The Lost Boys



"Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire."

The Lost Boys is a 1987 vampire movie with all the trimmings. A recently divorced mother and her two sons move to Santa Cruz Carla. The older one, Michael, falls in with a gang of biker vampires; the younger, Sam, befriends a couple of seemingly insane comic store assistants. Michael begins turning into a vampire and it is up to Sam, with the help of the Frog brothers, to save him.

Starring Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Kiefer Sutherland, Dianne Wiest, Alex Winter, and a few other people, including Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander as the Frog brothers.

Followed no less than twenty-one years later by a Direct to Video sequel, Lost Boys: The Tribe. Chris Emerson, a young disgraced former surfing pro, and his younger sister Nicole move to Luna Bay to live with their Aunt following the death of their parents. Nicole falls for the enigmatic Shane Powers, another former pro-surfer who "mysteriously vanished" from the circuit. Turns out, it was because he became a vampire. Shane turns Nicole into a vampire, and Chris sets out to save her. Oh, and he enlists the help of Edgar Frog.

Starring Autumn Reeser, Tad Hilgenbrink, Angus Sutherland and Corey Feldman,.

A second Direct-to-Video sequel, Lost Boys: The Thirst was released in 2010. Vampire-romance novelist Gwen needs Edgar Frog to find her brother who has gone missing after getting sucked into a series of underground raves, called 'X Parties' held by an enigmatic spinner named DJ X. In a last, frantic message he mentioned being given a new party drug known as The Thirst, which Edgar identifies as really being vampire blood. With the next 'X Party' only days away, Edgar is faced with the threat of an army of vampires, unless he stops DJ X and saves Peter. But, DJ X isn't just a vampire, he's the Alpha Vampire, the ultimate head vampire and someone Edgar's going to need help to defeat, and Edgar hopes to recruit his reclusive brother who's dealing with his own dark past.

Starring Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander as the Frog Brothers, and Tanit Phoenix.

There is also a four issue comic book series, Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs. Published by Wildstorm, the series is set between the first two films and explains why Edgar is working alone by the time The Tribe starts, how Shane became a vampire as well as the fate of several other characters from the films, some of whom are never mentioned in The Tribe.

These films contain examples of:
"Edgar Frog: I'm going to need weapons. Lots of. Really expensive. Custom made. Weapons."
 * Actor Allusion: Corey Feldman talking about reality shows being staged.
 * Adults Are Useless: Justified in that Sam and Michael's mom doesn't believe there are vampires; she believes the more rational explanation that her sons are having trouble coping with the idea of her dating again. Ironically her current boyfriend  Also, heavily subverted at the end,
 * Subverted in The Tribe, but only because Edgar Frog returns from the first film.
 * Played straighter by Chris and Nicole's aunt (she's unaware of the vampires, and just thinks that they're just taking advantage of not having their parents around by partying all night-- ) and the police (who are flat out afraid to deal with Shane's gang, despite being unaware they're vampires).
 * An Aesop: Peer pressure is bad. Don't give in.
 * Affably Evil
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted with David and Star, since she and Michael start taking an interest in each other. The trope is also deconstructed in that even though we don't know how Star came to be involved with David, she doesn't seem to be enjoying the life of a vampire very much since
 * All There in the Manual: The comic series, Lost Boys: The Reign of Frogs is this in spades, clearing up several loose ends from the first film, and revealing some of the the back story to The Tribe. Some of the ideas in the comic (Such as ) are also used in The Thirst
 * Sam's Grandpa.
 * Michael and Star
 * Possibly retconned in The Thirst - Some of Edgar and Alan's dialogue implies that
 * David sired Shane, back in 1987 and Shane created The Tribe because David had The Lost Boys.
 * The reason Edgar works alone, is because when
 * Retconned in The Thirst -
 * Ambiguously Gay: Sam . . . just Sam. His poster of Rob Lowe shirtless, his fixation on an oily muscly saxophone player, and his crooning of the girl verse from I Ain't Got a Man" while taking a bubble bath.
 * Also some of his disconcertingly rainbow themed wardrobe choices, although that may just be a side effect of it being The Eighties. The Frog brothers comment on him being a "fashion victim".
 * Angry Guard Dog: Thorn.
 * The Archer
 * BFG: The Thirst.


 * Badass Grandpa
 * Beauty Equals Goodness: It's been played straight and subverted in the original film. Out of all of the vampires, Star is the only one who never puts on her Game Face, and she is a good character. However, Michael and Laddie have shown their vampire faces, but they're not bad either.
 * Big Bad: in the original,  in The Thirst
 * Big Brother/Sister Instinct: Michael naturally has this toward Sam. Star also exhibits the big sister instinct toward Laddie, a young boy that the vampire gang kidnapped and intended to turn into a vampire.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Edgar Frog in The Tribe
 * Blonde Guys Are Evil: David.
 * The Can Kicked Him: and how.
 * Car Fu
 * Celebrity Paradox: Around half an hour into The Thirst, Edgar is thrown into a book case in a comic book store, and the contents of the shelves fall on top of him. As he gets up, a copy of the collected The Reign of Frogs is infront of his face.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Grandpa. Also, Edgar and Allen have shades of this, along with being Properly Paranoid.
 * Cool Car
 * Creepy Child
 * The Cuckoolander Was Right: Michael and Sam's grandfather was perceived as just another senile old guy, until the end where
 * Deus Ex Machina: Grandpa crashing through the wall in his jeep with perfect timing... okay. Said jeep happening to be piled high with a bunch of pointed fence posts... fine. But ... that's a bit much.
 * Considering how, it's possible that impalement of any sort suffices for this film's vampires. Which would also make   more plausible.
 * Michael does
 * Did Not Do the Research: Nothing said about comic book continuity makes any sense at all.
 * Dramatic Landfall Shot
 * The Dragon:
 * Eighties Hair: Especially on the guys.
 * Evil Detecting Dog: Nanook.
 * Evil Plan:
 * Expy: Gwen Lieber from The Thirst is one for Stephenie Meyer.
 * Fan Service: Both Corey Haim and Corey Feldman in one movie!
 * And I'm fairly sure that sax player was oiled.
 * Face On a Milk Carton: Laddie.
 * Final Solution:.
 * Five Man Band
 * In the original film:
 * The Hero: Michael
 * The Lancer: Sam
 * The Smart Guy: Edgar and Alan Frog
 * The Chick: Star
 * Tagalong Kid: Laddie
 * In The Thirst:
 * The Hero: Edgar Frog
 * The Lancer: Zoe
 * The Chick: Gwen Lieber
 * The Big Guy: Lars Van Goetz..
 * The Load: Klaus..
 * Sixth Ranger: Alan Frog
 * Flight
 * Girl On Girl Is Hot: The Thirst gives us lesbian vampires.
 * Hell Hotel
 * Heroic Dog: Nanook the husky, who did a lot more than "help a little"
 * Heroic Willpower: Michael uses this at the last minute to pwn David.
 * I Ate What: The way someone's turned into a half-vampire is by being tricked into drinking blood, being told it's wine.
 * Also when Michael is eating rice with the vampires, David (Kiefer Sutherland) says to him, "Maggots, Michael. You're eating maggots. How do they taste?" Upon which Michael suddenly notices (or has been fooled into thinking) that his meal is a writhing mass of maggots; he reacts appropriately.
 * I Hate You Vampire Dad: Michael and Star's opinion of David.
 * Impaled With Extreme Prejudice
 * One of Shane's mooks in The Tribe is.
 * Invoked once again in The Thirst, when.
 * Make Out Point: Favorite hunting grounds for the vampires.
 * Naive Everygirl: Star; at least as much as she can in an R-rated movie.
 * Notable Original Music: I Still Believe by Tim Cappello.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Grandpa.
 * Once an Episode: A vampire recites some version of the quote at the top of the page.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Along with Near Dark, this movie rewrote the book on vampires, in the same way An American Werewolf in London and The Howling(also both in the same year) rewrote the book on werewolves.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: See the entry for Sequel Hook below.
 * Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Evil AND a vampire.
 * Poster Gallery Bedroom
 * Real Life Writes the Plot: Averted in The Thirst, as.
 * The Savage South: Santa Carla, California: Murder Capital of the World.
 * Senseless Phagia: The wine in both the original film and The Tribe.
 * Michael eats maggots, because he was told they were rice.
 * Although it's unclear from the footage which contents of the carton, maggots or rice, were genuine. And it'd probably be easier for the vampire gang to swipe (or even pay for!) some genuine Chinese takeout than to gather a bunch of maggots and earthworms.
 * The drug "The Thirst" from... The Thirst - It's part ecstasy and part vampire blood.
 * Sequel Hook: Averted in both the original film ,and The Tribe with the two unused alternate endings. See What Could Have Been for more detail.
 * Played straight in The Thirst, as Edgar makes a comment about how he's recently read
 * Sex Equals Love: Michael and Star really didn't share that many lines with each other before they
 * Sexy Discretion Shot
 * Shirtless Scene: When Tim Cappello sings I Still Believe.
 * Shout Out: Edgar and Allen Frog. You're either young, poorly read, or English is not your first language to figure that one out.
 * "Holy shit! It's the attack of Eddie Munster!"
 * Receives a Call Back in The Thirst - "Holy shit! It's the attack of Grandpa Munster!"
 * When reveals his plan, Edgar responds by describing it as "The Bloodsucking Brady Bunch"
 * There's an Echo and the Bunnymen poster in Sam's bedroom (they sung The Doors' song "People Are Strange" in the opening montage).
 * Stuff Blowing Up: When  How the hell this chain of events even managed to happen is beyond us - but it was hella sweet.
 * Super Loser
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Shane from The Tribe has more or less the same personality as David did in the original film and Shane's actor is Angus Sutherland, half-brother of Keither Sutherland, who played David.
 * Take Me Instead: At the end of The Lost Boys,
 * Take That: Gwen Lieber from The Thirst is a thinly veiled Expy of Twilight creator Stephenie Meyer. When Edgar says that he knows she's the author of a series of romantic novels about vampires which are now being adapted into films, Gwen states that she's flattered. Edgar responds by saying the books suck, and derides the fans of the books as "emo goth teens".
 * Taxidermy Terror: Sam wakes up to discover that his grandfather has left a stuffed woodchuck in his room to "brighten up the place". It freaks him out to the point that he tossed a shirt over it. The shirt is still covering the woodchuck at the end of the movie, indicating that Sam found it more disturbing than the vampires he just had to fight.
 * Title Drop: In The Thirst, and immediately followed up with a Development Gag - Johnny Trash refers to his audience as "Lost Boys and Girls".
 * Trailers Always Spoil:
 * Trashcan Bonfire: several of these are scattered throughout the Hell Hotel.
 * Undead Child
 * Unintentional Period Piece: Its so Eighties that it actually looks like a modern film set in the eighties.
 * Vampire Monarch: According to legend, if you kill a "head vampire", all the "half - vampires" turned by vampires under his command are restored to human form.
 * Vampire Refugee: Star, Laddie, and Michael.
 * Nicole in The Tribe
 * in The Thirst
 * Virus Victim Symptoms
 * What Could Have Been: Believe it or not, according to the director's commentary in the DVD Bonus Content, the original script for the first movie was written for a G-rated film with most of the main characters being children Laddie's age. The Frog Brothers were going to be somewhat chubby Boy Scouts, and Michael was apparently going to be about thirteen years old. Basically, it would've been a Grimmified Peter Pan, right down to David and Star's characters being named Peter and Wendy...
 * The reason 's skeleton didn't turn to dust at the end of the original film after is because he doesn't die. This would have been picked up in a sequel, called The Lost Girls. Scripts for the film circulated in the early 1990's, but the film was never made. However, the plot point would turn up in the comic book Lost Boys: The Reign of Frogs.
 * The two alternate endings to Lost Boys: The Tribe featured . The two endings are largely the same, only in one ending, is far more serious than in the other, since he'd already been bitten.
 * Corey Haim stated, after production started on Lost Boys: The Thirst, that he wasn't going to be involved in the film, but that he would return to the series in the fourth film. Unfortunately, Haim died in March 2010.
 * This was later confirmed by Feldman and Newlander.
 * This was later confirmed by Feldman and Newlander.