Vintage Film Review: The Lost Boys

How 1980s is Joel Schumacher ‘s teen comedy horror film The Lost Boys? The “dudes” look like all of Bon Jovi at once. The “chicks” could be dropouts from The Breakfast Club. And the soundtrack is dreadful, full of macho douche soft rock. Only Echo And The Bunnymen’s tepid Doors cover hints at anything alternative. Then there’s this legend: Greased Up Saxophone Guy.

Tim Cappello, aka Greased-up Saxophone Guy

There’s every eighties teen coming-of-age trope writ large here: single mum brings her two misfit kids to Santa Carla, a coastal town. Kids struggle, accordingly, to fit in. Vampires have the run of the town, in a hangover from the James Dean era, albeit with some sweeeeet motorbikes in place of dragracing.

The cast are mostly good: Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric and The Two Coreys (Haim and Feldman) all bring troubled masculinity to the somewhat flimsy plot. Diane Wiest as Lucy is the sweet, likeable everymum, but Jami Gertz as Star, the token female of the vampire group, is given little to do, except go “Stop it! Leave him alone!” or be a pretty ornament.

There are moments of humour, mostly from kid brother Sam (Haim) who gets the best zingers: “You’re a goddamn, shit- sucking vampire…Wait ’til Mom hears about this, buddy!” or “death by stereo” when a vampire gets electrocuted via holy water and a boombox. But otherwise, the script is pretty dull, and ultimately, the film descends into action movie torpor of big explosions , FX and proto-edgelords going, “Woahhhhh!’ or cackling demonically for about twenty minutes.

Essentially, it hasn’t aged well, from top to bottom. It’s far from a classic eighties popcorn flick like a John Hughes or even a Spielberg. But Run DMC and Aerosmith’s ‘Walk This Way’ still slaps.