The Lost Boys (1987) Analysis

The Lost Boys is a 1987 Comedy-Horror film directed by Joel Schumacher known for other successful 80’s teen films such as St Elmo’s Fire (1985) and Phantom Of The Opera, a commercially successful 2004 Romantic Musical.  The movie is about two brothers and their mother that move to a new town and become aware that it is inhabited by a group of teenaged vampires who belong to a motorbike gang. It stars Kiefer Sutherland and Corey Feldman, famous 80’s teen movie actors. The screen play was written by Janice Fischer, James Jeremias and Jeffrey Boam and the film was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

The Lost Boys perpetuates the Bulgarian structuralist linguist Todorov’s work mostly, as it does follow the basic of beginning with an equilibrium, which is disrupted by an event setting off a chain of events, creating disequilibrium. This is then resolved by the denouement and a new equilibrium is settled at the end. However, there are moments in the film that trick the viewers into thinking it is resolved before it really is. An example of this is when it turns out Max is actually the head vampire right at the end. The start of the film, Michael and Sam move into their grandfather’s house with their mother in a new town and go exploring the carnival. This gives time for the audience to identify with and discover the personalities of these characters and be introduced to the motorbike gang who you can tell are going to be a negative influence. The event that sets of the chain of events leading to disequilibrium and the discovery of the gang being vampires is when Michael drinks some of the blood some the chalice, thus turning him into a half vampire without him realising it. The disequilibrium is the knowledge of the gang being vampires and Michael trying to get Star to like him while defeating the vampires and not turning into a full vampire himself. The side story is Sam and his two friends from the comic book store trying to discover if his mother’s new boyfriend is a vampire. The end is resolved with a fight resulting in the death of the gang and Star and Michael becoming human again.

When an audience goes to watch a horror film, there are certain elements they expect to see in order for them to properly identify with it being a horror film. Much of horror films is actually suspense and in order to create this, the film has to create the right atmosphere. The elements of The Lost Boys that perpetuate the genre include camera work, lighting and iconography. However, the setting is very different to the usual horror genre as it is not an isolated setting; it is a large, thriving tourist town. On the other hand, this is combatted by most of the film taking place at night. Technical code such as lighting from unexpected angles, unsettling jumps in editing, and the use of ambient sounds such as footsteps and heartbeats are also made use of in this film and the genre in general to create for the audience.

As Horror dates back to the very early 20th century, there has been plenty of time to create the genre expectations as mentioned before, however these can be very useful for film directors to oppose as well, shocking the audience into a false sense of security, then frightening them suddenly. This can also be used in the narrative structure of films and by contrasting to the usual expectations that the viewers have, such as making Max the head vampire, you can confuse them which creates more disconcertment. The end of the film where it is revealed the granddad knew about the vampires all along adds a humorous edge after all the bloodshed.

Although Splatter films had been present before the 80's, in this decade there was an emergence of 'Slasher movies' which are a different genre as it typically involves a psychopathic murderer who stalks and kills many victims, usually in a very graphic and violent way which a cutting tool that is often a knife or an axe. This decade also became known for its 'B-movie' films that are now considered cult classics including The Lost Boys (1987) which, although doesn’t fit into the Slasher or Splatter genres, is quite gory for 80’s standards. The Lost Boys is an alternative to other 80’s teen movies which the majority of were ‘Brat Pack’ movies like The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.

A Russian theorist named Propp examined hundreds of examples of folk tales to see if they shared any structures and identified 8 characters that were mostly present. They were: the villain(s), the hero, the donor (who provides an object with some magic property), the helper that aids the hero, the princess (the sought after person) who is the reward for the hero and object of the villain’s schemes, her father who rewards the hero, the dispatcher and the false hero. Although horror films obviously differ from folk tales analysed a century ago, many of these character types are still visible in the horror genre, but often slightly tweaked with flaws. The character types obvious in House Of Wax are the hero (Michael), the villains (motorbike gang), the helpers (comic book store boys) and the princess (Star). Another theorist who is important when looking at horror film analysis is Levi-Strauss who looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. These are sets of contrasting values which show the structure of media texts such as films. The binary oppositions set up in The Lost Boys are good/evil, vampire/human, reality/fiction and morality/immorality.

In conclusion, I find The Lost Boys to be not only a traditional horror film, but also one that clearly belongs to the 80’s because of the actors, soundtrack and production. It adheres to many of the main conventions found in the horror genre such as technical codes, narrative structure and character types. However, the use of comedy and false endings make it more involved and entertaining, and to a modern viewer with an interest in 80’s movies, although it lacks realistic gore or a many truly scary parts, it is a brilliant horror film.