Combine brilliant humour with terrifying horror with epic music and whatta you got? Why, 'The Lost Boys', of course, one of the most wonderful movies of the last 15 years, an epic moment of yoof kulcha...
You can take this film on a number of different levels and it's wonderful on all of them. It's one scary vampire flick with some of the most chilling fiends you're ever going to see, and yet it still manages to dish out the yucks in family size portions.
Never has Kiefer Sutherland been better than he was here as David, the lead among a teenage vampire gang terrorising the Californian coast town of Santa Carla with their own special brand of dentistry and never have you come across anything as funny as the wonderful vampire hunters, the Frog brothers, Edgar and Allan, pint size terrorists with a nice line in face paint, stakes and epic lines: "Holy shit, it's the attack of Eddie Munster ... the blood sucking Brady bunch."
‘The Lost Boys’ was directed by Joel Schumacher who was the guy who took over the Batman movies from Tim Burton and he does a fine job, moving everything with a verve and a pace that is stunning. The film was released by Warner Brothers back in 1987 and it’s a very stylish, modern take on the vampire legend.
It tells the tale of Lucy Emerson Dianne West) and her family. She has recently got divorced and she moves with her sons Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) from Phoenix in Arizona to the weird little town of Santa Carla, where there’s a fair bit of adjusting to the pace to achieve before they can settle down. The family move in with Lucy’s father (Barnard Hughes), a pretty eccentric old guy whose hobby is stuffing dead animals (not in the Biblical sense, you understand).
Lucy goes to work for a guy called Max (Edward Herrmann) in his video store and it’s obvious she’s vulnerable and on the rebound from her break up. Sam makes the acquaintance of the Frog brothers Jamison Newlander and Corey Feldman), amateur vampire hunters, who warn him of the dangers in this pleasant little hamlet, while Michael becomes infatuated with a girl called Star (Jami Gertz). When he pursues her, he finds himself in the midst of a teen biker gang, David (Sutherland), Marko (Alex Winter), Paul (Brooke McCarter), Dwayne (Billy Wirth) and Laddie (Chance Michael Corbitt) and takes a swig of their oh so weird wine. He soon starts to feel some after effects and he’s well on the way to Big Teeth City.
No more secrets or plotlines now because you really should check it out and who am I to spoil it for you? Suffice to say this is BIG FUN and TO BE RECOMMENDED.
Songwise you get The Doors’ ‘People Are Strange’ sung by Echo And The Bunnymen, Elton John’s ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’ as sung by Roger Daltrey, Peter Gabriel’s ‘No Self Control’, Run DMC’s ‘Walk This Way’, as well as some lesser know stuff and this film could make it on the strength of the soundtrack alone, except that it really doesn’t need to.
THIS IS ONE ABSOLUTE KILLER OF A MOVIE and has achieved frightening cult status over the years since its release and it has the rare combination of looking and feeling good and having a great deal of substance to it. The visuals are dark and stylish and rich and sumptuous and there’s been awesome care lavished on making the vamps believable right from the contact lenses to those frankly weird feet. Sutherland and his gang of outsiders attack their roles with relish and are thoroughly modern blood suckers – the Frogs are incompetent, clumsy and cliché ridden but awesomely amusing and Jason Patric as Michael is a great lead, exhuding that outsider’s charm and is very, very pretty (so Mrs dave27 always tells me…)
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One of my personal favourites...must have watched it at least 12 times!
kathchurchill 02.06.2001 11:33
I still haven't seen this, but after your op, I'm definately going to have to try and get a copy! Thanks!
Pumpkin 02.06.2001 09:53
Great op! I never saw this in my youth (must have been the only person who didn't as I am just the right age for this to have been a classic!) When I finally watched it about a year ago I was really disappointed in it, but I do think that if I had watched it when I was 12 like most of my friends did I would probably love it now!
This 1987 thriller was a predictable hit with the teen audience it worked overtime to ... more
attract. Like most of director Joel Schumacher's films, it's conspicuously designed to push the right marketing and demographic buttons and, granted, there's some pre...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
This 1987 thriller was a predictable hit with the teen audience it worked overtime to ... more
attract. Like most of director Joel Schumacher's films, it's conspicuously designed to push the right marketing and demographic buttons and, granted, there's some pre...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Sam and his older brother Michael are all-American teens with all-American interests. But ... more
after they move with their mother to peaceful Santa Carla, California, things mysteriously begin to change.Michael's not himself lately. And Mom's not going to li...
![The Lost Boys [DVD] [1987]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78016858.jpg "The Lost Boys [DVD] [1987]")
Jun 2nd, 2001
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