‘The Lost Boys’ Turns 30: Sink Your Teeth Into These Fun Facts About the Vampire Classic
Here’s why the 1987 hit was such a bloody good time.
Before Twilight, before The Vampire Diaries, before True Blood and even before Interview with the Vampire, the vampire flick that all the kids were talking about was The Lost Boys. The 1987 cult classic was directed by Joel Schumacher and starred the two Coreys (Feldman and Haim), along with Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric.
The movie was campy, but it became a box office hit and found a cult following after leaving theaters. It’s real impact came well after though. The Lost Boys has been credited with shifting the pop cultural portrayal of vampires from old, stodgy Bela Lugosi types to young hotties and ‘dudes with cool hair.
The movie turns 30 in July 31 and we’re celebrating with seven fun facts that you probably didn’t know about one of the most influential teenage comedy horror movies of all-time.
1. It introduced the “Two Coreys”
The Lost Boys marked an important moment in American pop culture history: The first movie Corey Haim and Corey Feldman made together. The Two Coreys would go on to appear in 12 movies together. The final one, released two years before Haim’s 2010 death, was a straight-to-DVD sequel to The Lost Boys that was eaten up by fans of both vampires and nostalgia.
2. It was originally inspired by Peter Pan, but got a sexy makeover
Known for nearly ruining the Batman forever with Batman & Robin, director Joel Schumacher deserves a lot of credit for the changes he made to The Lost Boys. When he joined the project, the characters were much younger and the story was inspired by Peter Pan. Schumacher, who directed St. Elmo’s Fire in 1985, insisted on making the characters teenagers to make the film sexier. It worked.
3. The vampire eyes were freaky as hell
These days, giving an actor vampire eyes is just a matter of some simple contact lenses, but 30 years ago it wasn’t so easy. Actors were required to wear painful hard contacts that could only be kept in for a few minutes at a time.
4. Santa Carla is actually Santa Cruz
The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is a key location throughout the movie, but getting permission to use it required a delicate dance by producers. The city wouldn’t allow them to use the city’s real name since becoming associated with violent vampires and sky-high murder rates isn’t exactly a draw. Thus, Santa Carla was born.
5. That totally jacked sax player is now serious musician
One of the best moments on that boardwalk is the concert put on by a ripped sax player referred to in the credits as “Beach Concert Star.” His real name is Timmy Cappello and he’s a classically trained musician who spent years touring with Tina Turner…just in case you were wondering.
6. The movie’s cinematographer is super legit
Most people wouldn’t think twice when seeing Michael Chapman’s name roll by in the credits for The Lost Boys, but those who know cinematography would. As IndieWire points out, Chapman manned the camera for The Godfather, Jaws, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, for which he received an Oscar nomination. A brief foray into directing in the mid-80s left him searching for a simple way to return to camera work and The Lost Boys provided it.
7. There was almost a sequel called The Lost Girls
In the mid-90s, Schumacher developed an idea for sequel to The Lost Boys that would focus on “gorgeous teenage biker chicks who are vampires.” He would call it The Lost Girls. “There is no Lost Boys sequel,” he told Rotten Tomatoes in 2007. “All the boys are dead. The Coreys are too old. So what would be the movie? You’d have to make up a whole new set of characters.” Alas, Warner Brothers didn’t take his advice.