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Movies love affair with the vampire stretches back to the earliest days of the cinema. Various directors have put their stamp on the horror subgenre and when it comes to pop culture vamps few films exceed THE LOST BOYS in popularity. So why does Joel Schumacher’s fairly standard vampire flick have such staying power? Why does it float above so many others like it? The cast. They were good then and now the film stands as a time capsule for a period in film history.

Michael Emerson (Jason Patric, RUSH) moves with his recently divorced mother Lucy (Dianne Wiest, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS) and little brother Sam (Corey Haim, LUCAS) to live with his hippie grandpa (Barnard Hughes, TRON) in Santa Carla, the murder capitol of the U.S. On the boardwalk, he is smitten by Star (Jami Gertz, 1992’s JERSEY GIRL), a street kid who hangs with a gang of punked out lost boys, lead by David (Kiefer Sutherland, TV’s 24). Not wanting to look like a wuss, Michael takes David’s increasingly dangerous challenges. In the meantime, Sam meets the Frog Brothers, Edgar (Corey Feldman, DREAM A LITTLE DREAM) and Alan (Jamison Newlander, 1988’s THE BLOB), at comic book shop, where they warn the new kid in town to read up on vampires, because it could save his life. At first Sam doesn’t believe in bloodsuckers, but when it turns out that Michael has been tricked into drinking blood, he might have Dracula living in the next room.

Written by Janice Fischer, James Jeremias and Jeffrey Boam, THE LOST BOYS looks at the late ’80s punk scene as a perfect style for a modern vampire flick. David and his lost boys as the tagline says, sleep all day… party all night… never grow old… never die… it’s fun to be a vampire. The twist on Peter Pan’s lost boys and vampires is ingenious. Star serves as a trap to lure Michael in, and like any gang, he is tested to see if he is worthy. Michael has a simple choice — join or die. It’s surprising how similar Kathryn Bigelow’s NEAR DARK from the same year is to LOST BOYS, but that LOST BOYS works much better. Again mainly because of the cast and characters.

While Michael tries to discover how to save himself and Star, Sam consults the Frogs, who serve not only as comic relief, but also as a useful source of exposition on the vampire rules. In their search for the head vampire, Sam and the Frogs suspect Lucy’s new boyfriend Max (Edward Herrmann, OVERBOARD), who owns the videostore where she works. Their budding romance adds tension as well as a unique chance to develop Lucy further than the worrying mom. Even Grandpa adds more than comic relief to the film with his taxidermy hobby and classic closing line.

While LOST BOYS isn’t scary in the classic horror sense, there are some tense moments, especially when David tests Michael. Michael Chapman’s cinematography uses shadow and fog to set a mood of uncertainty. While the ending showdown at the house is typical, performance and fun dialogue makes it worthwhile. It also helps that we want these characters to succeed, because we like them.

Between the hairstyles and the Coreys, LOST BOYS is 1987. For those of my age group, this film came out right at the budding of adolescence when Haim and Feldman were the coolest. So I’m sure nostalgia plays a part in the appreciation of the film as well. But in the end, the film is simply fun. There’s some action. There’s some comedy. There’s some horror. Its twist on the vampire flick was perfect for its time. Many films try to float outside of their time for good reason, because they want to avoid becoming dated. But some films embrace their times and come to represent those times even if they aren’t trying to. LOST BOYS does that.

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