Repetitive sequences that show off the movie's mysterious setting, a romance aspect that doesn't seem to go anywhere, and a handful of one-dimensional characters...with VAMPIRES. Ring a bell, even without the werewolves? Does this sound painfully familiar?
Now, you're probably wondering: "how could you bash the Twilight craze when you watch a dumb teen vampire flick and enjoy it?"
Hmmmm...where to start...
It's true that The Lost Boys is no masterpiece; really, there are plenty of other movies of that decade that are gargantuanly-better in comparison. It's a campy stab at the horror genre that incorporates elements from numerous teen comedies that the eighties were known for. Which brings me to my first point: ITS THE FRICKEN EIGHTIES. A time when popcorn flicks, even the lesser ones, were made with enough originality, effort, and energy to count as something watchable. The Lost Boys came more than a decade before Stephanie Myer's best-selling series. It was not yet common to combine teenage drama with the classic mythology of vampires and other such creatures. And the amount of creativity in bringing these things together shines through the film's visual style. The opening shots, high in the clouds and set to haunting choir tunes, gives a subtle taste of what's to come.
The vampires in question are not thrown in your face from the get-go, but are introduced in tried-and-true, Hitchock/Spielberg- tested hints of their power. They seem like your average gang of punks (lead by none other than Keifer Sutherland, pre -Jack Bauer, who is without a doubt the most charismatic of the cast). As we advance through the movie, their secret forms are revealed, as are the atrocities they are capable of.
But the movie is not made solely for melodrama and occasional shocks. There is a good deal of nerdy tomfoolery that, though corny at times, leads up to a solidly-entertaining payoff, complete with comic action and one-liners. Still, as enjoyable as this cheese may be, it is part of the main problem that most critics had with the movie.
The first half of the movie, draped with a foreboding atmosphere and a genuine sense of menace, suggests that the story had strong thematic potential. And had the filmmakers continued in this direction, the film very well could have become a bonafide classic. Roger Ebert, in his review of the picture, points out the tragic nature of the story, the idea of losing one's youthful innocence through the spiritual corruption of being a vampire. In retrospect, it is a shame that the story never really takes advantage of its potential. The title itself is a deliberate reference to the story of Peter Pan, with which the piece shares several thematic similarities, and to have seen a more poetically-charged arc would have been immensely powerful.
(It has dawned on me that Twilight may have touched on some of these elements throughout its four-book saga. True as this may be, and ignoring the fact that I have yet to see anything past the 2nd movie....<shudder>....I'm willing to bet that such facets of the story might not rise above the glaringly-flawed protagonist that everyone loves to pick on so much...)
With this, it goes without saying that for those who notice how beautiful of a concept the film truly has, there will be a helping of disappointment. Don't go in expecting anything more than an exceptionally well-crafted romp. Simply watch it with some friends if you can, and enjoy some entertainment from a time with less stale close-ups and moping.......
*Look for The Lost Boys in several editions, including a two-disc Collector's set.
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