The Lost Boys (1987)

A 1987 teen vampire film about two brothers who move to a coastal California town and discover that the local gang is a vampire coven. Joel Schumacher directs, and the film is the rare 80s horror film that is also a comedy, also a teen film, and also a film about the fear of becoming your friends. The cast is one of the best of the decade: Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Corey Feldman, Dianne Wiest.

What the film does

Michael Emerson (Jason Patric) and his younger brother Sam (Corey Haim) move with their recently divorced mother Lucy (Dianne Wiest) to Santa Carla, California, where they live with Grandpa (Barnard Hughes). Lucy takes a job at a video store owned by Max (Edward Herrmann), who takes a romantic interest in her.

At the comic book store, Sam meets brothers Edgar and Alan Frog (Corey Feldman, Jamison Newlander), self-proclaimed vampire hunters who believe vampires have infested the town. Michael is drawn to Star (Jami Gertz), a beautiful girl on the boardwalk who spends time with David (Kiefer Sutherland), the charismatic leader of a local gang.

David challenges Michael to keep up with the gang on their motorcycles. They lead him to their hideout: a former luxury hotel buried during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. David manipulates Michael’s perception, making food appear as maggots and worms, then offers him a bottle of red liquid. Star warns him it contains blood, but Michael drinks it.

Michael begins to change. He becomes sensitive to light, normal food revolts him, his reflection fades. He nearly attacks Sam but Nanook, the family dog, stops him. Sam agrees to help. Michael’s transformation will only complete if he feeds on human blood, and may be reversible if they kill the head vampire.

Sam, Edgar, and Alan suspect Max is the head vampire but he passes every test: he has a reflection, garlic and holy water do not repel him. Meanwhile, David’s gang murders partygoers to push Michael into killing. Michael resists. Star tells him that she and Laddie, a young gang member, are also only partly transformed because they have refused to kill. David wanted her to kill Michael to complete her own transformation.

The boys stake Marko during the day while the vampires sleep, then escape with Star and Laddie. That night, David’s gang breaks into the Emerson home. Sam and the Frog brothers kill Paul and Dwayne. Michael impales David on Grandpa’s collection of antlers.

David’s death does not reverse Michael’s transformation. Max returns home with Lucy and confesses: he is the head vampire. He passed the tests because he had been invited into their home, which made him immune. He wanted to create a vampire family. He ordered David to turn Michael and Sam so Lucy would join as the mother.

Before Max can turn Lucy, Grandpa crashes his truck through the wall and impales Max with a large wooden fence post. Max explodes. Michael, Star, and Laddie revert to normal. Grandpa’s only comment: one thing about living in Santa Carla he never could stomach, all the damn vampires.

Why it’s in the canon

Criteria blend is 1+3, loved it and want to remember it. The film is an 80s vampire film that understands the vampire myth as a metaphor for teenage belonging. The gang is seductive because it is a gang. The feeding is initiation into the group. The transformation is permanent only if you kill. The film never explains the metaphor, which is why it works. The Frog brothers are the right comic relief: they know every rule of vampire lore and the film treats their knowledge as real expertise, not as a joke about nerds.

The cast is an 80s time capsule in the best way. Kiefer Sutherland as David is one of the few film vampires who feels like a real person, not a caricature. Jason Patric as Michael plays the transformation as a slow panic, not a power fantasy. The film earns its ending because it earned its beginning: the boardwalk, the motorcycles, the fog, the bridge, the suspended drop into darkness. All of it is the film establishing the mood before the first drop of blood.

A note on the image

The hero image is the canonical lost boys gang still. The source is bright at 69.6 and will bake down into the 25-35 canon range. The still is the right image for the film.

On hand

No. Wishlist entry. The film is widely available on home video and streaming.