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For other uses, see Lost Boys (disambiguation).

The Lost Boys
Directed by	Joel Schumacher
Produced by	Harvey Bernhard Richard Donner
Written by	Janice Fischer James Jeremias Jeffrey Boam
Starring	Jason Patric Kiefer Sutherland Corey Haim Corey Feldman
Music by	Thomas Newman
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	July 31 1987
Running time	93 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Lost Boys is a 1987 American horror film about young Californians who must fight a gang of teenage vampires. It stars Jason Patric, Corey Haim, and Kiefer Sutherland, and co-stars Jami Gertz, Corey Feldman, Dianne Wiest, Edward Herrmann, Alex Winter, and Barnard Hughes. It was directed by Joel Schumacher. The film's title is derived from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Box office and critical importance 4 Possibility of sequels 5 Music 6 Trivia 7 External links

[edit] Plot

A divorced mother and her two teenage sons, Michael and Samuel, move to live with the mother's father in the small California town of Santa Carla (based loosely on the city of Santa Cruz, California), plagued by problems with a motorcycle gang and unexplained disappearances.

The older boy, Michael (Jason Patric), is eventually drawn into the motorcycle gang because he feels attracted to the group's girl, Star (Jami Gertz), and because he doesn't want to look less than their charismatic leader, David (Kiefer Sutherland). After a sort of informal initiation ceremony with the gang involving dangerous activities such as motorcycle racing through the fog. Michael begins to hang out with them until he is made to drink blood in the guise of wine.(They had also made him eat rice which they made him believe was maggots) Soon afterwards, he starts showing the symptoms of vampirism. He sleeps all day and starts hanging out with them all night, which lasts until they drive him to a real hunt and show him that he must kill in order to survive.

This makes Michael react. With the help of Star, Laddie (a vampire child), and his brother Sam who in the meantime has joined up with two relatively inept vampire hunters (Edgar and Alan Frog), he sets out to shake off the curse by finding and killing the head vampire. This proves more difficult than it seems, as it is not evident who the leader is.

The movie ends with two twists: one regarding the identity of the head vampire who turns out to be the video store owner and the mother's boyfriend and that Grandpa knew that there were vampires in Santa Carla all along, stating this with the following quote: "The one thing I could never stomach about this place... all the damned vampires."

[edit] Cast

• Jason Patric - Michael Emerson
• Corey Haim - Sam Emerson
• Dianne Wiest - Lucy Emerson
• Barnard Hughes - Grandpa
• Edward Herrmann - Max
• Kiefer Sutherland - David
• Billy Wirth - Dwayne
• Brooke McCarter - Paul
• Alex Winter - Marko
• Jami Gertz - Star
• Corey Feldman - Edgar Frog
• Jamison Newlander - Alan Frog
• Chance Michael Corbitt - Laddie Thompson
• Timmy Capello-Rock concery singer

[edit] Box office and critical importance

The Lost Boys performed well at the U.S. box office, grossing over $32 million - a strong performance for an R-rated horror movie.

It won a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film in 1987. The film was part of a postmodern trend to transplant the European folklore of vampires into the new world that included 1987's western-gothic Near Dark and the suburban Fright Night of 1985. Such works paved the way for other modern vampire movies and television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The Lost Boys was the first performance together of Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, who thereafter became known as the two Coreys for their performance together in a range of teen movies.

The sitcom Big Wolf on Campus had Haim and Feldman appear in different episodes as themselves, but vampires, the story being that during the making of The Lost Boys, they actually became vampires.

[edit] Possibility of sequels

Joel Schumacher made several attempts at a sequel during the 1990s. At one point a possible remake by the title of Lost Girls was mooted, but it never saw the light of day. An uncredited script for Lost Boys 2 has been circulating ever since the late 1980s. It's unknown if the script was a legitimate attempt at a sequel, or who wrote it. There has been some speculation that it might have been Joss Whedon due to two interesting coincidences. First, there was a biker chick vampire by the name of Angel. In the script for the Buffy pilot, Angel was going to be a biker. Also the mayor of Santa Carla (Al U. Card) was set up as a possible villain in a third movie. This closely mirrors the way that the mayor of Sunnydale was slowly introduced as a villain in the third season of Buffy also.

[edit] Music

Further information: The Lost Boys (soundtrack)

Thomas Newman wrote the film score which was an eerie blend of orchestra and organ arrangement to great effect. This score has never been officially released, although it is available as a bootleg which also contains several unused cues of score. It is unlikely it will be released in the foreseeable future.

The music soundtrack contains a number of notable songs, including "Good Times", a duet between INXS and former Cold Chisel lead singer Jimmy Barnes which reached number 1 on the Australian charts in early 1987. This cover version of a 1960s Australian hit by the Easybeats was originally recorded to promote the Australian Made tour of Australia in early 1987, headlined by INXS and Barnes.

Tim Capello's inspirational hit I Still Believe was featured in the film as well as on the soundtrack. Tim Capello makes a small cameo appearance in the movie playing the song at the Santa Carla boardwalk, with his trademark bodybuilder muscles on display and saxaphone, without doubt one of the most memorable scenes in 80s movie history.

The soundtrack also features a cover version of The Doors' song "People are Strange" by Echo & the Bunnymen. The song as it featured in the movie is an alternate, shortened version with a slightly different music arrangement. This version has not been released as of yet.

The theme song "Cry Little Sister" was originally recorded by Gerard McMann for the soundtrack, and later re-released on his self-titled album "G Tom Mac" in 2000. In 2003, the "toxic rock" band Zug Izland remade the track with a more juggalo tone called "Cry" on their debut album Cracked Tiles. In 2004, the Lost Brothers recorded it as "Cry Little Sister (I Need U Now)" with the track reaching the UK top 20 and Australian top 40. "Cry Little Sister" was also covered in 2004 by Carfax Abbey on their album Second Skin and covered again in 2005 by Blutengel on "The Oxidising Angel". The song has also been erroneously labeled as being by The Sisters of Mercy. Gerard McMann would go on to release a Live Performance version of the song as "Cry Little sister (Thou Shall Not...)" in 2005.

[edit] Trivia

• The names of the Frog brothers, Edgar and Alan, are a reference to Edgar Allan Poe, the well-known writer of horror fiction.
• Billy Wirth's character, Dwayne. is never mentioned anywhere in the entire movie by his character name.
• Brooke McCarter's character, Paul, is only mentioned once throughout the entire film by his character name.
• UK band Santa Carla, signed to Digital Wings, are named after the town in the Lost Boys.
• Tiger Army song Santa Carla Twilight is said to have been written to pay homage to the movie.
• Finnish band The 69 Eyes did a song called "Lost Boys" on their "Devils" CD and as a single which is an homage to the film, and so is the video.
• California band Death by Stereo are named for a line near the end of the movie.(that quote is from when Sam says "Sweet...Death by stereo." when one of the vampires is shot with a bow and arrow and falls into the stereo, therefore electricuting himself to death.)
• The band Fall Out Boy based their music video A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me on the film.
• The term "vamp out" was created for this film. It went on to be used elsewhere such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
• The Santa Carla Boardwalk scenes were filmed on location at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
• Kiefer Sutherland's father, Donald, played a 'Watcher' (a teacher and mentor of vampire slayers) in the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• In Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Orange, while memorizing a cover story, mentions that he was "Trying to watch The Lost Boys." Ironically, he mentions said cover taking place in 1986, the year before The Lost Boys was released in theaters.
• When composer Andrew Lloyd Webber saw "The Lost Boys" with his then-wife Sarah Brightman, she said to him that Joel Schumacher was the right person to direct the screen version of "The Phantom of the Opera."

[edit] External links

• The Lost Boys at the Internet Movie Database
• The Lost Boys review on I-Mockery.com review with lots of animated gifs
• The Lost Boys Movielistingno:The Lost Boys

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