Film: The Lost Boys

The Lost Boys (1987)

            After growing up with this movie, I never fail to notice something new every time I watch it. The Lost Boys is a fun, wicked, yet traditional vampire movie. Michael Keaton is both charming and terrifying who plays well when tempting – just like the rest of the characters do.

I can probably count on my fingers the number of horror films that I think are perfect. The Lost Boys is one of those films. It’s funny, its scary, it respects a mythology and it does something new without becoming cheesy and predictable. Every performance in the flick is top notch and everyone takes the material seriously. At no point did I feel like anyone is phoning it in, which the temptation to do so had to be strong given the over the top subject matter.

The designs of the characters are fun and inspiring. Even the camera shots/angles, set design and special effects were (and still are) great for its time. The “vamped out” vampire’s makeup was subtle and effective and the gore, while only in a few scenes, is super effective and a lot of fun. The story line itself was simple, to the point, informative and even twisting to the point where the writers do a great job incorporating many characters to be just as important as the obvious main ones. I fell in love with this movie again and the ending is nothing less than a nail-biting thriller.