THE LOST BOYS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1987 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Moody photography and baroque sets constitute most of the value of this punk-vampire film about the undead on motorcycles and pre-teen Van Helsings. The story plays a little fast and loose with traditional vampire lore.
Back when Hammer Films was making its best vampire films--and they were some of the best ever made--they used vampirism as a sort of metaphor. The early Dracula films with Christopher Lee (KISS OF THE VAMPIRE and especially BRIDES OF DRACULA) likened vampirism to drug addiction. This added a little relevance to the films and it made things easier for the scriptwriter. How does a mother behave when she discovers her beloved son has become a vampire? Well, it's not so hard to find mothers whose sons have become drug addict; just have them react the same way. In BRIDES OF DRACULA one woman talks about how there is a so-called smart set who consider vampirism a sort of special privilege. Hammer's metaphor has been resurrected for Joel Schumacher's LOST BOYS.
The story concerns two boys Sam (about 12 years old) and Michael (about 18) who are the new family in town in Santa Carla, California. Michael quickly falls in with the wrong sort, punk bikers forever getting into trouble. Sam makes friends, too, with boys his own age. The bikers are not just punks; they are vampires, and Sam's friends are vampire hunters. From there the plot follows turns which, if not completely predictable, are hardly surprising either. In fact, the only real surprise comes from where the scriptwriter suddenly decides to vary from the standard rules of the powers of the vampires.
With not much of a script to work with, Schumacher manages a few pleasant moments of tongue-in-cheek but little more than that. This is, however, a cinematographer's film and while everyone else seemed to be putting in half-hearted efforts, the cinematographer was working overtime. The photography is moody and at times even eerie. The atmospheric camerawork extends even to the gratuitous rock concert scenes. If THE LOST BOYS is better than Schumacher's previous films, like THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN, it is mostly because of emotional effects orchestrated by the cinematographer. Rate the film a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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