Thursday, September 8, 2016

Retro Review: THE LOST BOYS (1987)


Welcome to another installment of RETRO REVIEW, where we take a look at films made before the year 2000. Today, we review Joel Schumacher's 1987 vampire classic...THE LOST BOYS.

The Lost Boys is a film that explores teenage angst and vampires, which may sound familiar, but it is NOTHING like the Twilight series. It's much darker and way better written. The Twilight movies were enjoyable to watch, for the most part, but they are not even in the same league as this film.

The movie starts out with Mike (Jason Patric), and his younger brother Sam (Corey Haim), moving to a new town with their divorced mom, Lucy (Dianne Wiest). The brothers decide to explore their new surroundings as most teenagers do, and that's where they discover The Boardwalk, which is the towns main hangout. Mike is enchanted by a girl named Star who he meets at The Boardwalk, however, she is off-limits.

One of the greatest draws of this film is the outstanding group of young actors that were cast in it. Jason Patric, Corey Feldman, Corey Haim and Kiefer Sutherland just to name a few. These actors' careers exploded in the '80s, with this movie being very popular among my friends growing up. Jason Patric and Kiefer Sunderland were also some great eye candy for girls growing up in the '80's. 

My favorite scene in this movie is when Mike is confronted by Star's boyfriend, David (Kiefer Sunderland). David provokes Mike into following him and his gang on his motorcycle. The group reaches an old hotel on the beach and David tries to initiate Mike into the group by encouraging him to drink something strange. Star tries to dissuade him from drinking; but Mike ignores her and drinks it anyway.

Interestingly enough, Mike acquires a thirst for blood and ends up attacking his own brother. So, has Mike turned into a vampire? Are David and his gang really vampires or just troublemakers? Is Sam able to save his brother? That remains to be seen.

The Lost Boys was received fairly well by critics. It currently holds a score of 72% on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5/4 stars. He praised the cinematography and casting.  As I said before, the cast was one of the greatest draws for this film. The cinematography, which was done by Michael Chapman, was definitely well fit with the plot. Lighting and camera shots and angles help establish the mood of the film. Also, the town of Santa Clara is by the water; but it has a creepy quality to it. The creepiness is also perfectly shown through the lighting and camera angles. I was also quite taken aback with the closeup of David's fangs.

This film definitely has a cult following and a great tagline, "Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire". The Lost Boys was one of my favorite movies from 1980's. It was stylish and scary at the same time, and if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it now.

Lisa's Score: 8/10


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