Del on The Lost Boys

Although the flick's name conjures up images of a motley crew of young adventurers from Never land, those friendly faces are not who director James Jeremias had in mind when he wrote the story of The Lost Boys. The 'lost boys' in this story are a gang of vampires, who come out in the evening to hang with other teenagers then in the night they feed on the citizens of Santa Carla. They never grow up, they never die, and they are the coolest cats in town. The newest inhabitants of the town are a family from Phoenix, two sons and a mother have moved in and Michael, the older son, has fallen in love with the lead vampire's girl. A story of fitting in and fighting the powers, The Lost Boys was a shot in the arm for vampire flicks in the late 1980s.

Joel Shumacher directed the film, and he brought in some innovative videography to portray the vampires. When they were flying, you got a camera view sometimes in front of them and sometimes behind them, which gave you the feeling of riding with them or being carried away by them. The deaths of each of the vampires was different and dramatic to say the least, from being dissolved through the whole houses water pipes by holy water to death by stereo. The lead acting was good although there is little to say for the vampires that followed David. There was good plot device used for the finale and some of the dialogue was good. The most distracting detail about the movie was the change in style from then to now. Looking back, these guys were probably the height of fashion in their time although now they look a little tacky. Aside from that, there was bold cinematography used for its time and the portrayal of vampires is very exciting and scary.

Here is the beat sheet for The Lost Boys:

1. Opening Image (1): The family sees the sunny front of the sign welcoming them to Santa Clara contrasted with the back of the sign which says in red letters, 'Welcome to the murder capital of the world'.

2. Theme Stated (5): Never Grow Up

3. Set-Up (1-10): Michael, Sam, and their mother move to Santa Clara. The family goes to the boardwalk that night and they each meet their friends.

4. Catalyst (12): Michael follows starr while at a concert and realizes she is the girl of david

5. Debate (12-25): David challenges Michael to race him to the top of the cliff.

6. Break into Two (25) Michael drinks the blood.

7. B Story (30): The mother meets Max in the movie store and he gives her a job which leads them into a relationship.

8. Fun and Games (30-55): People are being killed all over.

9. Midpoint (55): Michael finds out the dirty side of being a vampire.

10. Bad Guys Close In (55-75): Finds out Starr is a vampire, and the they try to kill the vampires to return to normal but all they do is upset them.

11. All Is Lost (75): Michael’s brother cant convince his mom that there are vampires.

12. Dark Night of the Soul (75-85): They are locked in the house waiting for the vampires to come.

13. Break into Three (85): They prepare to fight the vampires

14. Finale (85-110): They kill all the halfpires and have to fight the main vampire. They find out that Max is the head vampire.

15. Final Image (110): The grandpa says that the one thing I never could stand about santa clara “ all the vampires” Showing that he sees Santa Clara as it truly is.