Believe it or not, The Lost Boys was originally supposed to be a more wholesome, Peter Pan-inspired
vampire movie. But following the success of St. Elmo's Fire, director Joel Schumacher
turned the project into a sexy, gory, and politically subversive teenage classic that
changed the way vampires would be portrayed in Hollywood for decades to come.
While it still holds up as one of the better vampire films ever made, there's probably
a lot you don't know about this cult classic. So grab your leather jacket, hold onto the
rails, and check out the untold truth of The Lost Boys.
Santa Carla
You don't have to be from California to know that Santa Carla, the town where The Lost
Boys takes place, doesn't actually exist. However, locals can easily recognize The Lost
Boys' location as the South Bay beach town Santa Cruz, thanks to shots of its Giant Dipper
Roller Coaster.
Director Joel Schumacher fell in love with the locale as soon as he scouted it, telling
the local news, "The movie didn't come together until I saw [Santa Cruz]. At the time, there
was an enormous amount of transient kids moving through Santa Cruz. This is exactly where
I would come if I was a teenage vampire."
After reversing a couple of letters in nearby Santa Clara, he even had a locally inspired
new name for his movie's dream spot.
The cast enjoyed filming in the scenic beach town, too. Corey Feldman recalled, "We had
such a great time there. Being kids and having the opportunity to be at the Boardwalk every
day, getting to ride on the Giant Dipper and being at the beach, it was such a fun experience."
However, securing Santa Cruz as the film's location wasn't all smooth sailing. The town's
authorities were wary of the Boardwalk being portrayed in a bad light, especially after
1983's violent Sudden Impact took them by surprise. Even worse, Santa Carla's title
as "the murder capital of the world" wasn't fictional, as Santa Cruz earned that description
after years of serial killings. But the authorities read The Lost Boys' script, loved it, and
ended up giving Schumacher the green light. And the rest is pop culture history.
Goonies gone vampire
The Lost Boys was initially skewed towards a much younger audience. The film's original
script, written by Jan Fischer and James Jeremias, was intended to be — as the title suggests
— a re-imagining of Peter Pan with vampires. However, as Schumacher told the Telegraph,
he thought it read too much like "The Goonies go vampire," especially with Goonies director
Richard Donner originally at the helm and Corey Feldman joining the cast.
When Donner departed the project to direct Lethal Weapon, Schumacher gained control and
took The Lost Boys from "very wholesome" to very campy.
He explained, "The Frog brothers were Boy Scouts. I thought, 'Why can't they all be
teenagers? Why can't they be dressed incredibly? And why can't they have stripped-down motorcycles
that look skeletal?'"
Schumacher posed these questions to Warner Bros. president Mark Canton, who ultimately
gave him permission to give the script a teenage makeover.
Alex Winter, who played Marko, praised the changes, saying, "I don't think I really connected
with it until I got there and realized quite how deep Joel was going. He really got it
cinematically and was taking it to this crazy place."
Edgar Rambo
Thanks to his connection with Goonies director Richard Donner, Corey Feldman received an
invitation to audition for the part of The Lost Boys' vampire-slaying Edgar Frog. But
when he read through the script with Joel Schumacher, he got an interesting note:
"He was like, 'That was great but could you maybe, um, butch it up a little bit?'"
Feldman said he was instructed to hit the video store and rent the movies of Sylvester
Stallone and Chuck Norris, telling him:
"That is your character. I want you to meld all of these guys together and make something
out of it."
Feldman's portrayal of Edgar Frog certainly breathes some comedic life into the film,
which is often pretty dark and serious.
Of that Feldman said, "I think the fun part about the character and the comic value of
it is that he doesn't think it's funny, and he's not in on the joke. So, [he's] one of
those people that you just kinda have to laugh at because, you know, they really take themselves
very seriously, and they believe every word of what they're saying about themselves, or
whatever it is they believe in."
Challenging conventions
The Lost Boys may be campy, but it also challenged certain common conventions about family life
in America.
The Atlantic argues that the movie arrived at a time when many Americans were fearful
of a perceived disintegration of the traditional nuclear family structure.
The Lost Boys challenged these notions by focusing on two non-traditional families — the
Emersons and the vampire crew. As 'the good guys,' the Emersons survive — and ultimately
thrive — despite the mother being newly divorced, broke, and forced to move into her
father's house with her two sons. When we meet Max — the one father-type character
who could offer a traditional fix to the broken Emerson family — it turns out he's also
a monster. Meanwhile, the film's other family is a bunch of dudes living, sleeping, partying,
and killing together.
Additionally, the film is also commonly analyzed as challenging conservative notions of sexuality,
all at a time when the President of the United States was accused of ignoring the country's
incredibly serious AIDS crisis.
Today, much of The Lost Boys is commonly viewed as homoerotic. Santa Carla itself represents
a place where people on the outskirts of society, such as homosexuals and vampires, can live
openly. David and his crew of vampires dress in leather outfits not unlike to those worn
by members of the early '80's underground gay club scene, and new vampires must drink
David's blood in an initiation ceremony. Sam's bedroom is decorated with a poster of Rob
Lowe's abs. Michael, fearing his actions with David have led him down a deviant path, rushes
off to have sex with Star — whom none of the other vampires seem particularly interested
in.
Schumacher himself even endorses these analyses, telling GamesRadar that "[The Lost Boys] is,
in a way, about the fear we have of the Other—those who live outside of the mainstream."
All about Michael
Anyone who's ever even passively watched The Lost Boys has the name "Michael" permanently
engraved in their memories of the movie. That's because the protagonist's name is uttered
more than any other word in the entire film.
Just how many times do we hear his name? Well over a hundred.
"Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael!"
Considering the film's runtime is only 97 minutes, that means viewers got at least one
Michael-mention a minute, which is a lotta name love for one half-vampire to receive.
A Tale of Two Coreys
Child stars Corey Haim and Corey Feldman were a late '80s dynamic duo, appearing together
in pics like License to Drive, Dream a Little Dream, and National Lampoon's Last Resort.
But it was The Lost Boys that first paired the young actors who'd later be referred to
as "the two Coreys."
"We just clicked. Uh, chemistry for ourselves, and people I guess get wind of it. Like 'Wow,
these two have something off camera but on camera.'"
Unfortunately, a series of ill-advised personal and professional decisions derailed both Coreys'
careers, and their brief peak as teenage heartthrobs belied a slew of direct-to-video releases.
Sadly, even their on-screen reunion on the short-lived reality show The Two Coreys couldn't
save Corey Haim, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 38.
Ben Stiller, Lost Boy?
Kiefer Sutherland's crew of leather-wearing teenage vampires with rock 'n' roll haircuts
almost included another up-and-comer we all know now.
Ben Stiller has claimed that he was almost cast as one of the Lost Boys, telling a Hollywood
crowd in 2010, "Last time I saw a room full of so many talented faces was when I auditioned
for The Lost Boys. It was between me and Kiefer and the two Coreys."
He might've been joking, but the actor would have been 21 at the time of production, which
makes him the right age for one of the roles.
It's also fairly easy to imagine the dark-haired Stiller wearing leather and riding a motorcycle
alongside Sutherland and crew. Considering all the models that did make into the cast,
it's also easy to picture Zoolander's patented "Blue Steel" pose stacking up against Brooke
McCarter's tough-guy smirk quite nicely.
Stolen fiancée
While filming The Lost Boys, Jason Patric and Kiefer Sutherland became close friends.
Four years later, however, Patric was on an airplane to Ireland with Sutherland's ex-fiancée,
Julia Roberts, leading to some juicy tabloid drama.
In 2016, Sutherland reflected on the headline-making breakup from years earlier:
"We were young and we were both very much in love, and we had decided that we wanted
to get married… She was arguably the most famous woman in the world… This wedding
that was supposed to be something between the two of us became something so big… I
think she had the courage — it wasn't what she wanted to do in the end."
Not long after her split with Sutherland, however, Roberts started dating Patric. For
his part, Patric has since downplayed the whole love triangle ordeal, telling Vulture,
"everything that happened was all fake and bulls--- and let them give quotes about whatever
they want. Obviously people are gonna ask. They had a relationship that ended and I was
with her for a little while and it ended. They've both been subsequently married several
times and I think they're fine. But we never had any issue, even back then."
Indeed, to this day, Patric claims he has maintained his friendship with Sutherland,
despite their brief romantic rivalry.
"It's just nice that all these years later, I'm still very good friend with Jami Gertz,
very good friends with Kiefer. And, it was a special time."
Buffy the vampire stealer
As one of the first teenage vampire films to feature some serious sex appeal, The Lost
Boys inspired a whole new sub-genre of vampire stories — including Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Buffy creator Joss Whedon has gone on record to explain some of the ways his movie and
resulting TV series took inspiration from the film. As Whedon told Salon back in 2003,
"the idea of [vampires] looking like monsters and then looking like people … That was
in Lost Boys, and that was very useful for us. … You could have somebody fool you,
or someone like Angel seem like he's not a vampire and then he is one."
The series' second season introduced a character named Spike, a platinum blonde vampire played
by James Marsters. Whedon credited The Lost Boys for the inspiration for the character,
saying "there's a little Billy Idol, a little Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost Boys, and every
guy in a black coat."
Skip the sequels
Although The Lost Boys lives on as a piece of cultural iconography, its sequels definitely
failed to earn the same kind of hype.
Why? Well, the first sequel took 20 years to happen, and even then it was still a straight-to-DVD
sort of deal. Titled Lost Boys: The Tribe, the movie did bring back Corey Feldman as
the only original cast member who made it into the final cut. And while it features
plenty of vampires and topless women, it has almost nothing to do with the original film,
leading critics to unanimously label it as little more than a cheap cash grab.
It did manage to make back its production costs upon release, however, so Warner Bros.
gave the go ahead to another titled Lost Boys: The Thirst, featuring the reunion of Feldman
and Jamison Newlander as the Frog brothers. However, it was slaughtered by critics and
sold half as many DVDs as the first sequel … so consider this one a lost boy in its
own right.