, found at the end of a long walkway behind a gate, built on a cliffside and overlooking the ocean and shoreline. In other words, it's another clever way to keep you from suspecting that he's also a vampire.

As I said in the introduction, like Fright Night, I've seen The Lost Boys referred to as a horror-comedy a number of times, but I don't think that's entirely accurate. I will say that it is closer to one than the former, but I still see it mainly as a horror flick that, instead of taking itself deadly seriously, tends to be quite tongue-in-cheek. Mind you, the Lost Boys themselves are never played for laughs, nor are the repercussions of what's happening to Michael, but otherwise, the movie does have an overall sense of humor about itself. I think a lot of that came from 

Jeffrey Boam after he was brought in to overhaul the screenplay, as I read an interview where he said he injected a lot of his own style of humor into it. This is evident from the get-go when, as they're driving in the car, Michael and Sam repeatedly tell Lucy to keep going as she searches for something to listen to on the radio, and continually stops on something they don't care for (I think those of us who were going on road trips in the days before tablets and smartphones can relate to). From there, it continues with Michael seeing that somebody wrote "MURDER CAPITAL 

OF THE WORLD" on the back of a billboard that reads, "Welcome to Santa Carla," right after Sam comments that the ocean, "Smells like someone died,"; all of the weird sights during the montage of the town during the opening credits; how strange both Grandpa and his place are (I like how his personal shelf in the fridge is labeled "OLD FART," which he himself obviously put in there); the Frog Brothers' major eccentricities; their and Sam's utterly failed attempt to prove that Max is a vampire; and so on. 

Even though it comes after Michael has attempted to attack Sam, only for Nanook to intervene, the sequence where Sam realizes his brother is becoming a vampire is also played a bit for laughs, with his reactions to it, and Michael floating outside the house and trying to get Sam to help him, while also getting on the phone with Lucy while Sam is talking to her and telling her not to listen to him. Sam's terrified reactions are a constant source of humor throughout the movie, and are amplified when the Frog Brothers 

prove to not be as fearless in the face of vampires as they originally made themselves out to be. And despite how effective it does prove to be, the boys' preparation for the oncoming vampire attack (their going to a church to stock up on holy water, in the midst of a baby being baptized, and filling squirt guns, as well as a bathtub, with both it and garlic for good measure) is pretty fun to watch.

While it did ultimately end up being more adult than its original conception, there is still, oddly enough, a kind of childlike innocence about The Lost Boys. Though the gang themselves are portrayed as ferocious monsters that you most definitely don't want to find yourself up against, and there's still that inherent sexual allure, the fact that a big chunk of the main protagonists are preteen boys makes it feel like a harder-edged version of The Monster Squad, which came out the same year. In fact, it kind of makes me

think of Silver Bullet, and not just because Corey Haim is in that, too. Like that movie, this is a fairly violent R-rated flick, with some intense moments, and yet, much of it is told from the POV of some fairly young kids who ultimately have to go up against the monsters. And I also think the lack of truly graphic sex and excessive gore, with the bloody moments that are here often being over-the-top to the point where they're rather humorous, further balances things out.

As much as we all love the 80's, especially if you're a genre fan, that are many movies and TV shows from the decade that are so steeped in what you associate with it that they can come off as dated or even cringey. However, there are others that manage to embrace the feel of the decade in a manner to where it becomes really cool and timeless, and few, in my opinion, do it better than The Lost Boys. Being somebody who was born the very year this came out (just a month-and-a-half before its release date, to be 

more precise), I, obviously, have no real memories of the 80's, except for some very vague ones, but stuff like this makes me wish I could've been around for more of it. As much as we may make fun of the fashion and hairstyles that were popular back then, and let's face it, that long, overcoat like thing that Sam wears on his first night at the boardwalk is quite a sight to behold (so much so that the Frog Brothers comment on it), this movie makes a lot of it work, with how effortlessly cool the Lost Boys themselves 

come off, and how stylish Michael looks with that quaffed mullet, leather jacket, and dark sunglasses. Then, there's the movie's rich visuals and bright color palette, the clear influence of MTV on some of the editing, the way establishments like Max's video store and the comic shop look, the old-fashioned carnival games and rides on the boardwalk, which you'd be hard-pressed to find nowadays, and the soundtrack, which features so many great tunes from the time. Again, I have to go back to the guy singing and playing the saxophone at the boardwalk, as for me, that just perfectly captures what an awesome time capsule of the decade this flick is.

Again, there isn't much in the way of blood and gore until the third act, and most of what is here is done in an exaggerated manner. A big exception, though, is the first instance of blood, when Michael is attacked by Nanook when he tries to get at Sam. Sam then finds Michael at the bottom of the stairs, with a big, bloody chunk ripped out of his palm, and it looks painful. The sequence where the gang attack that group partying around a bonfire is done in a quickly-edited, expressionistic manner, though you do get some quick glimpses of carnage, like David biting

into a guy's noggin, causing a big spurt of blood, and some ripped open throats, and you see the vampires throwing their victims' bodies onto the bonfire, which is horrific in any context. But once the third act rolls around, the violence becomes more cartoonish. When Marko gets staked while hanging in the lair, blood and other bodily fluids just pour out of him, soaking both the Frog Brothers and raining down on Sam below. Also, when David tries to chase after them, his hand is exposed to sunlight and it bursts into flames. Said flames are quickly extinguished, leaving his

hand blackened and smoking. The most gruesome and insane death is Paul, who gets shoved into the bathtub that's been filled with holy water, and whose flesh can be seen melting when he briefly emerges, before he sinks back down and is turned into a skeleton. Then, the water, filled with his blood, melted flesh, and other remains, goes down the drain and floods the plumbing system, bursting out of the sink and the toilet, as well as geysering out of the sink down in the kitchen, and spewing out of the pipes in the walls (the

blood isn't bright red but more of a dark color, making this less hideous than it would've otherwise been). Dwayne then gets holy water sprayed in his face, is shot in the chest with an arrow, and then impaled through the torso and into the stereo, causing his body to flame and spark, blowing off his arm, until his head explodes. David's death is virtually bloodless, as he's impaled on a pair of horns in Grandpa's taxidermy room, his body smokes and steams a bit, and that's it. Max isn't so lucky, though, as he gets impaled with a fence-post, then flung into the fireplace and engulfed in an explosion that destroys him completely.

There is a bit of visual and special effects work here, the most notable example of which includes the miniature of the lighthouse near Hudson's Bluff, the wide shots of Michael and the Lost Boys walking onto and then hanging from the railway bridge's underside, both before and after the train passes over them, Michael's transparent reflection in the mirror, and when he's floating around his room and outside his window. That second effect holds up really well, as does the latter, which I have a feeling they pulled off using a combination of the rotating room trick

used in stuff like A Nightmare on Elm Street and David Cronenberg's The Fly, and some wire and pulley work. You can sort of tell that the lighthouse and the cliffside next to it are miniatures, but they work well enough. Michael's reflection, however, is a bit dated, as you can see the blue screen work and compositing in that one close-up, and the same goes for some of the close-ups of them hanging from the bridge's underside, but it's all really brief, so it doesn't matter. Other on-set effects, like how they made the vampires fly through the air and the explosions, are also well done.

Just a little over a minute in, you're introduced to the Lost Boys, as David walks along the boardwalk carnival's merry-go-round, amid those riding it, followed respectively Dwayne, Paul, and Marko. He spots a lovely young woman riding with her boyfriend and makes a clear pass at her. Naturally, her boyfriend doesn't take kindly to another guy hitting on his girl, and he angrily grabs at the other Lost Boys. This starts something of a minor brawl between them and the guy's own gang. David comes back in

and is about to put the guy in his place, grabbing him by his chin, when a security guard comes up behind David and uses his baton to put him in a chokehold. He tells them that he already warned them to stay off the boardwalk, and after several tense seconds, David tells the guys they should go. They walk off the ride, while the guard tells the other group of punks to get off the boardwalk as well. Later, the place closes down for the night, with the lights going out, the music switching off, and everything shutting down

until it's dark and quiet. The guard heads towards his car in the parking lot, as we get our first vampire flying POV, as they go over the rollercoaster and gradually make their way down towards the guard. Turning and seeing them, he runs for his car, desperately trying to open the door, when he's suddenly grabbed from above and yanked up into the air, ripping the driver's side door off with him.

A similar scene occurs following Michael, Sam, and Lucy's first night on the boardwalk. In a classic horror movie scenario, the guy and girl who got into it with the Lost Boys during the opening are parked in a car near the boardwalk. Sitting in the backseat, he guy is trying to get it on with his girl, who's more interested in laughing her butt off at a comic that their group stole from the entrance to the Frog Brothers' store (this happens in the midst of their first talk with Sam). She even slaps him to make him knock it off, but that 

only encourages him to try harder. She then hears a scraping sound outside and tries to tell him about it, but he isn't too concerned. But, when he tries to really get serious, the car's entire roof is ripped off right above them, and the guy is grabbed and yanked up into the sky like the security guard. His girl sits there and screams, but not for long, as she's quickly yanked up as well.

On his second night on the boardwalk, just as Michael thinks he's about to score a date with Star after he formally meets her, the two of them are surrounded by the gang on their own motorcycles. Though he makes Star get on the back of his bike, David tells Michael they're going to Hudson's Bluff and challenges him to try to keep up with them. That leads into the sequence where they drive off into the night, as Lost in the Shadows plays on the soundtrack, and it's one of my favorite scenes (mainly because I love

that song, as we'll get into later). They drive off the boardwalk and across the beach, flying past a bunch of people sitting around, then drive underneath a wharf, and into a wooded area, before the scene transitions to a shot of the lighthouse by Hudson's Bluff. By this point, Michael is basically racing David amid the mist on the cliffside, with David egging him on. Because of the mist, he doesn't realize he's heading towards the edge of a cliff until he's almost on top of it. He immediately skids and wipes out in the dirt, and after looking down at the ocean below,

he angrily charges at David and slugs him right in the face. The other Lost Boys have to restrain him as he challenges David to a fight, yelling, "Just you!" Smiling, David then asks him how far he's willing to go.

Following the sequence where Michael drinks the bottle of David's blood, he and the gang drive out to the suspended railway bridge. As they walk across it, he asks what's going on, a question that's jokingly passed around among the others, until David says they should show Michael what's going on firsthand. Marko is the first to do so, waving at Michael, telling him good night, and jumping over the edge of the bridge, yelling, "Bombs away!" He's then followed 

by Paul, Dwayne, and then David, who tells Michael to come with them. When Michael looks over the side, he sees that the gang is hanging onto the bridge's underside, whooping and hollering. David tells him to come down there as well, and he easily climbs down through the tracks, before hanging onto the underside. He looks down at the drop below, which is obscured by all of the mist, when they hear the sound of the approaching train. They're shaken violently as it passes over them, and while Michael is horrified, 

screaming, "Jesus Christ!", the others are exhilarated by it. One by one, they let go and drop down, disappearing into the mist below, until just Michael and David are left. David tells Michael, "Michael, you're one of us! Let go!", to which he exclaims, "And do what?!" He simply tells him, again, that he's one of them, and drops down into the mist himself, leaving Michael up there alone. He yells for David, and then, after the train has passed, tries to pull himself back up, when he hears the gang, particularly David, calling for him down in the mist. Again, he 

tries to pull himself back up, but is unable to and drops down into the mist. But, as he falls, he seems to momentarily, and unintentionally, transition into flying, before plummeting again with a loud scream, only to find himself gently falling back onto his bed.

That night, when Michael and Sam are the only ones in the house, the two of them are in the kitchen, talking, when they hear the sounds of motorcycle engines outside. The house begins to shake, gusts of wind blow in through the open windows, strong enough to shake some pots and pans hanging above the counter, and motorcycle headlights shine in from outside. It seem as though the Lost Boys have arrived, and Michael runs out into the living room, followed by Sam, as they see the gang both moving parallel to 

them and continuing to shine their lights through those windows. Hearing the sound of David's voice repeatedly calling his name, Michael runs to the front door, looks through the blinds, and opens it. But as soon as he does, the noises and the lights immediately stop, and, except for a little breeze, everything is completely calm out there. He closes the door, as Sam asks him what's going on. He tells his brother to just go take a bath.

Afterward, while Sam is upstairs in the bathroom, Michael goes to the fridge and pulls out a carton of milk. But just as he's about to drink it right out of the carton, he's suddenly hit by pain in his stomach and collapses to the floor. As Sam plays around in the bathtub, singing to the radio, with Nanook sitting on the floor next to the tub, Michael menacingly walks up the stairs, then towards the bathroom door. While Sam is completely ignorant of what's going on, it 

doesn't go unnoticed by Nanook, who looks at the door and watches the knob slowly turn. Michael walks in just as Sam goes under the water, and Nanook, sensing his intentions, snarls (the same shot looped several times) and jumps at him. The two of them fall back, flinging the door closed, just as Sam pops back up. Wiping the water off his face, he sees that his dog is gone, and then hears the fight going on outside. Later, wearing a bathrobe, he walks out into the corridor and down the stairs, towards the dark 

and eerily quiet living room. Initially, there's no sign of Michael or Nanook. But when Sam gets to the bottom of the stairs, he hears Michael panting and wincing in the dark. He turns on the light to see him crouched there, holding his left hand, which is badly bleeding from the palm. He tells him that Nanook bit him, and Sam, like just about any dog-owner, assumes it was due to something Michael did (he's right, of course, but that always pisses me off when a dog attacks someone and the owner automatically tries to blame the person who got attacked). Michael 

says Nanook was protecting him, when Sam looks behind him, at a mirror, and notes his reflection. Michael turns around and sees that his reflection is transparent, while Sam, having read the comics the Frog Brothers gave him, realizes he's becoming a vampire. He runs back upstairs and to his room, as Michael runs after him, desperate for his help. However, Sam locks him out of his room, then runs to the door leading into it from the bathroom and locks it as well. Using the number on the back of the one comic, he calls the Frog Brothers, while Michael gives up outside and goes back to his own room, collapsing on his bed.

After Sam gets off the phone, unwilling to take the Frog Brothers' grim advice, Michael wakes up to find his face pressed against the ceiling, and then sees that he's floating in the air like a balloon. Struggling to climb along the ceiling, he manages to turn himself over, then makes his way over to the window. While he reaches it, the position he's floating in makes it really difficult to get a grip on anything, and he fumbles around, grabbing at the blinds' drawstring, the curtains, and even the dresser in front of the

window. At that moment, the phone rings and Sam answers it in his room to find it's Lucy, calling from the restaurant where she's about to have dinner with Max. Sam tells her that they need to have a talk about "something," while Michael fumbles out through the open window. Desperate to grab onto something, he ends up grabbing the phone and hears that Sam is talking with Lucy. As he dangles outside, holding onto the phone-line to keep from floating off, he screams, which Lucy hears. Sam tells his mother to

"stay calm," as Michael floats by his window behind him. Michael himself, using the other phone, then tells Lucy not to listen to Sam, when Sam turns around and sees him floating outside. He panics and yells for his mom, saying, "He's going to get me!... He's going to kill me!" Naturally, this horrifies Lucy, and she bolts out of the restaurant and towards her car, leaving Max high and dry at his table. He only knows that Lucy has left when he looks out the window and sees her suddenly drive off. Back at the house, Michael is still yelling for Sam to help him by 

letting him in through the window. Though initially still scared, Michael's desperate and frightened appeals finally provoke Sam's brotherly instinct and he lets him in. He's then finally able to stop floating, and just as Lucy arrives outside, he tells Sam that she can't find out. When Lucy gets out of the jeep and runs into the house, Sam makes up the story that he just had a bad dream after reading one of his horror comics. Naturally, Lucy isn't too pleased to hear this.

After Michael sneaks out of the house to go see Star, there's a brief cutaway where Max returns to his own home. As he walks down the long walkway leading to his house, he hears what sounds like growling and grunting nearby. When he still hears it upon reaching the end of the walkway, he finally demands to know who's out there. His dog Thorn then emerges from the dark and he pets him, asking if that was him he heard. No sooner does he ask than something flies in and

hits him in the back of the head. He finds that it's a weird-looking kite and picks it up, when the lights in his yard suddenly go out. He then hears the sound of motorcycle engines revving, and people whooping and yelling, as the Lost Boys suddenly switch on their motorcycles' headlights from across the lawn, shining them right at Max.

The next day, Lucy and Sam drive out to Max's place, Lucy bringing a bottle of wine as a way to apologize for ditching him the night before. She decides to take up it up to the house in order to keep it from being stolen, while Sam sits in the car. At that moment, he opens one of his horror comics to a story called Hounds of Hell, while Lucy finds herself confronted on the walkway by a very ferocious Thorn. Barking ferociously, the dog chases her back up towards the gate, as she drops the bottle of wine on the walkway's edge, shattering it. Lucy tells for Sam,

who immediately drops the comic and gets out of the car when he sees what's happening. With Thorn almost on top of her, Lucy climbs over the gate. The dog manages to grab her skirt in his mouth and rips it a bit, as Lucy falls over the top of the gate and hits the ground beyond it. Sam rushes to his mother's side, when Thorn starts smashing his way through the gate to continue his attack. The two of them rush back to their car, as Thorn keeps smashing through to try to get at them.

That night, Max comes over to the house for another attempt at dinner. Once Michael has, begrudgingly, invited him in, and gone out to find the Lost Boys, while Grandpa has locked himself in his taxidermy room, Sam introduces the Frog Brothers to Lucy as his "dinner guests." The five of them are then sitting around the dining room table, eating pasta, when Lucy comments, "Somebody around her has bad breath!" Initially, Sam and the Brothers turn their attention to Max, thinking it's a sign that he's the 

head vampire, as they suspect, but it turns out to be Nanook, who's sitting near the table. Sam tells Nanook to get upstairs, while Edgar motions towards him and Alan with his head. Sam then offers Max a small bowl of what he says is Parmesan cheese, which Lucy says he made himself. Max puts some on his pasta and eats a bit of it, then suddenly acts like he's choking. Once he's able to speak again, he says it's actually garlic. Sam says, "I bet you hate garlic, don't ya?!", but Max says he actually likes it, but that 

this particular garlic is raw and a little strong for his taste. While he and Lucy are distracted, Sam picks up a glass of water and mimes handing it to Max, only to intentionally throw it right on his crotch. As he jumps up and wipes himself down, Sam asks if it burns, but he says it's actually freezing cold. Fed up, Edgar gets up and turns the lights out, while Alan puts out the candles on the table. While in the dark, Edgar notes that Max isn't glowing, so they turn the lights back on, only for Max to jump back and yell when he sees

that Sam has placed a mirror in his face. However, his reflection is there, invalidating the last bit of their vampire test. Lucy takes the mirror away and Max opts to leave, making Lucy all the more aggravated with Sam.

Elsewhere, on the boardwalk, Michael finds the gang and makes a beeline right for David. Grabbing him, he demands to know where Star is, and David says, "You ever wanna see Star again, you better come with us now." He follows them on their bikes to where a tree on a hill overlooks a spot where a group of people are dancing around a bonfire. After watching them from up in the tree, David calls Michael, who stayed behind on his bike, to come up and join them. Reluctantly, he does so, and after he sees what they're 

watching, David tells him that it's time to officially join them. And that's when he reveals his vampire face, and as Michael looks around, he sees that the others look this way as well. They cackle at him, then proceed to fly off the tree and massacre those partying around the bonfire, all while Michael watches in horror. Hearing them calling his name seems to also cause Michael's own vampire side to emerge, and after they finish killing and feeding on everyone there, they remove all of the evidence by tossing their bodies onto the bonfire. Ultimately, 

Michael can't take it anymore and screams in anguish. He tumbles out of the tree and down the sandy slope it's growing out of, and when he looks back up it, he sees the gang walk up to the top of the hill. They look down on him, and David tells Michael that he's the same as them and must eventually feed. When he returns to the house that night, entering through Sam's bedroom window, Sam asks him who the head vampire is. Before he can answer, Star shows up in the yard below. Michael initially refuses to let her in, 

and goes to lock the windows, when she uses her vampire abilities to reach the window before he and Sam can react. While Sam, terrified that she's also a vampire, runs to his bed and hides beneath the covers, Star explains to Michael what he, as well as her and Laddie, are. She leaves when Michael initially rebuffs her asking him to help, but when Michael promptly changes his mind, Sam yells out at her, "Don't kill anybody 'til we get back to you!" He then grabs the phone and calls the Frog Brothers.

The Brothers ride their bikes out to the house the next day, and they, along with Sam and Michael, take Grandpa's car and drive out to Hudson's Bluff. Arriving there, Edgar and Alan, after completing their weapons check, make their way down to the Lost Boys' hideout, followed by Sam and the very weak Michael. Entering the hotel's ruins, they find Star sleeping in her canopy bed, and are about to stake her, when the others show up and Michael yells at them not to touch her. The Brothers then try to find the rest of the gang, while Michael wakes Star up and tells 

her that he's taking her out of there. However, she insists he first take Laddie, who's sleeping nearby. Alan, feeling a draft coming through a tunnel filled with junk, alerts the others, and Edgar and Sam join him. The three of them crawl through the tunnel, grimacing at the nasty stuff they come across, including flies and other bugs, while outside, Michael struggles to carry Laddie up the cliff, to the car. Entering a small chamber beyond the tunnel, the three of them start smelling something foul, which Edgar 

tells Sam is the scent of vampires. While Michael then gets Star outside and up to the car, Sam and the Frog Brothers find their way into a much larger chamber, which Sam says is freezing. At first, they see no sign of the vampires' coffins, but happen to shine their flashlights upward and illuminate them hanging from the ceiling with their feet like bats. Seeing their chance since they're asleep and vulnerable, Edgar and Alan climb up the wall next to them. Sam reminds them that they just need to kill the leader, but since they don't know who it is, Edgar says they'll have to kill them all. They decide to go with Marko, since he's the smallest and also the closest to the wall. 

When they reach the top of the ladder along the wall, Edgar pulls out a stake and, ignoring Sam warning him not to, stabs Marko right through the heart. He starts yelling, as blood pours of his chest, and awakens the other vampires. Covered in his blood and body fluids, the Frog Brothers jump down, as Marko falls among them and convulses wildly in his death throes. David yells that they're dead, then jumps down and chases the kids back through the tunnel. Just as they're about to escape into the main chamber, David grabs Sam's foot and tries to pull him back. Edgar and

Alan grab onto Sam and try to pull both him and David through the opening in order to expose David to the sunlight. It turns into a bit of a tug-o-war, but when David's hand is pulled into a beam of light, it erupts into flames. He lets go of Sam and retreats back into the darkness, his hand smoking, while the boys manage to escape. Despite this, David calmly declares, "Tonight," and chuckles evilly. Outside, Sam and the Frog Brothers run back up to the top of the cliff in a panic, Sam yelling at Michael to start the car.

When they get back up there, they see that Michael has passed out from both exposure to the sunlight and the exertion of carrying Star and Laddie up there, and Sam opts to drive instead. Though Alan initially declares that he and Edgar don't ride with vampires, Edgar decides beggars can't be choosers and they pile into the car anway. Edgar tells Sam to "burn rubber" and hits the gas, only to then realize that the car is in reverse. They come very close to going over the edge of a cliff behind them, but Sam hits the brake in time and tells Edgar, "'Burn rubber' does not mean warp speed!" They then drive off in the right direction.

They take Star and Laddie back to the house, and up to Michael's bedroom. The Frog Brothers then tell Sam that they need to come up with a new plan and fast, as the vampires will come for them the minute the sun goes down, which is in two-and-a-half hours. After Sam's attempt to warn his mother goes nowhere, he tells the Brothers that they're on their own. They begin preparing themselves for the imminent attack, first by going into the church and getting as much holy water as they can, and then by getting Grandpa out of the house by telling him that 

he has a date with Widow Johnson that night. Once he's left, they fortify the house by barricading the windows and lighting up the fireplace, fill the bathtub up with holy water and garlic, and also fill some water pistols with the same stuff. After that, the sun sets, the vampires awaken back in their lair, and fly out, heading for the house. There, Edgar gives the others a final warning about what they can expect during the battle. Outside, Nanook is kept in a small corral, since he was threatening Michael, Star, and 

Laddie earlier, and he begins to whine, sensing that something isn't right. The wind starts to kick up a little bit, and the overhead POV shot reveals that the vampires are closing in on the house. Hearing Nanook barking and realizing the danger he's in, Sam rushes outside to get him, ignoring everybody warning him that it's not safe. He reaches the spot, but has trouble undoing the leather strap that has Nanook tied to the fence. Michael quickly rushes out there and struggles to rip the strap, when Star, standing on the front 

porch, sees that the gang is coming. Managing to free Nanook, Michael, Sam, and the dog run back to the house. On the way, Michael and Sam both trip and fall, but they quickly get up and run back through the door, with the vampires flying right behind them.

Inside, Michael tells the Frog Brothers to take Star and Laddie upstairs, while he and Sam try to fortify the front door. However, the nearly extinguished fireplace proves to be no barrier at all, as Dwayne explodes out of it and grabs onto a small chandelier above the living room. He swings at Michael and knocks him to the floor, while the chandelier crashes down, extinguishing the light. Meanwhile, when they get Star and Laddie upstairs, into Michael's room, the Frog Brothers attempt to kill them themselves. They chase them through the bathroom and into Sam's

room, but when they enter the latter, Paul appears from behind the door. He quickly disarms them of their stakes and forces them back into the bathroom. Spying the tub, which has a bunch of garlic floating atop the water, they try to force Paul into it. As he struggles with them, he tells them that garlic doesn't work, and Edgar retorts, "Try holy water, death breath!" He flings a handful of the water into Paul's face, causing his face to sizzle and steam, as he grabs at it with his hands. However, it's only temporary, 

and after he's dropped the Brothers to the floor, he lurches towards them, about to rip them limb from limb, when Nanook comes running in and leaps at him, pushing him into the tub. With steam rising, Paul yells and writhes around in pain in the holy water, then disappears beneath it. The Frog Brothers prove to be a little too nosy when they motion over and peek into the tub, as Paul rises back up, his flesh melting. This scares not only them but also sends Nanook running, and after Paul goes back under the water, it drains and causes all of the plumbing in the house to explode with his blood, melted flesh, and bodily fluids. That sends the Frog Brothers running out of the bathroom. 

Downstairs, in the living room, Sam tries to rouse the unconscious Michael. With the only light being the red glow coming out of the taxidermy room, Sam walks over to an overturned floor lamp and switches it on. He shines the light up towards the second floor landing, searching for Dwayne, but when he doesn't see him, he goes back to trying to wake Michael up. That's when Dwayne flies down at him, grabs him by the head, and takes him up into the rafters. Sam screams and struggles in Dwayne's grip, as the vampire laughs and brandishes his fangs. That's

when Sam pulls out his water pistol and squirts the holy water into Dwayne's face. This gets him to drop him, and he lands on the couch. He quickly runs and grabs his bow off the nearby table, and when Dwayne flies at him again, he shoots. He manages to score a hit in Dwayne's torso and he collapses to the floor. But when Sam makes the mistake of approaching him, Dwayne jumps and tells him, "You missed, sucker!" Sam retorts, "Only once, pal," and aims and fires again. Not only does this manage to get him through the heart, but the arrow goes out his back and

into the stereo behind him. Sam runs to Michael, who finally wakes up, and shields him from the sparks and blinding light, as Dwayne is shocked like crazy, before his head explodes. When he and Michael look up, and see Dwayne's smoldering, sparking corpse on the floor, Sam remarks, "Death by stereo!" The two of them get up and start to head upstairs, when they hear the sound of blood splashing everywhere in the kitchen from the waterworks. Sam runs on up ahead and Michael tries to follow him, only for David to 

hang down in front of him and shove him back down the stairs. Tumbling to the bottom, Michael then looks back up, only to see that David has gone into hiding. However, as he frantically scans his surroundings, looking for him, David comes by really fast, slicing him across his face. Upstairs, Sam runs into the Frog Brothers, and they talk about the vampires they each managed to kill (though, Alan admits that Nanook helped him and Edgar in taking out Paul). But just when they're declaring how awesome they are, they 

get the fright of their life when Laddie, now a vampire, explodes out from under Sam's bed. He runs to the corner next to the door, stepping on Alan's crotch as he goes, and just when they're about to put him down, Star comes back in and defends him. She tells them he's just a little boy, all while Laddie ferociously claws at them from behind her like a little demon.

Back downstairs, Michael is still getting tagged by David as he flies by so quick that he can't see him. When David disappears and hides again afterward, Michael accuses him of being afraid to face him head-on. David's shadow appears on the wall on the second floor, then he rushes down and gets in another cheap shot, knocking Michael to the floor. David appears on the landing again, laughing, when Michael looks up, revealing that his vampire side has now fully emerged. The two of them leap at and grab each 

other in midair. They proceed to fly around the room, trying to overpower each other, and Michael attempts to impale David on the antlers of one of the deer trophies on the wall. However, it doesn't work, and he only manages to pin David against a section of the wall itself next to one set of antlers. David returns the favor, pushing Michael back through the air, towards the entrance to the taxidermy room, intending to impale him on the numerous antlers on the table there. Michael grabs onto the top of the door-frame, just barely managing to keep from getting impaled. 

When he rebuffs David's last offer to join them, David attempts to finish him off, reminding Michael, "My blood is in your veins!" But Michael shoots back, "So is mine!", and then lets go of the door-frame, grabs onto David, swings him around in midair, and completely impales him on a pair of horns. David initially screams and tries to free himself, but his strength quickly gives out and he leans his head back, with smoke coming off of his body. He moves his head back and forth just a little 

bit before he finally expires, as Michael watches. Star comes running downstairs, to the doorway, and sees David's body. Michael grabs her and pulls her into the dark with him, hearing Sam and the Frog Brothers running downstairs as well. He asks Star not to let them see him as a vampire, when they also stop in the doorway, seeing David's impaled body. Michael, however, notes that nothing's changed, as does Star, meaning David wasn't the head vampire. Outside, Max returns Lucy home from having dinner at his house, and Sam and the Brothers try to deal with her.

While Lucy confronts Sam, Max comes in and finds David's body in the taxidermy room, unaware that Michael and Star are watching him from the dark. He walks back into the living room, where he meets Lucy and the boys, and gradually reveals that he is the head vampire, as well as what his motives were. He then drops his human facade and tells Lucy that he still wants her. Michael emerges from the taxidermy room and rushes at Max, who shows how strong he is by grabbing him and throwing him up onto the second floor landing with little effort. Star then rushes at 

Max and tries to impale him with a spear, but Max easily grabs and throws her aside. The Frog Brothers don't fare much better when they also rush him, as they're quickly disarmed and thrown back as well. And when Sam tries to defend his mother, Max grabs and takes him hostage. He then forces Lucy to submit to him in order to free her son, which she feels she has no choice but to do. But just as he's about to bite her neck, they hear the sound of Grandpa's truck horn outside, before the vehicle comes crashing through 

the wall. Sam and Lucy dive out of the way, while Michael, having regained consciousness, jumps down and shoves Max towards the truck. In the process, one of the fence posts on its hood gets flung right at Max and spears him through the chest. The force of it sends him hurtling backwards, into the fireplace, where he literally explodes in a huge fireball. And once he's dead, Michael, Star, and Laddie find themselves restored to normal, Lucy hugs her two boys, and the movie promptly wraps up and ends with Grandpa's final line.

While he's a great composer for sure, Thomas Newman's score for The Lost Boys isn't one of its strongest aspects. One of the problems is that it's overshadowed by the songs on the soundtrack, which leave a much bigger impression, but another problem is that the songs are used so frequently in the movie that the actual score doesn't have much of an opportunity to express itself. There are some notable pieces, like this strange, high-pitched sound that you often hear which alludes to the presence of the vampires, the spooky atmospheric music you hear during the montage of the dark, quiet carnival during the opening, as well as in the lead up to the vampires heading out to exact their revenge, and some of the faster-paced music during the third act and climax, but overall, it's got nothing on the songs.

The first song you hear is People Are Strange, a cover of The Doors song by Echo and The Bunnymen, and like I said, it fits perfectly with the bizarre montage of Santa Carla that you see during the opening credits (you also hear a reprise during the first part of the ending credits). I Still Believe, performed by Tim Cappello during the scene at the boardwalk, is another cover, this time of a song by The Call, and it absolutely rocks, even though you only hear a little bit of it. Ain't Got No Home by Clarence "Frogman" Henry just makes me smirk, mainly because I always think of Sam singing to it in the bathtub, while Run DMC's cover of Walk This Way by Aerosmith plays during the massacre at the bonfire, and while I didn't even realize there was a song playing under that the first time, I've since learned that Joel Schumacher was gutsy enough to actually put the scene in rhythm to ir before they'd even scored the rights. And while it is a good song in and of itself, and closes out the ending credits nicely, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me by Roger Daltrey is another one I can't listen to without at least smirking. The reason is because the first time I heard it is when, on YouTube, I once decided to watch some failed American Idol just for a laugh, and I distinctly remember this guy from Kosovo named Roland absolutely torturing this poor song, to the point where Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson could not keep themselves from laughing. Again, the actual song is really good, but that botched rendition tends to live rent free in my head, unfortunately.

There are two songs in particular that I think are most associated with The Lost Boys. One is Lost in the Shadows by Lou Gramm, which I'm sure I'd heard before I saw the movie, as it sounded familiar. Doesn't matter, though, as that is my favorite song on the soundtrack, as it has such a cool yet dark and even kind of nightmarish vibe to it, nicely capturing the idea of being a vampire. And then, of course, there's Cry Little Sister by Gerard McMann, which you must hear at least four times: briefly during the opening, when Michael drinks and is indoctrinated, when he and Star prepare to sleep together, and when David dies after being impaled. It's not a bad song at all, but it's one I've severely overdosed on, since it's the only song from the soundtrack that's also played in both of the sequels (and yeah, those are coming in the next couple of days).

The Lost Boys isn't a beloved 80's cult classic for no reason, as there is a whole lot here to recommend, from a cast of very memorable and well-played characters, to some great, stylish direction and editing, beautifully-shot cinematography, and great location work and set design; from some memorable vampire makeups and effects work, to a soundtrack filled with great songs; and finally, a well-told story that has fun with its subject matter, honors some old vampire traditions while coming up with some new ones, and embraces its 80's-ness in an almost effortlessly cool manner. There are some issues here and there, like the half-vampire concept coming off as hackneyed, and the music score not measuring up to the soundtrack, but on the whole, this is a very entertaining and well-made flick. Siskel and Ebert may have accused it of being all style and no substance, but for my money, it has plenty of both.