The Lost Boys (1987)
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75% of critics liked it
(44 reviews) -
85% of users liked it
(249,958 ratings)
In this hit '80s hybrid of the horror movie and the teen flick, a single mom and her two sons become involved with a pack of vampires when they move into an offbeat Northern California town. Lucy (Dianne Wiest) and her sons, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim), move to Santa Carla to… More In this hit '80s hybrid of the horror movie and the teen flick, a single mom and her two sons become involved with a pack of vampires when they move into an offbeat Northern California town. Lucy (Dianne Wiest) and her sons, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim), move to Santa Carla to live with Lucy's lovable but curmudgeonly father (Barnard Hughes). Lucy gets a job from video-store owner Max (Edward Herrmann), then begins dating him, while Sam hangs out with Edward and Alan Frog (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander), a pair of vampire-obsessed comic-shop clerks. Soon Michael falls in with some actual vampires after becoming enamored of one of their victims: Star (Jami Gertz), a gypsy-like vixen who is trying to hold on to her humanity even though vampire leader David (Kiefer Sutherland) wants to play Peter Pan to her Wendy. When Michael visits the cavernous hangout of David and his cronies and unwittingly drinks from a wine bottle full of vampiric blood, he becomes an unwilling member of the bloodsucker biker gang. Soon, it's up to Sam and the Frog brothers to destroy David and his ilk without killing Michael and Star. Shot on location in the coastal California town of Santa Cruz and directed by Hollywood pro Joel Schumacher, The Lost Boys became a pop-culture phenomenon thanks to its attractive young stars, offbeat soundtrack, and hip, clever marketing campaign. The film's tagline -- "Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire." -- perfectly captured its knowing mixture of attitude and gore. The effects team who transformed Sutherland and company into snarling bloodsuckers would go on to provide equally gruesome effects for Blade, another revisionist vampire flick, more than a decade later. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Directed By
- Joel Schumacher
- Genres
- Action & Adventure, Horror, Mystery & Suspense
- In Theaters
- Jul 31, 1987 Wide
- On DVD
- Jan 27, 1998
- Studio
- Warner Bros. Pictures
Critic Reviews
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Variety Staff, Variety
A horrifically dreadful vampire teensploitation entry.
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, Time Out
Directed with a cavalier disregard for intelligibility, this has to be one of the most anaemic vampire flicks ever made.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
When everything is all over, there's nothing to leave the theater with -- no real horrors, no real dread, no real imagination -- just technique at the service of formula.
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Rita Kempley, Washington Post
It starts slow, but finishes fast with some clever plot twists. In the end, all is not lost with these boys.
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Desson Thomson, Washington Post
An exhilarating hybrid of horror and suburban comedy.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Jason Patric
as Michael
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Corey Haim
as Sam
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Dianne Wiest
as Lucy
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Barnard Hughes
as Grandpa
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Edward Herrmann
as Max
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Kiefer Sutherland
as David
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Jami Gertz
as Star
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Corey Feldman
as Edgar Frog
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Jamison Newlander
as Alan Frog
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Brooke McCarter Jr.
as Paul
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Billy Wirth
as Dwayne
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Alex Winter
as Marko
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Chance Michael Corbitt
as Laddie
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Melanie Bishop
as Child's Mother
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Kelly Jo Minter
as Maria
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Jim Turner
as Gas Station Owner
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J. Dinan Myrtetus
as Security Guard
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Nori Morgan
as Shelly
- Keifer Sutherland



