The Lost Boys captured the zeitgeist of 1987, a year that marked a transition from the neon and pastel shades of the early 80s to something darker and edgier.
Long celebrated as a brilliantly entertaining slice of 80s horror, The Lost Boys was a jukebox comedy-horror that helped make vampires cool again just as their popularity was waning. Featuring the music of Gerard McMann, INXS, and Echo and the Bunnymen, Joel Schumacher’s visually stunning celebration of ’80s fashion, rebellion and music was designed to leave a lasting impression. Like Less Than Zero, The Lost Boys captured the zeitgeist of 1987, a year that marked a transition from the neon and pastel shades of the early 80s to something darker and edgier.
Joel Schumacher and Richard Donner’s comic-book horror was an inspired, vampiric take on J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. The dark and mysterious (Kiefer Sutherland) and his band of bikers are the lost boys of Barrie’s story, but they are not led by an impish Peter Pan but by a vision of Hook called Max (Ed Herrmann). Within this macabre, Pan-inspired fairground of hormones, heart-racing horror, and hilarity, the new boys in town, Michael (Jason Patric) and his kid brother, Sam (Corey Haim), find themselves trapped in a deadly and rather tongue-in-cheek race for survival, a race summarised nicely by Sam: “My own brother, a goddamn shit-sucking vampire. Well you wait ’til Mom finds out, buddy!”
Schumacher embraced vision, style, one-liners, sexuality, and music over story in creating The Lost Boys, meaning that, for many people, it’s not the rather thin story that stands out when thinking back on its brilliance. Instead, what sticks in the memory is Corey Haim’s killer smile, Jason Patric’s moody looks, Kiefer Sutherland’s creepy yet alluring David, and Corey Feldman’s uber-serious yet out-of-his-depth Edgar: “Great! The bloodsucking Brady Bunch!” Add the haunting synth-rock anthem “Cry Little Sister”, and the edgy, darkly alluring fairground at the heart of the film, and The Lost Boys becomes an unforgettable cinematic experience, despite its narrative simplicity and, let’s face it, rather disappointing final act.
Of course, like many ’80s movies- yes, Top Gun and Fright Night, I am talking about you- there is also a homoerotic charge that runs through Schumacher’s film. Michael and David may not snog halfway through, but they might as well have! For a movie released at the height of ’80s gay-panic, themes of coming out run through The Lost Boys, as do fears of difference and transformation. Just look at Sam’s reaction to his hormonal, moody older brother coming out as a vampire: his fears are quickly replaced by love and acceptance as he says, “Even though you’re a vampire, you’re still my brother.” Then we have Sam himself, whose flamboyant style and large poster of a steamy Rob Lowe on his bedroom wall also hint at a boy about to undergo his own transformation.
There is no doubt that Fright Night, a few years earlier and Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, released the same year, were far superior to Schumacher’s JM Barrie-inspired horror-comedy in both story and pacing. Yet despite its flaws, it’s The Lost Boys we all return to year after year, never tiring of its late-80s charm, one-liners, haunting visuals and sound or the stellar performances that make it a truly unforgettable and proudly queer comedy-horror.
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