The Lost Boys movie directed by Joel Schumacher is a story about a mother Lucy and her two sons, Sam and Michael who have recently moved in with her father who lives in a little coast town called Santa Carla. The town has recently had a string of mysterious deaths and Sam who is played by Corey Haim over hears rumors that a gang of Vampires are behind them. His older brother Michael, played by Jason Patric meets a mysterious beautiful girl named Star who travels with the gang of so-called Vampires. After spending time with Star and the gang, Michael begins to behave differently and shows classic signs of Vampirism. Sam begins to fear not just for own his safety but for the safety of his mother and Grandfather’s as well. Sam recruits the help of two local boys Edgar and Alan Frog, played by Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander. The Frog brothers are Vampire hunters, so together the three will try to save Michael and kill off the ruthless Vampire gang before they kill them.

The movie introduced a new kind of Vampire to the world. The Lost Boys were a gang, led by David, played by Kiefer Sutherland with other members Marko(Alex Winters), Dwayne(Billy Worth) and Paul(Brooke McCarter) but these Vampires brought on a new, unique and edgy style. With the big hair, lots of bleached denim and leather, safety pins and chains the boys look like 80’s hair band members. These were Vampires that rode motorcycles and had a lair in what was left of an old hotel that collapsed in an earthquake in 1906. They loved to terrorize the town locals and had incredible strength and fast movement. They introduced a style that definitely set them a part from the coffin sleeping, charming, elegantly dressed and cape wearing Bela Lugosi kind of Vampires that were seen before.

The Lost Boys movie was released on July 31, 1987. Being one of my all time favourite movies I decided I would celebrate its 30th anniversary by sharing with you 30 interesting and fun facts about the Lost Boys movie.

30 interesting and fun facts about The Lost Boys

The inspiration for the Lost Boys themselves came from an avant-garde music magazine that Joel Schumacher saw on a film shoot in Holland. Kiefer Sutherland’s character David has the least lines of the lead and supporting cast members and the most lines out of the four Vampires. There is a scene with a shirtless oiled up guy with long hair singing “I still believe” and playing the saxophone. His name is Tim Chappell and that was actually the way he performed. When he wasn’t filming, he was playing with Tina Turner on her 15 years tours. He has also had a Saturday night live digital short made about him with actor John Hamm playing him. The Lost Boys gave us the two Corey’s! It was the first movie that Corey Haim and Corey Feldman starred in together. The two hit it off and well you know the rest. The two went on to star in 12 more movies together. The songs “Walk this way” by Run DMC and Aerosmith, “Ain’t got no home” by Clarence Henry and “Groovin” by The Rascals were not featured on the soundtrack but were in the movie. The Santa Cruz beach boardwalk is the location used throughout the movie. However, the producers had a hard time getting permission to use it in the movie. Apparently, the city didn’t want its name associated with the violent Vampires or being known as the murder capital of the world which is what it is in the movie, so producers made up the name Santa Carla for the town’s name. Joel Schumacher really wanted to have INXS on the movie soundtrack but it ended up being harder than he thought. INXS agreed to be on the soundtrack if he would direct a future video for them. Schumacher kept his word and he produced the 1988 promo for The devil inside. Brooke McCarter who played the Vampire Dwayne got along so well with Corey Haim that he eventually became Corey’s official manager. Two sequel movies have been made, one in 2008 called The Tribe which features Angus Sutherland, Keifer’s half-brother as the lead Vampire. The other one came out in 2010 and was called The Thirst. Both were straight to Joss Whedon the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer said he liked the way the Vampire’s in The Lost Boys looked like monsters then looked like people. He also said he based his Spike character off of Billy Idol and Keifer’s character David. Before filming had started, a few of the cast were down near the boardwalk waiting to do a scene when Keifer said he had spotted a cute girl and decided to show-off a little bit on his motorcycle. Unfortunately, he was just learning and the showing off ended up with him breaking his wrist. Viewers never know this because he was made a cast made out of polyurethane which he wore black gloves over it through out the whole movie. The character Lucy played by Actress Dianne Wiest was named after the Lucy Westernra character from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The contact lenses 30 years ago were nothing close to what they are today. They were hard and very painful to wear. The actors could only wear them for a few minutes at a time. Originally the script had kids in grade 5 and 6 as the Vampires and with the Frog brothers only being 8-year-old cub scouts. The writers had envisioned the story to be like Peter Pan being a Vampire who changed all his Lost Boys into Vampire companions. Joel Schumacher liked the idea of never growing old but hated the idea of the characters being little kids, so he insisted they be turned into teenagers before he agreed to take over. Jim Carrey was considered for the role of David. He had previously played a Vampire in 1985’s “Once Bitten” movie. The character of the little boy Laddie was believed to be a relative of Star’s but in fact is a missing child that was taken by the gang for Star so she would have a companion. Joel Schumacher said if there was ever to be a sequel to The Lost Boys it should be called The Lost Girls and be about gorgeous teenager biker chicks who are Vampires. He said he would produce the movie but they would need to find a new director. The film never got off the ground and Warners proceeded with a sequel which was nothing like Schumacher had envisioned. The Frog brother’s Edgar and Alan Frog are a reference to the writer Edgar Allan Poe. The movie invented the phrase “Vamp out”, which went on to be used as a common phrase on the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The merry-go-round scene in the movie foreshadows the order the Vampire’s die. Marko, then Paul, then Dwayne and fourth David The character Michael has his name said 118 times throughout the movie. The movie ends on a funny note with Grandpa at the refrigerator making a joke. However instead of ending it was then supposed to cut away to a scene of the rest of the Lost Boys regrouping in the sunken hotel and the final scene being of a mural on a wall, made in the early 1900’s with Max looking exactly the same as he did in the movie. All of this was scripted but never filmed. Jason Patric is the son of Jason Miller who was the star of the movie “The Exorcist” and his half-brother is Joshua John Miller who is the star of another Vampire movie “Near Dark”. The movie cost 8.5 million to make and was shot over 3 weeks, it made a domestic total of 32.2 million The CW channel planned on turning the film into an anthology tv series this fall, but it was pushed back to next year Sam’s dog in the movie is an Alaskan Malamute named Nanook. Still using a bit of the Peter Pan theme, the name Nanook was inspired by Nana the dog. Jamie Gertz who played Star went on to star in “Twister”, the tv show “Still Standing” from 2002-2006 and among others she starred on Entourage for a year. While filming The Lost Boys she was engaged but it didn’t stop all the cast from having a crush on her according to Schumacher. Joel Schumacher wanted Corey Feldman’s character to resemble action stars of that time, so he was told to rent Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris movies for inspiration. The character Star is only half Vampire and she is the only one we never see in full Vampire form. 2000 local residents were given serveral night’s of work during production on what was the largest film production ever brought to the area of that time.

The Lost Boys today has become a classic cult hit but there was a time when it was intended to be a companion movie to the Goonies that Richard Donner planned on producing as well. It wasn’t until Donner decided to go and direct “Lethal Weapon” instead and after the next director, Mary Lambert was fired that Joel Schumacher took over and helped revolutionize the Vampire in a way we still see today 30 years later.

To celebrate the movie’s 30th Anniversary, a book called “Lost in the shadows – The story of the Lost Boys ” written by Paul Davis has been released. It is a limited edition 200 page hardback book filled with behind the scenes, cast interviews, the history of the movie, early drafts of the script and so much more. It’s out now and is a must-have for any Lost Boys fans.

And Remember

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