Movies That Suck/Franchises: The Lost Boys. Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008)

Even though I didn't actually see The Lost Boys for a long time, I did know it was such a beloved movie that there had been various attempts to get a sequel made in the years since its release. This topic often got brought up in any special or documentary I saw which made mention of the movie, particularly any I saw about the lives and careers of Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. In fact, I remember watching one particular special about both of them on Biography Channel which showed a clip from their reality show, The Two Coreys, where Haim became upset and started crying when Feldman told him that Lost Boys 2 was being made... but without either of them. Now, of course, things ending up changing considerably, as both of them did end up being in it (though in very different capacities), but I think that was when I first knew that a Lost Boys sequel was being made, albeit direct-to-video. Also at that time, I was regularly watching a YouTuber who attended Comic Con in the summer of 2008, where Feldman was there promoting the movie. I remember seeing footage of Feldman at a panel, wearing his bandana, and the guy who did the video later appeared on-camera wearing one that was a tie-in for the movie (I wonder how much that thing is worth now?). I don't remember if he ever talked about the movie itself or what he thought of it, but I actually don't think it was until some time after it was released that I heard the long-awaited Lost Boys sequel had turned out to be a bust. Regardless, I didn't care, since I hadn't even seen the original yet, and I wouldn't until 2021, when Newt sent me the Blu-Ray. However, what I neglected to mention yesterday was that he actually sent me a triple feature set with the original and the two sequels. He could've just gotten me the original on Blu-Ray and left it at that, but because he's both a cheapskate and a dick, he got this set because it cost three dollars less. So, now I had no reason not to watch the crappy sequels, as well as the original, to which he always says, "You didn't have to watch them," or, "I didn't make you watch them," which always makes me want to punch him in his stupid borderline skinhead, ratty goatee-sporting face. Bottom line, don't become friends with Newt Cox, aka Double T, as he's known on Blogspot, as all he'll do is torture and annoy you to no end.

What's especially annoying is that this set proved to be a case of "you get what you pay for," as the disc for The Tribe had a glitch in it where the movie froze and skipped ahead a few minutes. It didn't cause me to miss too much, but still, yet another reason why being a cheapskate doesn't always pay off. So, in any case, was Lost Boys: The Tribe as bad as everyone made it out to be? Yeah, pretty much. I actually hemmed and hawed about whether to give this the Movies That Suck tag since, rather than being in the running for one of the absolute worst sequels ever, it's mainly just mediocre. I don't find it as insufferable as stuff like Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Seed of Chucky, or Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. But, when I thought about what this is a sequel to, and just how much of a dip in quality it is, I decided it did deserve it. This thing really encompasses every reason why people hate direct-to-video sequels: it's a cheap, low-effort piece of junk that looks like shit, has a cast of characters who, for the most part, you just don't care about and are poorly acted by a bunch of nobodies, way too many obnoxious callbacks to the original, horrendous digital work, a climax that's not climactic in the slightest, and, at its core, is an uninspired rehash of the first, with none of its style or its surprisingly innocent vibe. Feldman is still good as Edgar Frog, though he has little to do, even during the climax, there are a scant few well done moments here, and as excessive as they are, there are plenty of well done gory makeup effects, but that doesn't come close to making up for what an uninspired misfire this is.

One summer night in Luna Bay, California, four surfers sneak onto the private property of David Van Elten from Santa Carla in order to surf on the stretch of ocean by his house. After they've had their fun, they're confronted by Van Elten, who turns out to be a vampire. Unfortunately for him, the surfers are also vampires, and they manage to overwhelm and massacre him. Meanwhile, Chris Emerson, a disgraced former surfing pro, moves to Luna Bay with his younger sister, Nicole. They move into a guesthouse owned by their aunt, Jillian, and are shocked when she says she's going to charge them rent. While in town, Nicole meets an awkward guy named Evan Monroe, while Chris searches for work as a surfboard shaper. He's referred to Edgar Frog, but when he and Nicole drive out to his isolated, rundown trailer, Edgar doesn't seem to be home. Still, Chris leaves his address on a piece of paper. After they return to their new home and fix it up as best as they can, Chris, while sitting out on a dock, looking at the ocean, is met by Shane Powers, another former pro surfer who suddenly disappeared when he seemingly had it all. Shane tells Chris that he took an opportunity to "change" his life and invites him to a party at his house that night. Initially unsure, and definitely not wanting Nicole to go, they both opt to attend rather than suffer through movie night with Aunt Jillian. At the party, Chris runs into Jon, a surfer whom he injured during a competition and which led to his ejection from the surfing circuit. Though there's still major animosity there, Chris does later manage to get lucky with a woman named Lisa in the shower. Meanwhile, Nicole meets Shane, who talks with her in private and manages to charm her, as well as get her to drink from his flask. The two of them take a motorcycle ride together, which doesn't sit well with Chris when he realizes what happened. When they return, he slugs Shane in the face and forces Nicole to leave with him. On the way home, she becomes ill, and when they get back to the guest house, she attacks Chris with superhuman strength. But before she can kill him, she's knocked out by Edgar Frog, who introduces himself to Chris as a vampire hunter. He then tries to stake Nicole, but Chris throws him out, thinking he's crazy. But when Lisa shows up afterward to continue her sexual escapades with Chris, only to turn into a vampire and disintegrate after he accidentally impales her on some antlers, he realizes that Edgar may not be so nuts after all. Now, they must work together in order to find Shane's true lair and kill him before Nicole claims her first victim and damns her soul.

In the special features for the original Lost Boys, Joel Schumacher and some of the cast talk about the then ongoing struggle to do a sequel, with Schumacher mentioning a gender-flipped sequel called The Lost Girls. Corey Feldman also mentions that, as well as a potential sequel that would've followed the Frog Brothers in their ongoing vampire-slaying adventures, with them now working in Washington, D.C. and killing some "political vampires." Richard Donner mentions that as well, and says that they did toy with it for a while. (On a personal note, I don't know why they didn't do that, as it sounds like the best possible direction to go in.) Another potential idea I've heard of was a prequel showing how David first became a vampire, as well as just a full on remake. Regardless, when you watch that feature, you can tell that Schumacher, in particular, isn't enthused about the idea of a traditional type of sequel, saying, "The thing is, the Lost Boys are dead. And, also, the Coreys got to be men. So, it would have to be a new invention." Thus, it's not surprising that he had no involvement with either of the sequels that were made, and made his objections about The Tribe very clear in the lead-up to its release. It's especially disconcerting to know that, in the end, this was a screenplay that started out as something else but got reconfigured into a Lost Boys sequel. It was originally a script by Hans Rodionoff about surfing werewolves and simply called The Tribe, but was initially rejected by Warner Bros., mostly because they felt it was too similar to The Lost Boys. But then, the studio decided to just swap the werewolves out with vampires, as well as add in Edgar Frog, and make it an official Lost Boys movie.

The film's director, P.J. Pesce, is certainly no stranger to low budget, direct-to-video sequels, or those dealing with vampires, as he'd previously directed From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter. (I know I've seen that, but it was only once and was years ago at this point, so I have no memory of it whatsoever. However, I do remember kind of liking it more than the second one, although whether or not that would remain the case upon a rewatch remains to be seen.) He also directed Sniper 3 in 2004, which is one part of a shockingly extensive franchise, and Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball in 2010. So far, that's been Pesce's final actual film, but he's kept himself busy by doing a lot of television, which he's also been doing since basically the start of his career. Among many others, he's directed episodes of shows like Fringe, Leverage, American Gothic, Blue Bloods, Supernatural, Code Black, and Creepshow.

Right away, we have a big problem here, as your two leads, Chris (Tad Hilgenbrink) and Nicole Emerson (Autumn Reeser), are a pair of really bland, by-the-numbers characters. Exactly how they're related to Michael, Sam, and Lucy is never specified, but like the family in the first movie, they've been through a rough patch in their life that's led them to make a big move. They lost their parents in a car accident several years earlier, and the strain and anguish eventually proved too much for Chris, who attempted to win a surfing competition by badly injuring his competitor. Once he was kicked off the circuit, they lost everything, forcing them to move to Luna Bay and into their Aunt Jillian's guesthouse. Like in the first movie, neither of them are thrilled about this, especially Nicole, and they're shocked when the guesthouse turns out to be a complete mess and Jillian intends to charge them rent. And while they're in town, Nicole finds herself being hit on by a nice but awkward guy named Evan, while Chris is reminded of the mistake he made by a well-meaning fan. Looking for work as a surfboard shaper, he's told of Edgar Frog, whom he finds lives by himself in a crappy trailer out in the middle of nowhere. Regardless, he's desperate enough for work that he leaves his home address there so Edgar can contact him. Shortly afterward, Chris happens to meet Shane Powers, another pro surfer whom he admired when he was younger. Despite this, he gets weird vibes off of him, and is initially reluctant to attend the surf party he throws at his luxurious home. He's especially leery of taking Nicole there, as his big brother instincts have kicked in, though Nicole herself is eager for a night out. It's only when the alternative turns out to be movie night with Aunt Jillian that they both go to the party. There, Chris runs into another reminder of his past mistakes, namely the very guy he disabled, and comes close to getting into a fight with him. But, on the upside, he does get some hot shower sex with a really good-looking woman named Lisa. Nicole, meanwhile, meets and is taken with Shane, drinking a certain, unnamed liquid that he offers her, and then taking her for a ride on his motorcycle. Chris is especially enraged when he learns of this and, after slugging Shane, forces Nicole to leave with him, much to her anger.

Not only are Chris and Nicole unremarkable characters, but they also have some unlikable and annoying personality traits. Chris comes off as a hothead and a bit of a dick, sometimes seeming like he worries about Nicole not because of any real affection but because he's just controlling and, as he tells her, sees her as his responsibility. Moreover, he doesn't seem that sorry for having injured a guy in order to win a competition, and you eventually learn he shattered his knee. Now, granted, when he and 

Nicole run into the guy, Jon, at Shane's party, he's a total asshole, as he not only talks shit to Chris with no provocation but acts really sleazy towards Nicole. But never does Chris try to apologize or seem to understand that Jon kind of has a right to be pissed at him. As for Nicole, she just comes off as whiny and petulant towards Chris, and doesn't understand why he wouldn't be too big on going to a party at a total stranger's house, or why he's not happy when she just takes off with Shane. And it doesn't get any better 

when the vampire side of things comes into play. First, Chris doesn't find it a little strange when Nicole's eyes suddenly go black, she talks in a demonic voice, and is able to pick him up by the throat with one hand. Yeah, Edgar Frog then suddenly showing up, declaring himself a vampire hunter, and attempting to stake Nicole would likely make anyone start swinging, but given what Nicole just did, I think I'd want to at least hear what the guy has to say. And then, when Lisa shows up at the guesthouse, Chris is initially horny enough to where he lets her in and 

starts making out with her. It's not until she goes full vamp and he accidentally impales her on some deer antlers on the wall that he now starts to realize that vampires do exist. From then on, he starts working with and listening to Edgar in order to save Nicole by killing the head vampire, while Nicole is drawn to the vampires' nest and sleeps with Shane. Ultimately, in order to find the nest, Chris decides to pretend to join them, to the point of even drinking some of Shane's blood and becoming a half-vampire. Like Michael in the original, Chris manages to resist the pull of his 

hunger for blood and finds out where the nest is, bringing Edgar there. At the same time, Nicole is also unwilling to take the final step to become a full vampire, especially when Shane threatens to kill her brother, but I'm unable to care. Plus, it comes off like she only refused because Shane tried to make her feed on Evan, someone that she knew, and that he was going to kill her brother, and might've been up for it had it involved some total strangers.

Aunt Jillian (Gabrielle Rose) is meant to be this movie's answer to Grandpa in the original, but there's no comparison. Grandpa was weird but, in the end, cool, whereas Jillian is both annoying and a bitch. Grandpa's home may not have been to Michael and Sam's liking, but at least it was a fairly nice place and he allowed them to stay there for free; Jillian, on the other hand, puts Chris and Nicole is a crappy guesthouse full of junk, with a backyard that doesn't look much better, and where an old vagrant and a little delinquent kid are seen hanging around, and then charges them $650 a month. When Chris and Nicole are shocked at this, she says, "I know, I know, I could be getting at least $800, but... what am I gonna do? Charge you guys full price? You're family!" Fortunately, she doesn't have a lot of screentime, so you don't have to put up with her too much, but late in the movie, she not only has the gall to complain when Chris' check bounces and demands a new security deposit, but to criticize his and Nicole's lifestyles. It's not because she's concerned for them but because she's afraid it'll harm her professional reputation. And while she repeatedly says she's not trying to be their mother, she sure as hell comes off like it. Like Grandpa, she's the focus of the movie's final scene, where, after they've managed to kill the vampires, Chris and Nicole return to their house and are unwinding with some beers, when she comes in to chastise them about how she believes they're doing drugs.

Like me, you probably expect Evan Monroe (Greyston Holt) to be somehow mixed up with the vampires, perhaps turning out to also be a half-vampire, since he's able to walk around in the daylight. When he meets Nicole outside the surf shop while Chris is looking for a job, he's immediately awkward and unintentionally off-putting towards her. First, he asks Nicole the time, even though he's wearing a watch, and says he's sure it's broken when she points it out. Second, he asks, "So, what are you doing here alone?", then compounds the error by trying to act self-aware and say, "That sounded kinda creepy, didn't it?" Third, he makes things even worse by saying, "The reason I ask is just 'cause it's not really that safe around here for girls to be alone, you know?" And, again, he realizes he said something creepy. Fourth, to prove he still can't stop putting his foot in his mouth, he says, "It's just, for whatever reason, this town manages to attract a lot of freaks and weirdos. Not that I'm a freak, or a weirdo." He decides to stop talking, but still writes down his name and number for her, which she notes is pretty unsettling in and of itself. Evan is later seen at Shane's party, seeming to confirm those initial suspicions you may have, but when he tries to talk to Nicole, Shane's gang threatens him to stay away so that Shane can move in on her himself. It turns out that Nicole having his number nearly gets Evan killed, as when she starts feeling her craving for blood, she lures him over to the guesthouse, intending to seduce and feed on him. Chris' intervention is what saves Evan, although he's promptly tossed out without his shirt (Chris is good enough to give it back to him). And after leaving, he gets chased and captured by Shane's gang. But instead of killing him, Shane later tries to make him Nicole's first victim near the end of the movie, though she refuses. And at the end, after the vampires have been destroyed and everyone's safe, Evan asks Nicole if he can call her. Even though she says yes, he doesn't recognize that she's not in the state of mind to give him an honest answer.

Corey Feldman has claimed that he was initially reluctant about appearing in a Lost Boys sequel, and that does seem to line up with what he told Corey Haim in that clip from The Two Coreys, where he said they asked him to just appear in a cameo. He also said that he told them he wouldn't do it without Haim, which we'll get to, but once they rewrote the script to give Edgar Frog more of a role, Feldman agreed to be in it, despite having described it to Haim as "crappy." Given how untrustworthy and manipulative Feldman has since proven to be, I'm not sure how much of that I believe, but, regardless, I will say that he is the best thing about both this and the third film. Even though he doesn't have nearly as much screentime here as I think he should, he does clearly still know the character of Edgar Frog inside and out. Edgar's life here seems to be quite lousy. He's not only moved away from Santa Carla and the comic book shop, as his parents are presumably dead, but we learn that he lost a "sibling" to the vampires. We can assume he's talking about Alan, something that would've been corroborated in one of the two alternate endings, and which would be expanded upon in The Thirst. He now lives as a recluse in a small, crappy trailer in an isolated spot near a bridge, working as a surfboard shaper while also continuing with his vampire hunting. He makes his first appearance around 32 minutes in, when he saves Chris from Nicole when she first begins to turn. Though we know how he was able to find where they lived, as Chris left his address at his trailer, how Edgar knew what was happening is anyone's guess. Regardless, though Chris initially throws him out when he tries to stake Nicole, thinking he's crazy, he comes to Edgar's trailer the next day to make sense of what happened with Lisa. After promising to kill Chris himself if he pulls that same kind of crap on him again, Edgar explains how vampires work, how Nicole is only a half-vampire at the moment, and that he can still save her by killing the head vampire before she makes her first kill. Later, when Chris comes up with the idea to infiltrate Shane's inner-circle in order to find the vampire nest, Edgar tells him he needs to go all the way with this plan in order for it to work. But he also warns him that if he feels Chris has fully succumbed to the curse, he will stake him personally.

While it is sad that Alan isn't here, Edgar's presence more than makes up for it (let's face it, he was the more memorable of the two). And again, say what you will about him as a person, but Feldman proves he still has it while playing Edgar, from the attitude and the voice, to how dorky he sometimes is, despite how much he tries to come off as tough, and his dialogue. The way he formally introduces himself to Chris as, "Edgar Frog, surfboard shaper and vampire hunter," feels really in character, as it does 

when he tells him the next day, "Let's get something straight: I let you get away with that shit the first time because I understand what it's like to lose a family member to the other side. If that happens again, you're gonna end up on the wrong side of the stake." Other memorable lines include, "Your sister's become a member of the undead, a night-stalker, a bloodsucker, Nosferatu. Your sister's a suck monkey," "Define 'crazy shit,'" "Hey! A lot of valuable information can be gained by reading comic books," 

"Do you smell that? It smells like death and fungus. It's vampire BO," "Build a man a fire, he's warm for a day. Light a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life," and, "I hate fuckin' vampires." (That last one wasn't great, and feels like a trailer shot, but Feldman delivers it well.) One moment you're also not likely to forget is when he mixes up and drinks a concoction he calls "frog juice": garlic, holy water, and raw eggs, much to Chris' disgust. Speaking of which, Edgar also has a fun enough back and forth with Chris, such as how he doesn't like it when Chris calls him Eddie, 

and how Chris' personality completely clashes with him. Edgar even gets some action hero style one-liners, such as when he shows up with two cross-shaped stakes and yells at two vampires, "Hey! Who ordered the stake?!" During the climax, while walking through the lair, he says to himself, "I smell ugly," and when he's faced with a vampire, adds, "Yep, it's ugly." And after he manages to blow the vamp's head up with a water balloon filled with holy water: "Pop goes the weasel." Finally, while it doesn't amount to much of anything in the long run, there are some 

nice, quiet moments with the character, like when Chris says he has to save Nicole because she's family and Edgar says he hit a soft spot. In that brief moment, you can tell that losing his brother to the vampires really has affected Edgar.

In the years since the original, Edgar has definitely honed his vampire-slaying skills, as well as taken the notion of water pistols filled with holy water to the next level. Not only does he pack several types of stakes to use on vamps, from wooden to metal, and even some made from carbon fibers, but they're often in the shape of a cross for good measure. He has a grenade-launcher that shoots water balloons filled with holy water, which he's able to create himself 

because, as he tells Chris, he's an officially ordained minister... at least, according to the International Association of Online Ministers. And he's also come up with some bolas of garlic cloves (even though he learned in the original movie that garlic doesn't actually work). Unfortunately, for as interesting as some of these weapons are, and Edgar does get to make use of all of them at least once, his role in the action is very minimal. In fact, aside from when he saves Chris from the vampires before the climax, and one moments during the climax itself, he doesn't get 

to do much of anything. Granted, in the original, the Frog Brothers' presence was scattered throughout it, and they themselves only took down one vampire during the climax (and they didn't even do the majority of it), but if you were going to do a sequel and go through the trouble of getting Feldman to reprise the role, you'd think they'd want to give him a bigger role in the story or, at the very least, let him have more to do in the climax.

I can understand if they didn't want to revive the character of David, likely because they knew Kiefer Sutherland wouldn't come anywhere near this (though, I've heard the reason why he didn't a violent death like the other vampires is so he could be brought back in a potential sequel), and also because recasting the role likely wouldn't have gone over well with the fans. So, what did they do instead? Created another character who's a leader of a vampire gang and got another of Donald Sutherland's sons, Angus, to play him. And the idea completely fell on its face. Shane Powers is just a milquetoast rehash of David, right down to his attempting to seduce one of a pair of Emerson siblings into joining his inner-circle by having them unknowingly drink some of his blood. This time, instead of a biker gang, they're surfers, and it's also now the traditional male vampire/female human dynamic. We also get some backstory with Shane that we never got with David, in that he was once a pro-surfer whom Chris idolized when he was younger, but suddenly disappeared at the height of his success. Ironically, unlike with David, we never get an idea of exactly how and when Shane became a vampire, as all he says is, "I had a chance to change my life and I took it. You know, carpe diem." And it seems like his main motivation behind inviting Chris to his surf party is to offer him same the same opportunity, which he later says he did for those in his inner-circle. Specifically, he offers to alleviate him of the fear of death. Also, when Nicole accompanies Chris to the party, Shane becomes fixated on her and attempts to make her his, as well as use her to make Chris more eager to join them. At least, I think that's what goes on; truth be told, Shane's motivations are rather muddled. But that's the least of the character's problems.

It doesn't surprise me that Angus Sutherland got out of acting shortly after this, as he has none of his father or half-brother's talent. His voice is almost always monotone, and it sounds like he's trying to put on a stereotypical surfer dude type of accent, which doesn't help his case, as he often sounds stoned. Also, to say he has no charisma at all kind of goes without saying, and it makes it hard to believe that anybody would find Shane to be inspiring, somebody they would want to follow, or just plain old attractive. Even

though Star was more David's trophy than his lover, you could still easily see women falling for him, but Shane? A woman would have to be under a vampire's hypnotic control to want to be with him. Getting back to his motivations, Shane tells Chris during their final battle, "I've been waiting to meet someone like you for quite some time, Chris. Someone who would push the boundaries, someone who would challenge me. I saw that in you." I couldn't tell you how he saw that in Chris, except for maybe his willingness to shatter Jon's knee to win the surfing competition, or why

Shane was even interested in finding that kind of person at all. Either way, he tries one more time to get Chris to join them, saying that feeding on human blood and taking in their life essence is the ultimate rush. And when Chris literally spits in his face, Shane decides to just kill him. He also attempts to do the same to Nicole when she stops him from killing Chris, which gives Chris the opportunity to take him out. Finally, you probably won't be surprised to learn that Shane is never scary or threatening in the least. And while the final battle between Michael and David was a bit short, at least David put up more of a fight; Shane, however, goes out really easily after just throwing Chris around for a bit.

Out of Shane's inner-circle, the one with the most substance to him is Jon (Kyle Cassie), mainly because of the history between him and Chris, as he's the one who got Tonya Hardinged so Chris could win the surfing competition. Thus, he, understandably, isn't thrilled when he first sees Chris at the surf party, but also proves to just be a crude, foul-mouthed sleazebag. Yet, despite this animosity, he's the one who brings Chris to meet up with Shane and the others when Shane opts to give him a chance to join them, and he does subtly try to encourage Chris to accept it. But, when Chris refuses to take part in their feeding on some girls whom they party with down by the beach, Jon gets fed up and attempts to put him out of his misery. That's when Chris accidentally impales him with a stick in self-defense.

The other two, Kyle (Shaun Sipos) and Erik (Merwin Mondesir), have little to them, apart from their vague backstories. According to Shane, Kyle's family thought he was suicidal, but Shane realized he was simply an adrenaline junkie, while Erik apparently was a murderer. One memorable moment involving Kyle is at the party, when Jon and Erik mess with him by stabbing him in the gut until his innards spill out, much to the partygoers' horror. Kyle, however, is simply irritated because the wound stings and also

since they pretty much ruined his chances of getting laid, as well as his new shirt. He later gets back at Erik in the nest by impaling him on the couch and filming it while mocking him, just as they did to him. Other than that, Kyle is characterized by this nutty laugh he tends to let out, while Erik is just this big, bald guy from the Caribbean who has a thick accent and also sometimes talks in his native language; either way, I often can't understand a word he says. He's the one who tends to have a habit of filming things, such as hot women, as well as the 

aftermaths of their killing sprees. Another vampire among the partygoers is Lisa (Moneca Delain), this really hot girl who has eyes for Chris. When he finally talks to her after she's been seductively dancing near a fire pit, she admits that she knows who he is, saying she follows surfers, then adds, "And sometimes, they follow me." Chris does just that and ends up in the shower with her, but his attempted shagging gets interrupted when he hears screaming outside due to Kyle getting stabbed, and when he learns that Nicole took off with Shane. Later that night, she shows up at Chris and Nicole's home in order finish what they started, but when they make out in the kitchen, things get rough as Lisa lets her vampire side out and tries to feed on Chris. In the struggle, he unintentionally impales her on some deer antlers on the wall, managing to kill her by piercing her heart.

One of the only "innovations"with the vampires' depiction here, if you can call it that, is that they're surfers, which is dumb, to say the least (not that surfing werewolves would've been any better), and when they're not surfing, they're either riding on motorbikes, skateboarding, or playing video games in their lair. Not that I wouldn't do the latter to pass the time if I were a vampire, but I couldn't think of any way to make them lamer. And speaking of lame, the first part of their initiation process for Chris is for 

him to accompany them to the police department, where they piss these two cops off, then have them chase them until they run into a barricade of crates, barrels, and oil drums that they've set up, then cause them to crash into each other. I thought they were going to go in the police station and slaughter everyone there, but I guess they're not quite that hardcore. Other than that, there's little here that you didn't see in the first movie, though Edgar says that tricking someone into drinking the head vampire's 

blood is a common ploy, and the vampires also mention that, while they don't have built-in night vision, they do see things differently than normal humans. There are also some classic touches here, such as when Jon emerges from a large cloud of mist, which makes me think of the 1979 movie of Dracula; Shane having enough sway over Nicole once she's been infected with vampirism to mentally call her to him, as seen in many classic vampire stories; and also how beheading a vampire is now as good as staking one. But, they also contradict some previously 

established tropes, such as Nicole having absolutely no reflection in a mirror, despite being only a half-vampire, and, as mentioned, Edgar attempting to weaponize garlic, even though Paul said in the original that garlic doesn't work. And even though crosses are often used, they don't seem to work at all (not that they did in the original, either).

There are also some moments where the vampires exhibit what appears to be a sort of telekinesis. When Jon and Kyle chase Evan through this boathouse, he hides momentarily, only for Kyle to find him, and seemingly grab and drag him by his ankles. But, in the shot that follows Kyle reaching around a corner, grabbing Evan, and ripping him back the other way, you see him getting dragged across the floor by nothing. At first, I thought this was going to be revealed to be a reflection in a mirror, explaining 

why you can't see what's dragging him, but then, Jon and Kyle are seen walking after him, suggesting they're creating some invisible force that has a hold of him and is dragging him out. I'm still not exactly sure what happened there, and it's not an ability the vampires use again, save for maybe when some overhead lights in the tunnels explode, but I guess there's one other innovation the movie came up with.

The vampire makeups are much more overly monstrous than they were in the original, with more pronounced foreheads, cheekbones, and nostrils (they kind of remind me of the creatures in Sleepwalkers), but unfortunately, it doesn't hold up well in certain types of lighting, and they also often shoot them too bright and too close to the camera. They also have mouths that are completely full of sharp teeth rather than just a pair of fangs (though, the half-vampires have the latter when they partially change), and 

completely black eyes as opposed to the original yellow ones (Shane does have those in one shot). And God, it feels like I've said this way too many times by this point, but it's the only way I can explain it: when in full vampire mode, these guys feel like the vamps from 30 Days of Night, right down to their screeching and ferocious, animalistic feeding habits.

In the special features for the original movie, Corey Haim said that, when someone asked him when Lost Boys 2 was going to happen, his answer was, "Well, I hope, never! I don't want them to ruin Lost Boys 1, you know? For certain, we should not have a sequel." Well, that attitude clearly changed between his reaction to hearing it was being made and he was never contacted, to when it was shot and he appears briefly in a mid-credits scene, where Edgar is confronted by a now vampiric Sam Emerson. Their dialogue only hints at what might've happened between the original and now: "After all the shit that you pulled, I think you can at least hear me out. I mean, I feel like you owe me that." "You really expect me to act like nothing ever happened?" "No, I've already forgiven you. It's water under the bridge." They then rush at each other and the movie truly ends. It's so obvious that this was a last minute addition and they decided they would just fill in the gaps as to what happened with Sam in a later movie, if they ever got to make one. On that note, I will say that, as bad as this movie was, it is a shame that we couldn't have had a proper return and wrap-up for Sam, and that this also ended up being one of Haim's last movies before he died a couple of years later. And also, while he is still credited, Jamison Newlander only appeared as Alan in the alternate endings, which also featured Sam, both as a vampire and not.

And speaking of cameos, Tom Savini appears at the beginning as David Van Elten, a guy from Santa Carla whose property Shane and his friends sneak onto in order to surf the ocean near his house. He catches them on the beach, and when they tell him to get lost, saying that he doesn't own the ocean, he responds, "Is that a fact? Let me tell ya somethin': I own every drop of water between here and the lighthouse, as well as the sand and everything on it. Which I guess now, includes you." He then reveals himself to be a vampire, and it seems like the guys are in trouble, until they also turn out to be vampires and rip him to pieces.

Before I launch into the tirade about this that you already know is coming, I will say that I don't mind the look of the scene early on where Chris and Nicole are in town, as the former searches for a job, and the same goes for the scenes that take place at sunrise, like when Chris returns to the guesthouse after his initiation with the gang and the very end of the movie. The scene where Chris sits out on the dock, watching the ocean as the sun sets behind a shipyard in the background, is a particularly lovely, peaceful moment. And when Evan is chased by Jon and Kyle 

through the boathouse, there's a shot with some cool, greenish-blue light coming through the windows in the background. But, other than that, this movie is a prime example of that shot on digital look that I hate. The colors are so desaturated, with lots of silver and white in the picture, making it look as though it was put through the bleach bypass process. Not only do many of the daytime exterior scenes look ugly, but the nighttime ones have none of the coolness of the original, or any atmosphere whatsoever. Even worse, there are many shots where they digitally augmented

the sky, putting in clouds and a very fake-looking moon, the latter of which they sometimes put right there on the screen. Direction-wise, there's nothing that really stands out, save for one moment that I do find kind of interesting, when Chris, after being out with the gang that first night, returns to the guesthouse, lies down on his bed, and sleeps all day. This is done in one shot that starts with him falling back onto the mattress, then transitions into a time-lapse sequence as he tosses and turns in his sleep, as 

the lighting switches over to nighttime, with shadows passing over him, and when he awakens, he gets up off the bed in a rigid, somewhat Count Orlock style, with the camera continuing to look down at him, and the way he reacts suggests that he did it unconsciously. During this sequence, you also hear a voiceover of what Shane told him about how he and Nicole will never grow old or die, indicating that he's wrestling with the temptation. Not great, and there's 

still an obvious cheapness to it, but it still feels like there was some thought and effort put into it. Editing-wise, some of the attack and fight sequences are done in that fast-paced, kinetic manner that drives me insane. And the movie also tends to try to copy the original's stylistic, music video editing, right down to having songs playing over certain sequences, but it just falls flat and makes it come off like the cheap knockoff that it is.

You've also probably already guessed where the movie was filmed: Canada. According to its IMDB shooting locations page, some of it was shot in Malibu, but for the most part, it was done up in British Columbia. To give the filmmakers credit, the locations they picked to represent Luna Bay do look like the California coast, as there's often a beach or a waterfront nearby, and it feels like this is taking place during the humid, hot summer. But still, in the scenes that take place within the town itself, it comes off as nothing more than a cheap replacement for Santa

Carla, right down to the types of people you see roaming around. Another cheap stand-in is the guesthouse that Chris and Nicole move into, which is like a smaller, less interesting version of Grandpa's house. It's a complete dump on the inside when they first arrive, though they do manage to make it look more appealing after they get it cleaned up and everything situated, and the marshy spot with walkways just outside its front door are something that I kind of like the look of (maybe just because it 

reminds me of how much I love places like this in general, especially in places like Florida). However, the guesthouse is a lot better-looking than Edgar Frog's current home, which is a small, claustrophobic trailer in an isolated spot across from a large bridge crossing over a bay. Near the trailer itself is a shed where Edgar keeps his surfboards locked up, with cloves of garlic hanging on the door (are surfing vampires are a common problem for him?), and some funny "Keep Out" signs leading towards the spot,

with one that reads, "YOU ARE NOT INVITED IN," and another that has a pair of fangs behind a "NO" symbol. And, going back to that small marshy spot, there's a boathouse there where Evan is briefly chased by the vampires, and it has something of an I Know What You Did Last Summer vibe to it that I kind of like.

Shane supposedly "lives" in a fancy, opulent home that's like a small mansion, with fancy architecture, a large pool area and deck where everybody is partying, a walk-in shower where Chris manages to score with Lisa (at least, initially), and a bedroom with some old paintings hanging on the wall. However, as Edgar rightly figures, this isn't the vampire nest but, rather, just an attractive place that they use to lure in potential victims. Their nest is down in these mining tunnels accessed near an old, abandoned factory or steel mill, which eventually lead to this big room that

feels more like a man-cave than a vampire's lair. Seriously, this place takes the notion from the original of the vampires finding an abandoned place and making it their own to ridiculous extremes, with a spot that has several couches in front of a big, flat-screen TV, where Kyle and Erik are seen playing Call of Duty, a pinball machine in the corner there, what looks like a bar opposite this spot, as well as a rack for freaking katana swords, a pool table in the back, some neon lights and signs, a setup with electric 

guitars and amps where I guess they jam when they're not out looking for prey, and even a makeshift skating ramp, in addition to some old-fashioned torches and floor candelabras. And while the actual vampires in the original hung upside down like bats while sleeping, with the half-vampires sleeping on bedding, here, Shane, at least, rests in a draped, canopy bed in the back of the lair.

As we all know, the worst thing that a shitty sequel to a good movie can do is constantly remind you of that movie and, man, is Lost Boys: The Tribe guilty of that. For one, the story and most of the characters rehash what we saw there. We have a small family unit that's fallen on hard times, moves to a seaside community to live with an eccentric relative to try to get back on their feet, one of them gets mixed up with a group of locals who turn out to be vampires, and the other has to team up with one of the Frog Brothers in order to save them. And it's more than just an overall 

general thing, as we have individual scenes and even moments that hearken back to the original. The opening involves the gang killing someone who makes the mistake of messing with them; there's a montage during the credits that shows us what kind of place Luna Bay is, ending with Chris and Nicole arriving at their new home, and we later see another one focused on the people living there; the siblings are put off when they see the place where they're going to live; Nicole compares Edgar's home to something out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; 

she's infected with vampirism when she unknowingly drinks some of Shane's blood; Chris punches Shane in the face at one point; we see Nicole feeling the effects of becoming a vampire, which includes having to put on sunglasses before going out into the sun; she sleeps with Shane in a draped, canopy bed in the lair, in a montage set to a version of Cry Little Sister; Chris is put through a sort of initiation early on; he comes home the next day, only to be confronted by someone over his late hours; and the vampires attack 

and kill some people around a bonfire, something that Chris is unwilling to participate in. The last scene, or penultimate one, rather, is centered on a line from Aunt Jillian, just like Grandpa, only in this case, she's completely wrong about what's going on, despite an earlier moment where she seemed like she was beginning to suspect. And some of the references are so on the nose that they're just cringe-inducing, like a shot of a shirtless guy on the street playing a saxophone (a much less fit guy, I might add), Shane

telling Chris that he and Nicole will never grow old or die, and Edgar giving Chris almost word-for-word the same speech about how vampires go out. But the worst one, by far, is when Aunt Jillian says, "Partying all night, sleeping all day. You both need to quit acting like a couple of vampires." Can you spell, "Fuck you?"

While the humor that comes from Edgar's eccentric, dead serious personality is still on point, especially when he's paired with Chris, who's often just bewildered by him, the other attempts at humor aren't so hot. A truly groan-worthy one, in more ways than one, is early on, when Aunt Jillian comes in and, with no context, tells Chris and Nicole, "I have got The Goonies." Totally baffled by what she means, she proceeds to pull out a DVD of The Goonies that she rented, along with a bag of Dunkin' Donuts, and is shocked when she realizes they've never heard of that 

movie. Realizing that they could possibly get stuck spending the evening watching it with her, they instead opt to go to Shane's surf party. The humor that stems from Shane's cohorts messing with each other is little more than frat dude humor, sometimes taken to ghoulish extremes, like when Kyle gets stabbed in the middle of the party, as Jon and Erik film it, Erik filming Nicole's rear end at one point, and Kyle getting his revenge by skewing him onto the couch in the nest with a sword. Evan's initial interaction with 

Nicole outside the surf shop is that kind of awkward attempt at being self-aware that I almost never find funny. And when Nicole realizes, after attempting to seduce and feed on Evan, that she is a vampire, she sums up everything that Chris has told her: "You teamed up with a surfboard shaper/vampire hunter so you can kill this guy, who I'm totally crushing on, so you can save me from eternal damnation?", before freaking out and yelling, "I tried to eat that guy! Do you realize that?! Do you know what it's like for me to want to drink blood?! Do you know how disgusting that is? I'm a vegetarian."

Like I said in its review, The Lost Boys, despite being an R-rated horror flick, had a surprising kind of childlike innocence about it, with its lack of any strong language, nudity and sexuality, or graphic violence; that is not the case with Lost Boys: The Tribe. This is an extremely gory, profane, and sleazy movie, one where, according to IMDB, "fuck" is said 86 times within its 93 minutes, women are seen topless or, in Lisa's case, totally naked, there's vulgar humor (when Erik is skewered to the couch, Kyle comments that he's a "squirter" and makes suggestive

thrusts with his hips), and the violence and gore is absolutely extreme and brutal. In other words, it's much more in line with what you expect from a contemporary horror movie, but for me, it's another sign that the people behind this really missed the point of The Lost Boys or, more than likely, didn't have the time or money to really care.

I'll say this about the gore effects: as much as their grisliness may fly in the face of the spirit of the original movie, they are impressive. At the beginning, David Van Eltern gets utterly eviscerated, with his stomach ripped open and his innards pulled out (possibly an homage to that effect from Dawn of the Dead), followed by his head getting sawed off with a knife, before being carried around and punted like a football into the water. Then, at the party, Kyle is pranked when Erik repeatedly stabs and disembowels him, leading him to try to shove his intestines back 

into his gut. He later pays him back for this by stabbing and impaling him onto the couch in the lair with a sword. You also see quite a bit of blood after Chris decks Shane in the face (unlike David, who didn't bleed at all), as well as when Chris accidentally impales Lisa on the deer antlers on the wall when he pushes her off of him, with blood squirting out and running all over her body. There's a lot of carnage to be seen during the sequence around the bonfire at the beach, with necks getting ripped open and blood 

gushing everywhere, shots of the vampires roaring with blood all over their faces, and Jon getting impaled by a large stick and then seemingly vomiting up every inch of blood in his body, as well as some nasty-looking bodily fluid. And during the climax, Erik gets a drill through his torso, the vibrating of which basically shakes all of his blood and innards out of him, while his torso slumps over and his face lies against the drill; Kyle's head is exploded by a holy water balloon; and Shane gets impaled through the back and out the front, before Chris slices his head off from behind with a katana sword, with his headless body spurting gore all over Nicole, before it bursts into flames.

I wish I could say that those horrendous digital images of the night sky and moon were the extent of the crappy visual effects here, but that's sadly not the case. There is one decent morphing effect during the opening, where Jon's face transitions into his vampire form, but other than that, the digital effects here are really bad. In fact, the movie opens with one: a digital cliffside, as well as likely the environment beyond it. Some others include some digital whirring to simulate the effects of becoming a vampire that Nicole and Chris feel, and some awful fast-motion and blurring

for moments where the vampires move really quickly. (Thankfully, there are no bad vampire flying effects, though that's mainly because you don't see them sailing through the air except for a couple of times, such as during Chris' fight with Shane.) And while most of the other vampire effects are kept practical, there are some not-so-great looking CGI death moment, such as when Lisa turns to stone after being impaled and explodes, when Kyle's head gets blown up (there's also a quick shot of a digital water balloon heading right towards the camera), and when Shane's body bursts into flames after he's been beheaded.

The movie opens up with Shane and his group parking beside, then climbing and getting their surfboards over, a fence in front of David Van Eltern's property,  and proceeding to surf just offshore. However, this doesn't go unnoticed by Van Eltern himself, as he later watches from his mansion's balcony as the four of them talk and laugh on the beach after they've finished surfing. He then walks down to that stretch of beach and confronts them, and when they act indignant and say he doesn't own the

entire area, he tells them that they're very wrong about that. Though the other three do seem a bit concerned by that statement, Kyle takes his board and attempts to walk back to the car. But when he walks by Van Eltern, continuing to talk trash as he does, he gets shoved to the ground. Van Eltern then approaches the other three and sprouts his fangs. Though this does surprise them, and causes Kyle to jump back, the others' dialogue slowly but surely makes it clear that they're vampires as well. Then, as Shane watches, his cohorts transition into their vampire forms and attack 

Van Eltern. They manage to quickly and easily overwhelm him, pin him to the ground, and rip into his body, completely disemboweling him. As Shane calmly walks off with his board, he reminds them to decapitate Van Eltern, and Jon whips out a knife and does so. Once he's ripped the head off, Kyle runs by, grabs it, and then kicks it like a football into the shallows nearby. He immediately regrets that, as he hurts his foot, apparently from hitting the spine. He then hobbles over to Van Eltern's headless corpse and

kicks it, as Erik films it. (This scene, in all fairness, does make for something of a twist on the original's opening, and can also be an effective surprise since you're not likely to know that these trespassers are also vampires themselves.)

At Shane's surf party, while he and Nicole are out on his motorbike, and Chris is in the shower with Lisa, Jon and Erik decide to play a little prank on Kyle while he's talking with a bikini-clad woman. As Jon films it, Erik walks up to Kyle and repeatedly stabs him in the gut with his knife, causing his innards to spill out onto the ground, much to everyone else's horror. Chris hears the sound of everyone screaming in the shower, but Lisa manages to keep him in there, if only temporarily, while outside, Kyle complains

about how they just ruined his chance to get laid and chases them both around, trying to get the camera. Of course, all that does is incentivize them to annoy him even more. Chris manages to get away from Lisa, who proves very unwilling to let him go, and when Shane and Nicole return on the motorbike, Chris, being the protective big brother, basically drags his sister off of it. When he tries to pull her out the front gate, he punches Shane in the face when he doesn't like a comment he makes about Nicole being able to handle herself. Jon and Erik restrain him from attacking further, while Kyle holds Nicole back, but Shane orders that they be let go and they walk out, with Chris telling Shane to stay away from his sister.

On the ride home, in the midst of Chris giving her the third degree, Nicole begins to feel strange and tells him that there's something wrong with her. Chris writes it off as her just being drunk, but Nicole insists that's not it, and proceeds to vomit all over the floorboard. When they return home, Chris has to help her in, but keeps insisting that she's just drunk. Suddenly, Nicole swings around, her eyes turn completely black, she grabs him by the throat, lifts him up, and says, in an unnaturally deep voice, "I 

am not drunk! I'm sick!" Before she can do anything else, she's suddenly whacked in the back of the head and collapses to the floor. Chris is dropped to the floor as well, and then looks to see Edgar Frog standing over him. After he introduces himself, Edgar whips out a stake and attempts to pierce it through Nicole's heart, but Chris quickly stops him. He forces him back against the door, and slams his hand repeatedly against the wall until he drops the stake. Edgar tries to warn him of what's going, but Chris 

quickly throws him out the front door and slams it shut. In the next scene, after Chris has put Nicole to bed, he answers a knock at the door while wielding an aluminum baseball bat, thinking it's Edgar again. It turns out to actually be Lisa, who's interested in finishing what she and Chris got up to in the shower. Though Chris is initially reluctant to let her in due to Nicole, when Lisa removes her coat to reveal she's wearing nothing but a bikini underneath, his hormones get the better of him and he invites her into the house. Once she crosses the threshold, she 

basically pounces on Chris, clearing off the dining room table and attempting to mount him. Again, Chris realizes this isn't the best place or time to do this, but Lisa removes her top and the two of them start making out, with her sitting in Chris' lap while he sits them down on a chair. However, Lisa soon gets really rough, even animalistic, and starts to growl. Chris, having had enough, tries to get her off of him but, like before, she isn't willing to let go. He doesn't see it, but she bares her fangs and repeatedly tries to bite him, when he finally steps up and pushes her off. 

She ends up getting completely impaled on some deer antlers on the wall behind her, and convulses wildly while blood gushes out of the wound in her chest, all to Chris' horror. But then, when she stops struggling, she freezes in place, then turns to stone and explodes, with thousands of pieces flying everywhere.

After Chris meets with Edgar at his trailer and learns the ins and outs of vampires, Nicole is shown wandering back and forth inside the guesthouse, feeling the effects of her growing vampirism, namely the gnawing hunger. Desperate, she remembers that Evan Monroe gave her his number and calls him up. When he arrives, brandishing a bottle of wine, she immediately acts seductive and predatory towards him. She gets him down on a chair, kisses him, opens up his buttoned shirt, unzips his pants, and removes 

her own shirt, revealing a red bra. He then really gets into it and their making out becomes all the more intense, as she brandishes her own fangs. Before she can feed on him, Chris rushes in with a cross, stopping everything. He then forces Evan out the front door, giving him back his shirt, coat, and the bottle of wine. Evan walks off into the night, unaware that Jon is standing nearby. Following the scene where Chris makes Nicole realize what's going on, Evan finds himself being stalked by the vampires on the marsh's walkways. Running into one of them, he 

ducks into a boathouse and locks the door, only for it to rip open and reveal a huge cloud of mist, which Jon emerges from. Evan runs into the back of the building, past Kyle, who watches him and then joins in the pursuit. Evan hides in one isolated spot, behind a crate, then hears Kyle's maniacal laugh, before he suddenly lunges around the corner of the crate. He seems to grab Evan's feet and pull him around the corner, leading into the shot where he's pulled back through the building by an invisible force, as Kyle and Jon casually walk after him.

The next day, as Chris and Edgar try to figure out where the vampire nest may be, with Edgar telling Chris the types of places that vampires like to dwell in, there's a montage as we get our first look at the lair, with the camera traveling down the tunnels, through the main room, and finally ending on Shane as he lies in the draped, canopy bed. His eyes snap open and he whispers Nicole's name, which draws her to him from the guesthouse (before she walks out the door, she puts on a pair of dark sunglasses). As Chris and Edgar devise the plan for Chris to become part of

Shane's inner-circle in order to locate the nest, Nicole arrives at the plant and Shane leads her down into the depths of their lair. In the main room, they walk by Kyle and Erik as they play Call of Duty, and Erik becomes distracted by the sight of Nicole, using his video camera to film her backside. And while he's not looking, Kyle takes the opportunity to impale Erik with a sword, effectively sticking him to the couch. As Erik tries to get loose, Kyle mocks him by filming him as he struggles. Meanwhile, Shane and Nicole 

have sex in the draped bed (while not pornographic, it is more explicit than the one between Michael and Star, and is longer as well). Following that, Chris files a missing person report on Nicole at the police station, but becomes frustrated when the officers don't take it all that seriously. When he storms out, he finds Jon waiting for him in the parking lot, and he takes him to the nest, where Shane and Nicole, as well as the other two vampires, are waiting for him.

They then put Chris through their little initiation routine, with most of them riding their motorbikes to the police station, while Jon gets around on a skateboard being pulled by one, as does Chris. They stop in the station's parking lot, yelling at the two officers inside, while Jon rolls up to the front door, jumps and grabs onto the awning above it, and then yells, in a sing-song tone, "Warriors, come out to play!", while pounding on the window. That gets the cops' attention, as does the vampires riding around, popping wheelies, and doing donuts out in the 

parking lot. They pile into their cars and chase the gang down the road and into the shipyard. When they get to a spot in front of a warehouse, Jon grabs onto a rope hanging down from a crane and swings overhead, as one of the cars crashes into an oil drum. He then lands back on his skateboard and is pulled along by one of the other vampires. When the other police car comes along, the gang uses their bikes to jump over a barricade of crates, oil drums, and other objects, while the car crashes into it. Both of the cops 

still continue the chase, while Shane and Chris ride along a makeshift skate track of various sized crates and other junk (either this stuff was already there, or they set it all up beforehand). At the end of the track, Chris jumps down on his skateboard, right in front of one of the cops, causing him to crash through various obstacles, and then plow into his partner's side when he comes around in front of him. Carrying his skateboard, Chris runs along the tops of both cars and

lands down in front of them, rejoining the gang. He and Shane ride off, while the others mock the cops one last time, with Jon giving them a final, "Fuck you!", along with a middle finger, before they ride off into the night, back to the lair.

The following night, after Chris returns home and sleeps all day, he's awakened by headlights coming through his window and the sound of a car horn honking. Grabbing his surfboard, he walks out to a car, where Shane meets him. They drive off together, unaware that Aunt Jillian is watching through her window. On the way, Chris is told they're heading to a place called Devil's Reef, intending to surf out there. Shane, as well as Nicole, offer him the flask containing Shane's blood, and he actually chugs it. Like Nicole, he immediately feels its effects, and he's 

then told that there are some girls waiting for them at the beach. Following a transition that suggests they did go surfing, the guys are sitting around a bonfire with some nice-looking women. They fool around a bit, with Kyle prompting the women to do kinky stuff for their camera, when Shane and Nicole go back to the lair by themselves. Chris is told to stay there with the group, which he does, though he's wary of letting Nicole be alone with Shane. 

Shortly after they leave, the others decide to drop the facade. Jon is the first one to bring out his vampire side, and tears out the neck of the woman he's with. Kyle and Erik promptly follow suit, with Kyle chasing down the woman he was with, while Chris tries to assure the one with him that he's not like them. The others finish feeding on their victims, with Erik roaring in ecstasy, and Jon yells for Chris to do the same. But, while Chris' fangs come out, as he has the woman pinned down, he instead helps her up and runs off with her. Enraged at this, Jon, after licking

some blood off his victim's face, flies after them. He pins the woman to the ground, and though Chris tries to save her, he gets sent flying by a punch from Jon. Jon proceeds to bite into the woman's neck, and after letting out a satisfied roar, tells Chris that he made a serious mistake. Adding that Shane isn't around to save him this time, he goes after Chris, while Kyle and Erik show up to watch. Jon stomps towards Chris, trapping him against a tree, and repeatedly kicks him in the torso, while mocking him at the same time. But when Chris hits him back, elbowing him in

the face, Jon decides to finish him off and lunges for him, pins him against the tree, and screeches at him. However, Chris returns the screeching, and it's then revealed that he impaled Jon with a large stick. He gets out of the way, as Jon proceeds to vomit up all the blood in his body, as well as some bile and goo, before expiring. Chris then finds himself faced with Kyle and Erik, who note that he doesn't have a stake to fight them with. But then, suddenly, Edgar shows up, wielding two cross-shaped stakes, and this sends

the two vampires into retreat. Edgar asks Chris is he's still himself, and demands to see his teeth. Chris says that he's fine, but Edgar, again, demands to see his teeth. He quickly runs up to Edgar, grabs him, and tells him that he has a handle on himself, adding that they need to get to the nest and save Nicole. That's sufficient to convince Edgar that Chris hasn't succumbed to his vampirism yet.

The two of them arrive outside the factory in Edgar's company truck and, when they disembark, he says the vampires know they've arrived. (Some vaguely cross-shaped shadow can be seen on the side of the building, but I can't tell if it's supposed to mean anything.) The door leading down into the nest then opens by itself, confirming his suspicions. Meanwhile, Shane leads Nicole over to a coffin in the back of the bedroom and opens its front lid to reveal her intended victim: Evan, who's gagged, with his hands tied together. As Chris and Edgar head down

into the tunnels, unaware that they're being watched from the shadows by Kyle, Nicole finds herself reluctant to feed on Evan, who's begging for his life beneath the muffle. Shane, however, tells her that she has to in order to both obtain immortality and be with him. Elsewhere, Chris is grabbed from the side and taken down a tunnel by Erik, while Edgar, who was totally focused on his surroundings, thinks he just wandered off. Chris tries to stake Erik, but he's quickly disarmed and proves unable to actually fight him hand-to-hand, either. Erik then throws him, 

causing him to unintentionally hit and activate a drill in a stand nearby. Erik then pins Chris against the wall, and pushes his head towards the drill. Just when he's about to be skewered by it, he grabs a large rock and knocks Erik in the head with it, striking him to the ground. Erik then leaps back at Chris, who grabs the drill and swings it around towards him. Its end instantly stabs into his torso and out his back, and the force of the drill literally shakes the blood and innards out of him. He tries to free himself, but it's a lost 

cause, and his upper body slumps over and collapses onto the drill. Chris quickly gets out of there and heads further down into the lair, while in another tunnel, Edgar continues searching for him. He hears Kyle cackling up ahead, and when faced with him, throws his garlic bolas at him. He misses, but he promptly pulls out his grenade launcher and hits him in the head with a holy water balloon, causing his noggin to explode instantly.

Chris finds his way into the nest's main chamber and is quickly faced with Shane when he flies down to the floor. Chris lets his vampire side out completely and flies at Shane, managing to push him back and slam him into a pillar behind him. But when he goes to stake him, Shane catches his arm and disarms him. And while Chris does manages to deliver some blows to the face and gut in rapid succession, Shane swings him around and throws him into a set of shelves. Shane removes his coat, then walks over to Chris and picks him up off the floor. Nicole, also in vampire 

form, walks into the room and tries to get Chris to stop fighting Shane, saying she doesn't want to lose her brother. However, despite Shane also telling him that feeding on human blood is the ultimate high, Chris refuses, literally spitting in his face. Shane, in turn, grabs him, throws him through a table, then walks over and pummels him mercilessly. Nicole tries to stop him, but Shane shoves her aside, prompting her to grab the sword that Kyle played around with earlier and stick it all the way through his back and out his front. Shane is shocked at this, and turns 

around to face Nicole, who says she can't let him kill her family. Enraged, he grabs her shoulders and attempts to pull her towards him so she's impaled on the blade of the sword sticking out of his torso. Behind him, Chris gets up, grabs another sword from their collection, and decapitates Shane in one swing. His headless, blood-spurting body then bursts into flames as it collapses to the floor, while Nicole runs to Chris. The two of them are immediately cured of their vampirism, and Nicole proceeds to remove a 

jacket that Shane gave her and throw it onto the flames as well. Edgar walks into the room and then drives the two of them back home, along with Evan, who's in the back of the truck. Following that, the only other major scene is the mid-credits confrontation between Edgar and Sam when the latter suddenly shows up as a vampire. 

Like everything else, the music isn't close to even being in the same ballpark as the original. The score was composed by Nathan Barr, who's best known for scoring the entire series of True Blood, and has also scored horror movies like Cabin Fever, the first two Hostels, 2001 Maniacs, and The Last Exorcism, to name a few. He also previously worked with director P.J. Pesce when he did the music for From Dusk Till Dawn 3. Even though Thomas Newman's actual score for the original Lost Boys was overshadowed by its soundtrack, I could still remember parts of it, which I can hardly say at all about Barr's music for The Tribe. All that sticks in my head is some vaguely western-like guitar strumming you hear now and then, sometimes by itself and other times as part of a larger piece, some whispering and muttering voices you sometimes hear amid the music, and this kind of offbeat piece you hear during the time-lapse sequence of Chris in bed. But that's not to say that the soundtrack is any better, because it isn't. I actually don't mind Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast by Airbourne, which plays over the opening credits, and while I've certainly heard better covers, Aiden's rendition of Cry Little Sister, for the scene when Nicole and Shane get together, isn't too bad. But other songs, like Dizzy by Jackpot, which you hear when Nicole and Shane ride around on his motorcycle; Don't Speak (I Came To Make A Bang!) by Eagles of Death Metal, which plays during Chris' initiation; and especially Knuckles by The Hold Steady, during the ending credits, are all music I would be perfectly fine with never hearing again. According to the soundtrack listing, there are songs by Rob Zombie, Brother Cane, Bon Jovi, and Guns N' Roses in here as well, apparently edited, but I'll be damned if I know where they are.

If there's one truth that I'm confident just about everybody can agree on, it's that Lost Boys: The Tribe is a wretched and unworthy sequel to a beloved cult classic. It may benefit from Corey Feldman returning as Edgar Frog, and also has a few nice-looking shots, interesting moments, okay location work, and some graphic makeup effects, but everything else about it is absolute trash. None of the other characters are that interesting or even particularly well-acted, with Shane being a particularly lousy follow-up to David; Edgar doesn't have much to do, really, and the cameo by Corey Haim is a last minute thing that has no connection to the rest of the story and, for the worst reasons possible, didn't amount to anything in the long run; the movie often has that really unappealing, desaturated, shot on digital look to it, with none of the style or appeal of the original; there are a number of shots where the sky is clearly digitally augmented; the number of callbacks to the original is not only quite egregious, but some of them are so utterly blatant that it's nauseating; many of the attempts at humor don't work; there are a handful of bad visual effects, and the vampire makeups also don't hold up well to scrutiny; the climax is underwhelming, to say the least; the same goes for the music score and soundtrack; and the movie is, at its core, little more than a rehash of the original but with none of the charm or spirit. If you love the original but have never seen this, trust me when I say you're not missing anything.