The Lost Boys on DVD

If you didn’t grow up in the 80s, you probably won’t enjoy The Lost Boys.

Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) are moving to a small California beachfront town with their mom (Dianne Wiest). Typical kids, they don’t want to be there; they’d rather be out with the friends they’re being forced to leave behind. And they can’t help but have a bad feeling about Santa Carla, which is dubbed the “murder capital of the world,” because of all the people that disappear without a trace.

But the family does their best to fit in. Mom gets a job and the boys head out into town on a regular basis to do what they do. Michael meets Star (Jami Gertz), a beautiful young girl who may or may not be dating David (Kiefer Sutherland), who may or may not be a vampire.

Sam meets the Frog brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander), a couple of local kids who seem to know more than they initially let on.

As Michael becomes more and more a vampire, Sam and the Frogs devise a way to kill the head vampire and bring every half vampire back to normal. Trouble is, they’re not quite sure who the head vampire is. Things progress pretty normally from there, as the vampire hunters try to find and kill the necessary vampires, and Michael does his best to cope with being a vampire – not to mention avoiding being killed by his brother and the Frogs.

It isn't a great movie. But it’s a great 80s movie. It’s a total cheeseball-fest of humor, action, and gore, with the one thing you’d never find anywhere but in an 80s movie: vampires with mullets. Not to mention vampires who spend way too much time walking in and out of stores without actually buying anything.

Director Joel Schumacher has a great looking movie on his hands. The small California town is beautiful, and the film features frequent shots of the beach and open ocean. There’s some wonderful cinematography by Michael Chapman.

Probably the best part about the whole thing is that it stars the two Coreys: a sure sign of quality 80s filmmaking.

On the other hand, the movie itself isn’t all that spectacular. It starts out well enough, but a couple of times it seems unsure of where it wants to go, opting to take the most obvious route you could think of. Of course, this is 17 years ago, and was probably much less ordinary back in that day.

It’s hard to imagine anyone but the target demographic really appreciating The Lost Boys. Like The Goonies, Monster Squad, and so many others, you have to have grown up in the aforementioned decade to truly enjoy it.

The Lost Boys has still managed to get a 2-disc special edition, even if it’s the kind of 2-disc special edition that would have made a more impressive single disc special edition.

Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture is good, but suffers from the typical 80s movie grain. Colors are rich and detail is well done (even during the dark scenes), although there’s a bit of muddiness here and there.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 is good, but should have featured more aggressive surrounds, especially during the more intense vampire attack sequences. Overall dialogue, music and effects are separated nicely, but the big, loud rock ‘n roll soundtrack should have been far more overpowering. The subwoofer goes back and forth between being too loud and too quiet, with no real balance in between.

Disc one’s only extra is the impressive audio commentary by Schumacher. While some may only know him as the butcher of Batman, he’s actually made several pretty good movies. Not only that, but the man seems to be nothing more than a movie lover who loves making movies, and it comes across in his commentary. He’s pretty softspoken, but smart, and knows a thing or two about the filmmaking process. He talks about everything from the pre-to-post production, the casting, and the mix of horror and humor.

Disc two features a good assortment of other material, but there’s no doubt it could have easily fit on the same disc as the movie. “The Lost Boys: A Retrospective” is a 25-minute making-of documentary that focuses way more on the early stages of production than anything else. We learn how the project came together, why certain people got involved, and how the movie – apparently – has been one of the more influential films in the genre.

“Inside the Cave” is a short featurette on the visual design, “Comedy vs. Horror” focuses on the movie’s postmodern “hipness,” “A Different Look at Vampires” is all about the film’s new twist on the classic legend, and “A Sequel?” examines the possibility of a Lost Boys 2. There’s also another short on the “Undead Creations of Greg Cannom.”

The Coreys and Jamison Newlander provide a multi-angle video commentary that provides us with some great insight into the thought processes of the trio. There’s also a 4-minute featurette on the history of the Coreys’ relationship. Finally, we get a series of deleted scenes, a photo gallery, an interactive map, a music video, and the trailer.

The Lost Boys, from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
97 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 5.1
Starring Corey Feldman, Jami Gertz, Corey Haim, Edward Herrmann, Barnard Hughes, Jason Patric, Keifer Sutherland and Dianne Wiest
Produced by Harvey Bernhard
Screenplay by Janice Fischer & James Jeremias and Jeffrey Boam, Directed by Joel Schumacher

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