Review of The Lost Boys (1987) by Dylan C — 15 Aug 2011

Repetitive sequences that show off the movie's mysterious setting, a romance aspect that doesn't seem to go anywhere, and a handful of one-dimensional characters...with VAMPIRES. Ring a bell, even without the werewolves? Does this sound painfully familiar??

Now, you're probably wondering: "how could you bash the Twilight craze when you watch a dumb teen vampire flick and ENJOY IT?" Hmmmm...where to start...

It's true that The Lost Boys is no masterpiece; really, there are plenty of other movies of that decade that are gaurgantuanly better in comparison. It's a campy stab at the horror genre that incorporates elements from numerous teen comedies that the eighties were known for. Which brings me to my first point: ITS THE FRICKEN EIGHTIES. A time when popcorn flicks, even the lesser ones, were made with enough originality, effort, and energy to count as something watchable.

The Lost Boys came more than a decade before Stephanie Myer's popluar series of books. It was not yet common to combine teenage drama with the mythology of classic vampires and other such creatures. And the amount of creativity in bringing these things together shines through the film's visual style. The opening shots, high in the clouds and set to haunting choir tunes, gives a subtle taste of what's to come.

The vampires in question are not thrown in your face from the get-go, but are introduced in tried-and-true, Speilberg tested hints of their power. They seem like your average gang of punks (lead by none other than Keifer Sutherland, pre-Jack Bauer), but we know otherwise from the moment we meet them. As we advance through the movie, their secret forms are revealed, as are the attrocities they are capable of.

But the movie is not made souly for melodrama and occassional shocks. There is a good deal of nerdy build-up with some of the younger characters which, though corny at times, leads up to a solidly entertaining payoff in some decade-inspired methods of taking on the vampire menaces.

Don't go in expecting anything more than a fun time. Watch it with some friends if you can and enjoy some entertainment from a time with less stale close-ups and moping.......