The Lost Boys **** (1987, Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Feldman, Barnard Hughes, Edward Herrmann, Brooke McCarter, Billy Wirth, Alex Winter) – Classic Movie Review 1823

Sparky, imaginative, eye-catching and often very funny, director Joel Schumacher’s exuberant 1987 vampire teen horror movie is an enduring pleasure as a treasured Eighties relic. It revived the vampire film, giving it a cool, sexy spin for young adults.

Janice (Jan) Fischer, James Jeremias and Jeffrey Boam’s screenplay gives the enjoyably eerie lowdown on the darkly entertaining fate of a nice single mother (Dianne Wiest) and her two teenage sons Michael and Sam (Jason Patric, Corey Haim) after they move to a California small coastal town where the local gang of bikers turns out to be a pack of vampires. The town may be a really pretty, picturesque spot, but it is afflicted by a series of strange, unexplained deaths. Oh, no, it’s those pesky young vampires!

The top-notch performances are headed by Kiefer Sutherland as (perhaps) the chief bloodsucker David, who uses pretty Star (Jami Gertz) to lure the cute young Michael (Patric) into joining the ranks of his gang of the undead.

Mom, who is busy trying to land herself a new boyfriend (Edward Herrmann as Max), gets very worried when the now bloodsucker-bitten Michael starts sleeping days and staying out all night, while Sam (Haim) gets into trouble after he makes friends with two other geeky boys, Edgar and Alan Frog (Corey Feldman, Jamison Newlander), who claim to be vampire hunters. It turns out they are! Sam, Edgar and Alan need to find out who really is the chief bloodsucker pretty darned quick to put an end to him and save Michael.

Schumacher’s excellent chiller is visually stylish, sometimes over the top in an ideal Gothic kind of way, and always richly and thoroughly enjoyable. The rollercoaster ride of a story smoulders electrifyingly with creepy seaside mood and atmosphere till the big firework display of action in the final reel. Michael Chapman’s classy cinematography makes the movie look real good, while Thomas Newman’s score and the great soundtrack are other notable assets.

Alex Winter.

Wiest, Patric and Haim are tremendous in their perfectly judged starring appearances, all three of them warm, appealing and amusing. Corey Feldman (as Edgar Frog), Barnard Hughes (as Grandpa) and Edward Herrmann (as Max) all make very impressive, ideal co-starring appearances, all three of them quirky and funny. Brooke McCarter as Paul, Billy Wirth as Dwayne, Chance Michael Corbitt as Laddie and Bill & Ted’s Alex Winter are also in the cast, though they deserve more to do.

Gertz and Patric starred together in the previous year’s Solarbabies. Keenan Wynn (1916-86) and vampire movie veteran John Carradine (1906-88) were the original choices for Grandpa. But Wynn died just before filming and Carradine was too ill so Barnard Hughes took over.

Corey Haim.

Troubled star Corey Haim died of pneumonia on March 10 2010, aged 38. He starred in eight movies with his friend Corey Feldman: The Lost Boys (1987), License to Drive (1988), Dream a Little Dream (1989), Blown Away (1993), Last Resort (1994), Dream a Little Dream 2 (1995), Busted (1997) and Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008).

Brooke McCarter, who played the vampire Paul, died from a genetic liver condition on 22 December 2015, aged 52. He often attended horror conventions to talk about The Lost Boys, where Brooke met and got along well with Corey Haim, and became his manager through the Nineties.