Lost Boys

Let's step into the way back machine, once again.  We are traveling back to a movie theater in 1987 and prove how old I am.  Though I will admit that as eleven, with the movie at a PG-13, I had to wait till it came out in video.

True, Lost Boys falls under horror, but it is all in the family with genre.  Lost Boys is important because it flawlessly combined a number of elements seamlessly.  And they did it with never hitting R.  True, that's because they lacked nudity and swearing, not gore, which has always confused me, but there it is.

This hip movie featured a scary ass Keifer Sutherland and both Corys.  What made it amazing was that it had  solid vamp horror base (though they did play fast and loose with some rules, it didn't ruin the movie) with scalps being ripped off and blood spurting every which way.  But it created so much more.  The backdrop created a solid world building beauty with the town of Santa Carla, which, having been there looks a hell of a lot like Santa Cruz plus vamps.  But that seaside, border walk and hills made for that eclectic, hectic world where Jim Morrison somehow fits into everything.

They didn't leave it there.  The quirk goes deeper.  Humor slides in seamlessly without hurting the fright.  If fact, the off limits double stuffed Oreos and lines such as "I don't know, it's not like you got a bad grade or something" when Michael asks his brother to hide that he is becoming a vampire, heighten character creation, make you love the characters, and so the fear increases as we actually care about whether or not the characters die.  Of course, two words:  Frog Brothers.

And of course what is a teen vampire movie without a romance, right?  Rather than Michael and Star's romance feeling like it is stuffed in because it is par for the course, their romance drives Michael into the plot, and her situation as a half vampire as he is, it helps his resolve to drive them all back out of their messed up situation.

Every element builds into each other to wrap us up within the world of the movie.  If you just told me about the movie, which hopefully I have done a better job of, I might have assumed it horrible.  I have seen other vampire movies try to pull off this mix of humor, character, and horror and in general fail miserably.

Lost Boys is a testament to fusion.

When my students were reading Twilight, I would tell them to watch Lost Boys.  Luckily, with the PG-13 rating, I could get away with that.