Today I thought a little change of pace and review a movie intended for a slightly older audience, in this case adolescents, this is the Lost Boys.
In the eighties as the slasher genre rose and the more archetypal monsters such as vampires, werewolves and ghosts were falling into relative obscurity, Lost Boys flew on to the screens to remind of all we had nearly lost and simultaneously starting the trend of vampire movies but with more familiar modern settings in great contrast to previous vampire movies which had mostly been period pieces. It also created in its intended demographic a fanbase which remains prevelant and perceives to this day, after all how could teenagers remain so emotionally invested in things like Vampire Academy and (as much as it kills me to admit it), Twilight.
The film begins with a baby Kiefer Sutherland leading a motorcycle gang through a boardwalk, they fall foul of another biker gang, presumably because Sutherland is insecure that the other gang looks more ridiculous than they do. An overweight security guard breaks up the ruckus but is later attacked by an unseen flying force that pull him into the air.
We cut to a middle American family as they go to live with their overly eccentric grandpa, there is Michael played by Jason Patric and Sam played by Corey Haim, two young up and coming teens with only one thing on their minds escaping the boredom of living in dreary Santa Carla which claims to be the murder capital of the world, hmm I wonder why, but I think we can all agree that it has absolutely nothing to do with imaginary vampires.
So Michael gives in to his latent teenage sex drive as he comes across Star played by Jamie Gertz who leads Micheal in with the biker gang as lead by baby Kiefer Sutherland, Sutherland challenges Micheal to race which nearly sends him falling to his untimely death off the side of a cliff but still eager to get into Star's panties Micheal forgives the obviously psychotic Sutherland for this and follows them down into their lair, geez I wonder what Micheal would do for a Klondike bar.
Once there the gang toys with Michael and convinces him to drink what he believes to be wine but of course it turns out to be blood, and to the shock of all those who possess less than half a chromosome, they are revealed to be vampires.
Sam meanwhile becomes friends with the Frog Brothers who look and act like the demented love children of Rambo and the Terminator. They convince Sam that vampires exist just in time for Sam to notice the changes in his older brother, Sam and Michael reconcile and come up with a plan to finish the wicked vampire gang, aiding them are the Frog brothers and Star. Michael, Sam, Star and the Frog Brothers engage in bloody battle and succeed in vanquishing the vampires
The situation seems resolved until overly eccentric grandpa goes to the refridgerator and remarks on how he could never quite come to terms with the existance of vampires and their prescence within the town, with the line "One thing about livin' in Santa Carla I never could stomach, all the damn vampires".
The film itself is a delightful little visceral romp into the realms of surburban horror. The film was directed by Joel Shumacher, when his credibility as a director was still intact, orignally conceived as a simple kiddy vampire movie, Shumacher went to greater lengths to ensure that the film could be enjoyed by virtually any audience member above the age of thirteen and that the film was effective in the sense of being a movie, which I have to admit is, the writing and characterization is interesting as it allows the film to oscillate between the serious and the childishly humourous. Such as with the character of Micheal, who along with vampirism could be seen as an allegory for the threat of drug addiction or alcoholism on impressionable young people.
I particularly enjoy the group feeding scene in which the threat of attack is handled through high angles, low angles and of course the always popular dutch angle as a means of conveying threat. The lighting of the film also has to be praised, the first thing you learn about Schumacher is that he loves lighing effects. The lighting is handled in reds, oranges and yellows, the colour scheme is relevant as it of course conveys the threating, the sensual and of course the bloody.
The story is quite good, but I feel that the film is lacking in its third act, becoming increasingly stereotypical and a factory for cliche` catchphrases that quite thankfully never caught on.
Overall the film is entertaining and, as far as vampire movies go is functional but really seems to be a case of style over substance, the writng perfectly balances the serious and the humourous but even with that the characters become slightly cliche`as the film draws to its conclusion, but its just like the man says;
'No-one ever paid to see under the top'.
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