The Lost Boys (1987)
written by: Jan Fischer, James Jeremias and Jeffery Boam
starring: Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Jami Gertz, etc etc some real babes
Two things before we really jump in:
1. This movie was life changing for me; it is iconic, remarkable, utterly sexy and invigorating and I cannot imagine how different my life would be if I had seen it at 14 instead of at 27.
2. The real villain of this movie is heteronormativity and the idea that a traditional nuclear family is necessary for happiness.
Ok.
I will start by saying I do find The Lost Boys, our good pal Joel's 1987 teen vampire dramedy/black comedy, to be so entirely entrancing that I am certainly unable to be objective about it on any level or in any way. I love it. I love everything about it. I absolutely cannot be concise about it. The Lost Boys is the reason we're here right now-- meaning this website, this writing project, this whole thing. It all stems out of last September, when I was beginning to gear up for Halloween, and realized I had never seen The Lost Boys. It felt like the time to check it out, so I rented it off Amazon and my life was changed forever.
What is it about vampires in the 80s that makes them all so hot? Aside from all the leather, I think it's the devil-may-care attitude. Back to back, I watched The Lost Boys and Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark, which both feature vampires who are not tortured immortals as much as they are rock stars who love their lot. That attitude feels almost uniquely 80s, and it's a relief and a pleasure to watch. It's why Lestat is a million percent more enjoyable in Interview with the Vampire than Louis-- he loves being a monster. He luxuriates in it, and that's so much fun.
So too do the raucous teen vamps in The Lost Boys. They love being monsters. I love that they love being monsters. I love them.
Four bad boy teen vamps, led by bleach blond Kiefer Sutherland (at his chubbiest and very close to his most attractive, to me), causing trouble on the boardwalk and eating people and goddamn loving it. Their existence seems totally idyllic, as they stalk around the boardwalk, taking in the sights, occasionally chowing on the odd security guard who was tough on them, or members of the rival surfer gang who give them a hard time. And they're so fabulous, these boys. Decked out in leather and mesh and mullets, each of them subtly unique and styled to match. The details here-- divine. David's simple black getup lends him an air of authority, but the mullet, the earring, his leather pants and leather cowboy biker boots give him some tough cool. He's clearly the leader from the way he looks and lounges and the way the rest of them defer to him, of course, and the rest of the boys are a little more Extra, to use a common parlance, in fashion and in behavior. Paul (Brooke McCarter) has those white pants and his mesh shirt, his bouncy frat-bro demeanor. Dwayne (Billy Wirth, extremely handsome) is the silent, smoldering type, prowling around like the panther on his leather jacket, shirtless underneath. And god, Marko (little Alex Winter). Marko, Marko, Marko, with that extreme mullet, that jacket, those chaps, that crop top. I mean, god, just look at them.
They are Living and loving it, and seem totally happy with exactly their status quo.
Meanwhile, enter the Emersons. Slightly dippy Lucy (the lovely as ever Dianne Wiest), and her teenage sons Michael (Jason Patric, extremely moody and sexy) and Sam (Corey Haim, extremely vaporwave). Lucy is just coming off a divorce from a man who seems to have not treated her well at all-- that's the vibe I get, anyway. So she takes her boys and moves in with her father, who tells her, "you're the only woman I ever knew who didn't improve her situation by getting divorced." But her situation is improved: she is free and happy and safe with her sons. Maybe it's Wiest's wonderful chipperness, but Lucy is a woman who seems to never give in to the unfortunate side of life. She is bright and cheerful, even when she's mad or worried. It gives her a warmth and a softness that makes her deeply appealing and sympathetic. And her boys are fine too-- they love their mother and each other, and while Sam is disheartened by the lack of a TV in the new house (which means, duh, no MTV), Michael takes it all with a shrug. He's our boy-next-door lead, handsome and a little dopey. A very gentle jock. The change of scenery doesn't seem to bother him much. More, it's a chance for new things and new people. And boy, does he find new people.
Their first night on the boardwalk, Michael spots Star (Jami Gertz), and immediately feels drawn to her. She seems drawn to him too, to an extent. She's bohemian, free-spirited, beautiful. She's a little haunted. She's part of David's gang of dissolutes, more or less (though she seems to be something of a burden to them, not exactly a welcome member of the family), and suddenly David and his boys are drawn to Michael too. Michael gets caught in their web, caught by Star's bait. There's a stiff kind of chemistry between Michael and Star, who stare at each other in a wantonly hungry way, and David too, who stares with an only slightly different kind of hunger.
I mean good god
I won't harp here, but the first moment David sees Michael, as Star climbs on the back of his bike, he and Star both react to Michael the exact same way, with the exact same bashful kind of smile. What those smiles will lead to is the issue at hand. There's a sexiness to both of them, and an appeal to Michael. David seems pretty uninterested in Star, or whatever femininity she was intended to add to their little family, but is definitely interested in stealing Michael out from under her. Maybe he wanted to eat Michael once, but then he just wants him as part of the gang, to be a killer like them, forever. Star and David pull Michael in two different ways, towards something more straight and narrow and correct, and something wilder, more visceral, more dangerous. Star gives Michael her love and her body; David gives him blood and the promise of an eternal party. And also probably wants to fuck him.
I cannot imagine watching this movie without knowing that the boys are vampires, though the movie doesn't explicitly tell you until about an hour in-- you come face to face with their monstrousness at the same time that Michael does. It's a little trick the movie plays, though a half-heartedly. It plays the same trick differently with Max (Edward Herrmann, increasingly my favorite part of the movie), the boring but nice guy who runs the video store and woos Michael's mother-- and also happens to be the head vampire in town. There are a lot of yes-no-maybes in the movie, all carefully balanced and executed (that perfect dinner scene!). A few flips, a few flops, and a lot of fun along the way.
So what interrupts the status quo isn't the arrival of Michael, though he's our hero, but rather the arrival of his mother. Max takes one look at her and decides she's the one, and he must have her as mother to his vampire brood (a brood who is currently living a life apparently independent of him), and thus initiates a series of events that leads to their destruction. He wants a woman in his life and feels his boys need a maternal touch and a mother's love to keep them in line. "Kids [that] age need discipline," he says, gently but with condescension, "otherwise they run all over you." Boys need a strong hand. His hand, it seems, isn't strong enough for his boys, who are clearly running wild across the boardwalk. He needs a partner, and he feels it must be Lucy. I totally see what Max sees in Lucy, by the way. The first time he meets her is right after he's shooed his boys out of the video store, and Lucy responds to them with an absolute generosity and empathy. She's willing to cut them a break for all their wildness (they're just kids, after all). She's so, so sweet. And to be true, I really like Max and it seems to me that Lucy really likes him too! He's stiff and dweeby, but trying to be cool in a way only a dad can. I find their little romance really nice, until of course it turns out he wants her for something else and is willing to eat whoever it takes to get what he wants. That being said, in a different movie, I would love to see those two fumbling parents be in love.
Anyway, Max's need for a traditional family unit upends everyone's lives, when everyone was honestly doing just fine before. The boys are happy enough doing their thing in the caves under town, and eating people, and the Emersons are happy being two kids, a mom, a grandpa and a dog. Michael is perfectly grounded by the family he has (literally even, as Sam pulls him back to earth when he starts to turn vampire). They don't need a father figure, just like how Max's boys don't need a mother. Trying to force that is what messes everything up. The more I watch this movie the more this family theme sticks out to me, and it feels like a Schumacher thing to me. Like the cabbies in D.C. Cab or the friends in St. Elmo's Fire, Schumacher embraces these non-traditional self-made families.
The life the vamps offer Michael is one of glamour and thrills and glitz and the film, imbued with Schumacher's unique touches, reflects that. By the time Sam teams up with a pair of local vampire hunter brothers (can you believe I haven't even mentioned Corey Feldman yet? And that wonderful, funny voice he's doing??) to save Michael from the clutches of vamps, I couldn't imagine why I should root for them. Like, I guess that they're unrepentant murderers is bad, but what? I'm not supposed to be totally hot for Kiefer Sutherland and his pack of glam vamp boys anyway?? I'm not supposed to be totally attracted to them and their lifestyle?? The sunken hotel they hang out in is so appealing! Their clothes are so neat! The vamps are so cool and they are so free, I find it easy to see why Michael gets caught up with them. I would too. And then, when we see them devour, it's brutal and utterly ugly. A perfect juxtaposition. For a movie about blood suckers there's very little biting or blood sharing at all-- the only time anyone even goes for the neck is at the very end when Max goes to change Lucy. But mostly it's sexy whispers and blood in bottles-- except for when the boys thrash the surf gang on the beach, tearing them apart and getting doused in sprays of blood. It's gross. But it tracks. This excessive display of violence doesn't feel out of place at all. The extravagance of the boys and their lifestyle extends to how they eat. They do nothing by halves, and in truth, neither does the movie.
It's extravagant but it's all cohesive. The vampires have a lot going on, and all of it is cool and attractive, and Schumacher matches it. There's more here of what Schumacher was already doing well-- his dramatic use of color is on full display, coming to a pitch during the final fight in the Emerson home, where every moment is awash in bright, purely red light. Kiefer is framed in bright white light more than anyone else, light that comes from nowhere and catches only him and his soft face. Schumacher has mastered filming lights through fog, as evidenced by the race along the beach and cliffs. He uses long, sweeping shots of the boardwalk and beach, shots that are essentially vampire flying POV shots, that are remarkable and gorgeous. Take the opening shot over the water with the choral strains of Cry Little Sister playing. Is there a better way to open a movie? These swooshing flights are a new camera move for Schumacher, and are artfully used here. They hide how silly flying looks but capture how amazing it must feel. These align us with the boys and the thrill of their lives before we even know we're in their shoes. There are the sexy montages lit by candlelight-- Michael's first tasting of blood, the night he sleeps with Star, both of which involve overlaying of shots, a blurring of people and hanging lace and long, twisting camera moves. Some of the credit here has to go to cinematographer Michael Chapman, but it feels very Schumacher. Every choice for this movie-- the lighting, the set dressing, the costumes, some of the more interesting acting choices-- feels like it reflects his outlandish sensibility. Someone asked, Joel, are you sure you want this much red light? And he said, yes absolutely.
As directing goes, and decision making which is a big part of it, I would like to highlight the moment after the Frog brothers stake Marko, where David is trying to pull Sam back into the darkness and is burned by the sun. He retreats and cries this one tear as he watches Sam and the Frogs escape. Anecdotally, that tear is because the contacts Kiefer was wearing were terribly painful, but in context it reads at this pained grief over a friend lost and vengeance missed. It's a stunning little moment which adds some depth to our resident bad boy. It was unscripted, unnecessary, but it's rich and moving, and Schumacher chose to use it in the final picture. For that, I applaud him. That's a good choice, and he made it.
The tear, the camera work, the colors, the thing he does where a character is falling but it's clear the actor is not-- It's a lot, but why not? Vampires are a lot. This whole world is a lot. Santa Carla, Murder Capital of the World, full of punks and surfers and vampires, little pockets of subcultures, should be as eclectic in vision as it's citizens are. If this movie was filmed in more traditional way, it would be boring. It would be nothing special without the colors, the music, the vibe. I could say something about every moment in this movie, every acting choice and character beat. Just on the note of parenting and heteronormative families, I could talk for a while about how the only really traditional family unit we see in the movie are the Frog brothers (Feldman and Jamison Newlander) and their parents. They have a mom and a dad, though those parents are doing nothing to raise their sons. Every time we see the Frog parents they are literally asleep at the wheel, leaving their sons to fend for themselves. Say what you will about Max's distant, negative parenting or Lucy's hippy dippiness, but at least they're trying with their kids.
This is it, the most beautiful shot of Kiefer Sutherland in existence. (no, the color has not been adjusted here at all and ain't that marvelous?)
And let me actually talk for a minute about Kiefer Sutherland, who was my real take away from this movie, at least initially. He is giving such a performance. He's gritty and drawn in some scenes, tired and bored and blowing smoke in Michael's face, then totally alive and round and cherubic in others. He holds his mouth in such a way that it always seems like he's holding his teeth in. He sneers so beautifully while covered in blood. He whispers Michael in the sexiest way possible (honestly, unnecessarily sexy). He infuses soul and interest in what could have been a pretty generic bad boy vampire. It's what Kiefer is best at, really, adding softness and sensitivity in touches to characters who are flat or on paper uninteresting. He's marvelous and Schumacher knows how to use him. What a star. Also he's super hot. The hottest of bad boys. (everyone is hot in this movie but kiefer is my main man-- and The Lost Boys features the most beautiful shot of him ever recorded on celluloid).
So I love The Lost Boys. It's so rich-- every shot, every moment. I could go on and on, clearly. I've barely touched on the Frog brothers, or Sam, who is so smart and brave and clear-hearted. I haven't even mentioned that sexy saxophone player in what might be the movie's most iconic sequence. Or how the boys trick Michael with worms and maggots in his noodles and rice (also truly iconic). Or the soundtrack, chock full of absolute hits. The motif of living things that seem dead and dead things that seem alive. The movie rules, it's wonderful, and I find new things to love in it every time I watch it.
On top of all that, it's just a lot of fun. It's a perfect Halloween movie, and a perfect summer movie. It captures the joy of a summer spent on a beach, and the horror of impending autumn. It's so delightful and funny and playful. It's immensely watchable, and gosh am I glad I sat down to watch it last September. Don't feel like you have to wait, of course. Sit down right now and give it a watch. It's fun to be a vampire.
Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Schumacherness: ★ ★ ★ ★
Up Next: Cousins (1989)