The Lost Boys (1987)

Directed by Joel Schumacher [Other horror films: Flatliners (1990), Town Creek (2009)]

I’ve seen The Lost Boys twice now, and while it’s a moderately entertaining film, it’s never felt special to me. So many in the horror community love it, but when it comes to 80’s vampires, Fright Night is always my go-to.

The Lost Boys is still decent, and I’d probably rate it around average, but it’s not anymore than that for me. There’s only a few characters I really cared for, and some of the comedy just wasn’t my type of thing. I did dig most of the finale, along with the twist they threw in, but other story elements didn’t interest me that much (I can’t tell you how much I didn’t care about Star and her claiming she ‘warned’ Michael before he drank the blood, which is bullshit, as you can’t say something so ludicrous and just expect them to take your word for it, and count that as a warning).

Related, toward the end of the film, Sam and the Frog Brothers ride out to where Sam’s mother works, and Sam attempts to warn his mother about the vampires. It amazes me that neither of the Frog Brothers, nor Sam himself, would realize that he would be utterly unable to make a convincing argument about that, and it’s scenes where people try to convince others of something without good evidence that just drive me crazy. Sam was a decently smart kid, but he thought that would work? Give me a fucking break.

I liked the scenery and locations, especially the boardwalk (actually, more specifically, the comic book store – most of what I saw there seemed to be DC Comics, but I did see an issue of ROM, so that’s promising). It looked way too crowded and busy for me to ever actually want to go to a place like that, but it was definitely classic California imagery.

Despite not caring for many of the characters, most of the performances were decent. Corey Haim (Silver Bullet) and Jason Patric were good as brothers, Dianne Wiest was good as a concerned mother, and Kiefer Sutherland was great as the vampire David. Barnard Hughes got a pretty funny line in at the end, Alex Winter (Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure) was nice to see, and though I couldn’t stand her character whatsoever, Jami Gertz did fine.

Like I said, I do think the film’s decently entertaining, but with the two times I’ve seen it, I never thought The Lost Boys was great. I’d compare it to my views on The Shining, but I rather dislike The Shining, whereas I generally find this movie perfectly fine. It’s just one of my many quirks. The Lost Boys works for many people, but I think it’s just around average.

7/10