The Lost Boys

The Lost Boys (1987) is about two brothers moving to a Californian coastal town and the vampires there. Michael and Sam move in with their grandfather along with their mother. There is a gang of youths who roam the boardwalk at night. Michael gets close to them and drinks something. Then the sun starts bothering him, he stops sleeping, and he begins hovering. Sam meanwhile learns vampire hunting from two brothers in a comic shop, and nobody takes them seriously for the entire film. The script was originally written for much younger children; a Goonies style story with twelve year old vampires. Schumacher aged them up and turned it entirely toward adolescence. That change created the film's whole identity: the bikes, the leather, the hair, the music. The vampirism is a direct analogy for being a teenager: staying out at night, growing strange to your family, drinking something to join a group. The scene with the oiled saxophonist on the boardwalk is the most remembered moment and has no connection to the plot. Kiefer Sutherland leads the gang. Corey Haim and Corey Feldman began to be spoken of together after this and appeared together throughout the rest of the eighties. The opening song took on a life of its own. It runs 97 minutes. Good for: the eighties, vampire films, and teenage horror. Less good for: the effects have dated, the humour belongs to its time, and the ending is rushed.