I Still Believe: A Review of My Favorite Summer Movie
(Part III of our Summer Movie Recommendation Series)
Image via Warner Bros.
I’ve always loved the odd convergence of horror and summertime—the terror of the stories in which we immerse ourselves made somehow lighter, more playful, by the brightness of the sun. Despite their overt differences, there is a sense of freedom and abandonment that accompanies both horror and summer. Many of us spent lazy summer days of childhood escaping from the heat into the air-conditioned darkness of a movie theatre, sneaking into scary films we were technically too young to be watching. The 1975 summer blockbuster Jaws springs to mind, even though it was before my time. But I can picture ‘70s’ kids, freed from the shackles of the classroom, flocking to theatres for the thrill of being terrorized by a great white shark, a monster whose threat is amplified in the summertime. I also conjure images of summer boardwalks and carnivals: performers dressed in creepy costumes, scents of cotton candy and engine grease riding on the summer breeze, the thrill of a dangerously rickety roller coaster. That memory in turn brings me to my own childhood favorite summer horror film, The Lost Boys.
The Lost Boys, released in the summer of 1987, is a horror-comedy directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, and Kiefer Sutherland. In the film, newly divorced Lucy Emerson and her two teenaged sons, Sam and Michael, move to Santa Carla in California to live with Lucy’s odd, hippie father. Santa Carla is a fictionalized version of the bohemian beach town Santa Cruz. Once there, Michael becomes enthralled with a gang of vampires while Sam befriends two comic-book aficionados who help him try to save Michael and uncover the mystery of the Santa Carla vampire clan.
Image via Warner Bros.
Despite its short running time, the movie manages to tell the stories of all three main characters. We empathize with them as they deal with adjusting to a new environment in their own separate ways. Despite their very different approaches, Lucy and Michael both want to belong. Lucy insists on maintaining a positive attitude while dealing with her eccentric father and brooding sons and tries to start a “normal” post-divorce life in Santa Carla. She gets a job at a video store and begins dating the owner Max, played wonderfully by Munsters-movie alum Edward Herrmann. Michael, however, falls into the lure of a gang of vampires, enticed by the beautiful Star (Jamie Goetz) and their charismatic leader David (Sutherland), with his spiky bleached 80s hair and worn leather jacket, one of the coolest movie vampires in memory.
Sam (Haim) is the film’s protagonist. Re-watching this movie made me feel sad for the short and tragic life of Corey Haim. While Haim wasn’t known for superior acting skills or challenging roles, he is perfect as the sensitive, expressive, and intelligent Sam. While his mother and older brother are busy trying to fit in, Sam is confident enough in himself that he embraces his individuality. Viewing the film through a contemporary lens makes me appreciate the queerness of Sam’s character, with his Rob Lowe and Molly Ringwald posters and Mondrian-inspired bathrobe, lip-synching along to “I ain’t got a man,” in the bathtub. When the monster-hunting Frog brothers, played by the other iconic 80s Corey (Feldman), along with Jamison Newlander, try to challenge Sam in the comic-book store, Sam proves his worth by standing up to them and displaying his own knowledge of the genre. This earns their respect, and an alliance is formed. Sam is also the detective and the hero in this narrative, the only one who realizes that Michael is both a threat to the family and in danger himself.
Image via Warner Bros.
With an homage to Peter Pan evident in the film’s title, The Lost Boys takes place in the summer, in a kind of in-between world, leaving the Emerson boys free to embark upon their own risky adventures. The film perfectly captures the chaotic thrill of a boardwalk carnival, its gypsy-like costumes and gaudily beautiful setting somehow both rooted in the 1980s and as timeless as classics such as Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Another aspect of the film that makes it both timeless and decade-specific is the unforgettable soundtrack. The Call’s “I Still Believe” is playing in my head as I type this article. While the iconic scene in which a muscled and oiled saxophone-player performing this song at a concert on the boardwalk is undeniably cheesy, there is something magical about the way Star and Michael catch each other’s eyes while the song plays. It also becomes a theme song for both Sam and Michael, as the younger brother doesn’t give up on saving Michael despite everyone’s skepticism, and the older brother fights to hang on to his humanity rather than transitioning fully into a monster. Echo and the Bunnymen’s cover of The Doors’ “People Are Strange” places a haunting but infectious frame around the story. And, with the exception of Bauhaus performing “Bela Lugosi Is Dead” in The Hunger, Gerard McMann’s “Cry Little Sister” provides the most eerily fitting musical backdrop to a vampire scene ever featured in a film.
The film contains some genuinely scary moments. I am still terrified when Michael hangs below the bridge with David and the other vampires, the mist swirling below them. As the train thunders above them and each vampire falls, giddily, one by one, we can see the terror in Michael’s eyes. We can feel his struggle, taunted by David’s peer pressure but also curious to embrace his own newfound sense of power. But, like many summer horror films, The Lost Boys is also humorous and light-hearted. The exasperated but still loving interactions between family members are relatable and comical, and Wiest and Haim in particular, shine as comedic actors.
Image via Warner Bros.
Horror films often address the anxieties of their eras, and the resurgence of vampire films in the 1980s was linked to the AIDs crisis and the fear of bloodborne contagions. But The Lost Boys also draws attention to the problem of unhoused youth during this time, kids who were often kicked out of their homes and vulnerable to being taken advantage of, which is another element linking this film to the LGBTQIA+ community. This doesn’t quite make up for the movie’s lack of gender and racial diversity, but it does make it more progressive than many of its contemporaries.
The Lost Boys is available to rent or purchase on AppleTV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, and YouTube.