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Exploring LOST BOYS: The History Behind the Beloved Vampire Horror Comedy

Chris Well

When a teen is befriended by a gang of vampires, can his younger brother and some local vamp-slayers help before it’s too late?

The 1987 horror comedy film Lost Boys starred Dianne Wiest, Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Corey Feldman, Edward Herrmann, Billy Wirth, Brooke McCarter, Alex Winter, Jamison Newlander, and Barnard Hughes. The film was directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Harvey Bernhard, with a screenplay written by Jeffrey Boam, Janice Fischer, and James Jeremias, from a story by Fischer and Jeremias.

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The title of the movie Lost Boys refers to the characters from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan stories, who—just like vampires—also never grow old. Originally, the characters were intended to be younger children, but once Schumacher became the director, he upgraded the characters to make them sexier and more adult.

In a group interview, actor Alex Winter said that Lost Boys is the most successful interpretation of all the things director Joel Schumacher did well—fashion, music, understanding actors and story and style, as well as homoeroticism, sexual ambiguity, and sexual adventurousness. “So few people really had a forward vision,” Winter said in the Entertainment Weekly article The Lost Boys, 35 years later: ‘Everything was still firing on all cylinders…’. “I just think [Joel] swung for the fences, and he connected, you know? It’s not The Godfather, but in terms of how it works, it’s very satisfying.”

In the same interview, actor Corey Feldman pointed out, “The story is rooted in family. A lot of people don’t realize that, but that was something that Joel was always very cognizant of. And I think that is something that really hits home and makes it feel naturalistic. It’s not just a science-fiction movie, it’s not just a vampire movie. It’s got that true, virtuous piece of it.”

By presenting the vampires as sexy and young, Lost Boys impacted pop culture’s view of vampires. The original film was followed by the comic book mini-series Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs, the straight-to-home video movie sequels Lost Boys: The Tribe and Lost Boys: The Thirst, and a comic book miniseries simply titled Lost Boys.

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The video playlist below includes the Lost Boys movie trailer, several clips from the film, pus a video where the folks at GoodBadFlicks looks at the unusual history of the film.

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