by Eric Diaz Celebrating 25 Years of “The Lost Boys”

When The Lost Boys came out, twenty five years ago this past week, it wasn’t even #1 at the box office. It came in at #2, behind The Living Daylights, the 007 movie starring Timothy Dalton that almost no one really likes anymore. In fact, The Lost Boys never reached the top of the box office heap in its entire theatrical run. And yet the pop culture legacy of The Lost Boys is ultimately much greater than most movies that came out that year, proving that in the long run, it doesn’t always matter who comes out as number one in that first weekend.

For all two of you reading this who don’t already know (or more likely, were too young to remember) The Lost Boys is director Joel Schumacher’s 1987 movie about two teenagers and their single mom (Dianne Weist) who move to the California seaside town of Santa Carla (a barely disguised Santa Cruz) only to find the town the secret nesting ground of teenage vampires who look like they all belong on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. In order to defeat them, Sam (Corey Haim) and Michael (Jason Patrick) team up with local teenage vampire hunters Edgar and Allan Frog (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander, although they would prefer you just call them the Frog Brothers.) As a horror movie, The Lost Boys isn’t particularly scary, and it isn’t even the best vampire movie to come out that Summer (that award goes to Near Dark, which coincidentally starred Jason Patrick’s younger brother Joshua John Miller) but it is funny, charming, and always entertaining, and there is an undeniable appeal about the entire movie that makes it perfect watching on a Saturday afternoon year in and year out.

The Lost Boys wasn’t a major blockbuster when it came out, even by 1987 standards (it made $32 million back in the day, which is around $63 million in today’s dollars. Decent for an R rated horror flick, but nothing to write home about) And yet its shelf life extended far beyond its relatively brief theatrical run that summer. As soon as it hit cable and home video, that’s when the movie really took off. The Lost Boys went on to be one of Warner Brothers top selling movies of all time, far outgrossing whatever it made in the theaters as a home video perennial. And the movie was on constant rotation on HBO and Showtime for what seemed like years. All these factors went on to make The Lost Boys something of a mini-classic, as well as a total time capsule of its era of 80’s cheese. Death by stereo anyone?

The Lost Boys has a special significance for me as a budding horror geek, because it was the first horror movie that I ever saw in the actual theater. In the summer of ’87 I was thirteen years old, and had already seen a good amount of horror movies on cable television when my parents weren’t around, not to mention at various friend’s slumber parties. But buying a ticket for a PG movie and sneaking into an R rated one was a right of passage, and Lost Boys was my first (I believe the movie I bought a ticket for was Innerspace, for what it’s worth) I had already become a vampire aficionado thanks to constant re runs of Fright Night on HBO, but Lost Boys sealed the deal. I was a vampire fan for life from there on out.

The Secret Origin of the Lost Boys

The first screenplay for Lost Boys was written by screenwriters Janice Fischer and James Jeremias, and featured “a bunch of Goonies-type 5th-6th grade kid vampires”, with the Edgar and Allan Frog characters as “chubby 8-year-old cub scouts.” The character of Star, ultimately played by Jamie Gertz, appeared as a boy instead of as an older female love interest. The original concept centered around the idea of Peter Pan and his tribe of lost boys as vampires. The vampire connection was mostly based on the idea that Peter Pan could fly, made visits to the Darling family only at night, and never grew old, so they must in fact be creatures of the night. In one of the early scripts, Kiefer Sutherland’s character of David was originally named Peter, and other characters also had names from J.M. Berrie’s story. The Peter Pan connection was ultimately far less explicit in the final product, despite the title of the movie remaining. Goonies director Richard Donner was set to direct, (which probably explains all the similarities to Goonies in that first script) but due to his commitment to making Lethal Weapon around the same time, the project was turned over to director Joel Schumacher. Schumacher had the smart idea to turn the the little kids into teenagers, among other things. While Schumacher’s style was glossy Hollywood 80’s to a T, but that same style that was so wrong years later for the Batman franchise was exactly what Lost Boys needed to be memorable.

The Legacy of Lost Boys

Without a doubt, the legacy of Lost Boys continues to this day. By the time the 90’s rolled around, the ultimate success of the modestly budgeted teen vampire flick gave way to bigger budget A- list vampire movies like Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula and Interview with the Vampire. The mix of comedy and vampires also led to Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s From Dusk Till Dawn. The movie might be the first time that a mainstream Hollywood movie really pushed the notion of the vampires as the sexy, desirable ones and not just as the villains; in other words, you can find the DNA of Lost Boys even in Twilight , but let’s try not to hold it against the movie. I mean, they couldn’t have known. But perhaps the biggest influence of the movie would ultimately be exhibited by a ditzy blonde cheerleader with a wooden stake named Buffy Summers.

The Buffy Connection

Of all things pop culture influenced by The Lost Boys, there probably is none greater than Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Although it has never been made explicit by Joss Whedon or anyone else involved with the show, the influence of Lost Boys on Buffy has got to be pretty significant. Both stories are set in small California towns that have reputations of being “the murder capital of the world” and a secret haven for the undead; The Frog brothers, a couple of teenage vampire hunters who seem to be the only people in town who know the truth about Santa Carla, are also a proto-version of Buffy and her Scooby Gang, also the only people who know the demonic truth about their hometown of Sunnydale. The teenage vampires’ lair in Lost Boys is an old hotel that got swallowed up into the ground by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. In the first season of Buffy, the Master Vampire’s lair is in a church similarly buried in the ground by the very same quake. Then there’s Kiefer Sutherland’s character of David, a bleach blonde, motorcycle riding, trench coat wearing bad boy type of vamp who had to be at least the physical model for the character of Spike on Buffy, if nothing else.

The Two Coreys

Of course in the eyes of many, the most significant contribution to pop culture from the movie many would say is the first teaming up of those two giants of cinema, the two Coreys, Feldman and Haim. After their time together in Lost Boys came a series of movies starring the two together like License to Drive, Dream a Little Dream, and a bunch of others you’ve probably never heard of. And then came bouts with drug addiction (and eventually reality television) for both of them. Feldman would kick his habit, but Haim ultimately succumbed to his. But in the minds of a million Gen X-er’s, the two teen idols became synonomous with one another for forever, and it all started with The Lost Boys.

The Lost Girls: The Sequel That Never Was

Warner Brothers tried to develop a sequel to The Lost Boys almost right off the bat, but for whatever reason could never get all the right pieces together. A script was written by Jeffrey Boam, who is one of the credited writers on the original, that centered on Corey Haim’s character of Sam. Taking place not long after the original film, Sam Emerson is still in Santa Carla and in summer school. His brother is away at college presumably now, and his mother is on vacation (as a way not to pay Jason Patrick and Dianne Weist no doubt and keep the budget down) he is left to live with his Grandpa and all his eccentricness. Eventually a new vampiric threat would entangle Santa Carla, female this time, and Sam and the Frog Brothers would band together to take care of it. SPOILER for a movie that never was–the new head vampire would have turned out to be Kiefer Sutherland’s David character, who apparently didn’t die at the end of the original. For some reason this movie never happened, and I have to wonder if Kiefer Sutherland just plain refused to come back.

Warner Brothers would ultimately produce two extremely cheesy and cheap straight to DVD sequels in the last few years, Lost Boys: The Tribe and Lost Boys: The Thirst. Both were awful, but ultimately I’d rather they make these quick and cheap straight to video sequels than make a remake with whatever hot CW actor they can find in the lead. At least the sequels were so under the radar as to not tarnish the legacy of the original film. Still, I expect an announcement any minute now about the original movie being remade. Frankly, with Twilight mania, I’m shocked it hasn’t already.

The Lost Boys isn’t on the level of being regarded as one of best horror films ever made, or even one of the best vampire films ever made for that matter. But it has such an undeniable charm that has made it a fan favorite for twenty five years now. I know I will keep pulling it out to watch every year or so, and when this movie turns 50 and no one left on Earth remembers it but me, I’ll still be watching it and laughing at the same cheesy jokes that I laughed at when I was thirteen and actually thought they were funny. *ahem* Once again, death by stereo anyone?