The Lost Boys is a 2020 American vampire comedy horror film directed by Todd Phillips and written by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein from a screenplay written by the film's original director, Joel Schumacher. The film is also a reboot and a sequel of the classic 1987 horror comedy, The Lost Boys.
The film is also produced by Jason Blum, Joel Schumacher and Oren Peli.
The film takes place almost thirty years after the first film with Micheal Emerson, Star and Edgar Frog along with Micheal and Star's daughter Haley fighting against a new group of vampires lead by David who survived his death and is looking for revenge.
The film stars Dylan Minnette, Finn Wolfhard, Molly Ringwald, Bailee Madison, Darce Montgomery, Skyler Gisondo, Liv Hewson, Alexandra Shipp, John Lithgow, Sam Clarke, Ross Lynch, Nick Robinson, Haley Lu Richardson, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Jason Patric and Corey Feldman.
The Lost Boys was released on July 31st, 2020 and distributed by Warner Bros Pictures and Blumhouse Productions.
The film received a positive reaction from critics and fans of the original movie and was a major box office success
Plot
The film opens up on a beach in Santa Carla where three mysterious girls and their boyfriends crash a bonfire party where one of the Surf Nazis attempts to seduce one of the girls but she bites him on lips, causing him to try and hit her but one of the boys stops him and they leave the party. Later that night, The Surf Nazis are attacked and killed off-screen by unseen forces while surfing in the ocean.
The very next day, The Messina Family has moved from Davenport, Iowa to Santa Carla, California with divorced mother Susan and her two sons Jake and Davy moving into the old Emerson house which is now renovated and the plumbing fixed. After getting settled in, Susan and the boys head down to the boardwalk where they hang out and ride the rides. While looking around the boardwalk, Jake runs into a local, Haley Emerson. While they get acquainted, two twin girls Tilly and Tammy pick on Haley for her relation to Micheal Emerson which Jake took to great offense.
Meanwhile, Davy finds the comic book shop once owned by the Frog brothers but is now own by their estranged father, Mortimer Frog. While Davy browses for a copy of "Vampires Everywhere", he runs into Edgar, who is now an alcoholic due to Alan's death in the past and considers the existence of vampires as a lie. This upsets Davy who turns out to be his big fan. While looking around Max's video store, Susan meets Haley's parents, Micheal and Star who are running the store. Susan and Star become fast friends with Micheal inviting Susan and her sons to a welcome cookout later that afternoon.
During a family night out between the Messina's and the Emerson's, the kids run into the three girls from the beginning of the film and reveal themselves as Luna, Angel and Nova. While talking to the girls, Haley becomes attracted to a surfer named Julian and falls in love with him much to Jake's chagrin. Julian invites Jake and Haley to a party at his house and they accept his invitation.
At the party, Jake and Haley encounter Tilly and Tammy once again and Tammy pours beers onto Haley which sparks an all out catfight between Haley and the twins but is broken up by Julian who kicks out the twins. A jealous Jake attempts to leave the party after seeing Julian tending to Haley but is intercepted by Nova who seduces him. In Julian's room, he tends Haley's split lip and they open up to each other about their respective lives before giving into their feelings and have sex. During intercouse, Julian suddenly sprouts vampiric fangs and sinks them into Haley's neck, causing Haley to belt out an orgasmic but pain-filled scream.
Meanwhile, Tilly and Tammy head to the boardwalk after closing hours to vandalize the rides but they get attacked by unseen forces which kill Tilly and abduct Tammy as she is carried away screaming. Later on, Jake gets home late from the party and is grounded by Susan when she catches him sneaking into the house. The next morning, Haley is still groggy from the events of the party and her one night stand with Julian and begins to experience mood swings and mannerisims of vampiric behavior which begins to concern Star and Micheal since they remember the events to the first film.
Later that night during a date with Julian, Haley is introduced to Gabriel, Freddy and Scuzz and they ride some rollercoasters. After the boardwalk closes, Nova, Luna, Angel and the rest of the gang initiate Haley into their group into taking a sip of a dark unknown liquid from a canteen which turns out to be vampire blood unknownbest to an oblivious Haley. Next, the gang introduces Haley to their leader, who is none other than David, who survived from being impaled on the antler rack from the first film. David tells Haley that she has Star's eyes before instructing the gang to let Haley go through one more test.
Meanwhile at Jake's house, Davy is reading Vampire's Everywhere until Susan comes in with a surprise guest, Edgar who apologizes for his behavior the previous day. Edgar tells Davy about the events of the first film in explicit detail and tells him how David killed his brother Alan Frog after abducting him. Davy is in shock and awe over the story but felt bad for Edgar losing Alan at the same time.
Back at the boardwalk, Haley is put through the final test of riding a rollercoaster and jumping off of the tip of it and she does so after much hesitation with David, Luna, Scuzz, Freddy, Julian, Angel, Gabriel and Nova following. The next day, Star begins to realize that David is alive due to Haley's recent behavior changes. At Jake's house, Jake gets a call from Haley to come to dinner with her and he agrees. Davy is also concerned about Haley's recent change in behavior and reads his Vampires Everywhere comic for more information which gives him the answer to Haley's erratic state: Haley is a half-vampire and needs to feed to complete the transformation.
Davy rushes to the comic store and confides in Edgar and Mortimer on the information he has learned before the trio can agree to spy on Jake and Haley on their dinner date. At the resturant they're dining at, Haley begins to display erratic but promiscuous behavior and an uncontrollable thirst for blood which begins to worry Jake. Haley tries to impulsively attack Jake but Davy, Edgar and Mortimer subdue and restrain her before leaving the resturant with a confused Jake in tow.
While outside the resturant, Jake angrilly demands an explanation from Davy, Edgar and Mortimer and they exclaim that Haley is a half vampire which Jake refuses to believe until Haley suddenly floats up into the air and takes an uncontrollable flight through the boardwalk with Jake, Davy, Mortimer and Edgar in pursuit. They manage to catch Haley but her uncontrollable urge to fly drags them all the way to Micheal and Star's house where they crash land into Haley's bedroom, trashing the room in the process. Micheal and Star rush to Haley's bedroom to find it completely wrecked and Haley standing upside down from the ceiling.
Memories of the first film comes flooding back to Star and Micheal as they stare in horror as Haley remains standing on the ceiling as a disoriented Edgar, Davy, Jake and Mortimer emerge from the closet whiplashed and disheveled. They explain the situation to Micheal and Star as Haley becomes terrified as she sees that a mirror on the wall doesn't cast her reflection and finally realizes that she's becoming a vampire. After being told of what her parents went through as vampire from Edgar, Haley runs away from home and asks Julian for help but realizes to her grief and horror that he too is a vampire.
As Julian tries to explain himself, Haley tearfully screams at him to stay away but is silenced by David and the rest of his gang who bring Haley to the beach where they begin to instigate a viscious feeding frenzy to provoke her into killing. Now at her breaking point, Haley races home but along the way bumps into Susan's abusive ex-husband Clint Messina who claims to finish what he started in his unhappy marriage to Susan. When Haley returns home, she finds that not only that Micheal, Star, Davy, Mortimer, Jake and Edgar are there but Susan is also present and up to date with the situation.
As Haley tries to explain to everyone about what's happening to her and about David surviving the antlers, she suddenly feels painful urges to feed which concerns Susan who suggests bringing her to the hospital. Susan, Micheal, Star, Jake and Davy bring Haley to the hospitial while Edgar and Mortimer return to the comic store. En route to the hospital, they encounter Clint who forces Susan and Jake out of the car to take them back to Davenport with Micheal and Star trying their best to stop them. Davy hides in the backseat with Haley to avoid his father's wrath but Haley gives into her bloodlust and fully transforms into a vampire before attacking Davy.
Clint stops his assault on Susan, Jake, Micheal and Star and turns to see his younger son being attacked by a vampirized Haley. Clint then strides to the car beat his son but upon opening the car door, Haley lunges at him and gorily feeds on him, much to the horror of Micheal, Star, Susan, Jake and Davy as they watch as Clint dies. The next morning, Star tends to Susan as she opens up about her abusive marriage and the reason she and her sons moved to Santa Carla to start their lives over.
Meanwhile, Jake and Micheal try to talk some sense into Haley who is overcome with remorse for what she did to Clint but Jake reassures her that Clint had it coming for years. As Haley labels herself as a freak due to her condition, Julian suddenly calls out to Haley outside and Jake opens to blinds to see Julian floating outside the window, much to Micheal's shock recalling his own wife floating in the same manner as she did in the first film. After Haley invites Julian in, Julian reveals that he tried to warn her about the gang but she changes the subject on the liquid she drank from the canteen with Micheal interrupting her saying it was David's blood.
Shocked and horrified, Haley asks Julian why didn't he kill her at the party with him answering that he loved her since they met and she was supposed to be his first kill. An enraged Micheal attempts to hit Julian for biting Haley after learning of their one night stand with Haley intervening asking why did he come to see her. Julian answers that he wanted to help her with Micheal angrily telling him that he turned Haley into a killer but quickly calms down as he recognizes Julian as one of the surfer nazis that David killed in the past with Julian saying that David left him for dead that night and as he laid in the sand dying, he saw Micheal screaming from a tree.
Micheal reluctantly agrees to let Julian help Haley and calls Edgar and Mortimer for help the following day. Everyone including a reluctant Susan devise a plan to kill David and his new gang of vampires by letting Star and Micheal becoming vampires once again. They head to David's old lair to find the canteen of vampire blood while Edgar, Mortimer, Davy, Haley and Jake hunt down the vampires.
As the rest of the group track down the gang, Haley gets separated and finds David asleep on the ceiling before running into Tammy, who survived her attack from the vampires. Tammy apologizes for the way she and her sister treated her and Haley forgives her but Tammy takes back the apology before revealing herself as a vampire. The two girls start fighting which wakes up David who gleefully watches the scuffle which ends with Haley kicking Tammy into the jagged ceiling of the cave, impaling her through the heart on a jagged stone spike. This kills Tammy and incurs the wrath of David who chases her and the rest of the survivors out of the cave.
The commotion awakens the other vampires and Luna catches Davy but he kicks her in the face and escapes. Micheal and Star find the canteen and drink the blood as Julian stands guard for Edgar and the others who emerge from the caves frantic and defensless while Haley emerges from the cave fully transformed and disheveled from her vampiric catfight with Tammy. When they try to leave the lair, they run into Alan Frog, who turns out to be David's right hand man and a vampire as well, much to Edgar's horror. Alan does his best by preventing Edgar and the others from escaping but Micheal's vampirism begins to develop quickly and knocks out Alan. They escape the lair and take Alan with them, hoping to use him as bait.
After returning to the house, the group arm themselves with holy water, stakes and arrows and making make shift weapons. After arming themselves, Edgar feels betrayed by Alan for join David and his gang even though he thought his brother was dead and tries to reason with him but fails. When night falls, David and the vampires invade the house and attack the survivors with Luna being the first to die when Davy blasts her in the mouth with a super soaker filed with holy water, causing her head to explode. Star and Micheal turn into vampires as they fight Nova and David while Susan, Jake, Haley and Edgar fight Gabriel, Scuzz, Angel and Freddy.
Haley kills Angel by impaling her on a mounted rack of antlers and Susan is almost killed by Scuzz who in turn is impaled by Jake with a fire place poker, causing him to implode and rot away. Star drowns Nova in a sink filled with holy water which leaves her horribly disfigured and Star's hand mangled but Nova survives the drowning and escapes. Edgar with Jake's help blinds Gabriel with holy water but Alan appears and impales Gabriel with a stake through the heart, showering Edgar and Jake in blood. Happy that Alan had finally come to his senses, The Frog Brothers reunite and help Susan and Julian defeat Freddy by injecting holy water into his body, causing him to gorily melt away.
Meanwhile, Micheal and David are still locked in a showdown with David impaling Micheal throught the shoulder with a stake that Mortimer left behind at the lair revealing that he has Mortimer. David and Nova retreat back to the lair with Star, Micheal, Jake, Julian, The Frog Brothers and Haley in hot pursuit while Davy and Susan stay behind to clean up the carnage.
Back at the lair, David and Nova get into a heated argument about how they should have killed the survivors at the lair but David angrily retorts that he has different plans for Micheal since they last met 30 years ago before drinking all of the blood from the canteen. David then orders Nova to kill Mortimer before feeling a brutal wave of pain that sends him kneeling to the ground. Nova heads back into the cave and proceeds to torture a tied up Mortimer before tearing her clawed hand into his stomach and gashing it open.
While running back to the lair, Jake allows Julian to date Haley after they kill the remaining vampires and Julian thanks Jake for the honestsy. They made it to the lair where Jake and The Frog Brothers head off to search for Mortimer in the caves only to arrive too late to find him on the verge of death. He leaves Jake and The Frog Brothers with words of wisdom before giving Jake a firework to honor his bravery and he finally dies from his injuries, leaving Edgar and Alan completely devastated.
Meanwhile, Micheal, Star, Julian and Haley encounter Nova who aims her anger at Star for disfiguring her and not realizing that she, Luna and Angel are her long lost sisters The Blood Belles. As Star reels in shock and Haley outraged that she had aunts who are vampires, Haley angrily charges at Nova and a nasty catfight ensues with Nova pulling out a handful of Haley's hair and Haley gouging out Nova's left exposed eye. The fight between the girls is cut short when a monstrous vampric hand burst through Nova's chest and tears out her heart, finally killing her.
Haley backs up in horror to see a malformed David eating Nova's heart before transforming into a beastly bat-like monster. Edgar, Jake and Alan exit the caves to see David's transformed state and join the fight as David loses control of his monstrous body and flies into an animalistic blind rage, leaving Alan, Julian and Edgar badly injured in the process as David's mindless vampire bat form flies out of the lair which begins to crumble into the sea.
The survivors manage to make it out of the crumbling lair in time to stop a mindles
Cast
Jason Patric as Micheal Emerson
Corey Feldman as Edgar Frog
Jami Gertz as Star Emerson
Kiefer Sutherland as David
Molly Ringwald as Susan Messina
Dylan Minnette as Jake Messina
Finn Wolfhard as Davy Messina
Bailee Madison as Haley Emerson
Liv Hewson as Nova
Haley Lu Richardson as Angel
Alexandra Shipp as Luna
Ross Lynch as Scuzz
Nick Robinson as Freddy
Darce Montgomery as Julian
Skyler Gisondo as Gabriel
Sam Clarke as Clint Messina
John Lithgow as Mortimer Frog
Noelle Sheldon as Tilly
Cali Sheldon as Tammy
Jamison Newlander as Alan Frog
Trivia
- In the initial development of this film back in the 1990's, the project was titled The Lost Girls during Joel Schumacher's futile attempt to get the sequel off the ground but when Jason Blum discovered the original screenplay, Joel Schumacher stepped down from the director's chair and acted as a creative consultant.
- John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are longtime fans of the original 1987 film and rewrote Schumacher's script into a full blooded and faithfully written screenplay.
- Due to the success of Joker (2019), Todd Phillips was approached by Jason Blum to reboot the film and after watching the original film, Phillips agreed to direct the sequel.
- The rollercoaster scene plays like a homage to the railroad track scene from the original movie.
- Kiefer Sutherland said he was pleasantly surprised after reading the script labeling it, "THE TRUE SEQUEL TO THE MOST ICONIC VAMPIRE COMEDY OF THE 80'S." He also said that the film will introduce a new generation of fans to The Lost Boys Universe.
- In an interview, Jason Patric said that the film stayed true to the original movie and it doesn't add insult to injury also it has a climax that fans will never forget. He also said that the film was more gruesome and sassy but it never loses the heart of the 1987 film.
- The film was going to be released on August 28th, 2020 but it was pushed back to July 31st, 2020 honor the 32nd anniversary of the original movie.
- The Lost Boys (2020) is rated R for "strong bloody horror violence, some sexuality/nudity, grisly images and language throughout" by the MPAA.
- Finn Wolfhard's Stranger Things co-star Sadie Sink auditioned for the role of Haley Emerson, the daughter of Micheal and Star Emerson but it was given to Bailee Madison based on her performance in The Strangers: Prey At Night (2018). Sink would still come on to the set to visit Finn Wolfhard.
- Corey Feldman was initially livid about the idea for a sequel after 32 years but after production ended and seeing the rough cut, Feldman thought the film was just a fluid continuation of the first film and the sequel knocked it out of the park. He then considered the film to be even better that the direct to video sequels he worked on in the past.
- Cardi B and Shahadi Wright Joseph were considered for the role of Luna.
- Jason Patric originally didn't want to be a part of the sequel but changed his mind after reading the script.
- Leslie Mann, Judy Greer and Ellie Kemper were considered for the role of Susan Messina.
- Natalia Dyer, Virginia Gardener and Ana Golja auditioned for the role of Nova.
- Anya Taylor Joy, Isabella Moner, Jane Levy and Sabrina Carpenter were considered for the role of Angel.
- Stranger Things stars Finn Wolfhard and Darce Montgomery signed on to the project after watching the original movie.
- Like the original film, Shooting took place in Santa Cruz and lasted from July 2019 to September 2019.
- Liv Hewson signed on to play Nova for this film after her Netflix show Santa Clarita Diet had been canceled. Ironically, her co-star Skyler Gisondo also plays the vampire Gabriel in this film.
- Joel Schumacher said in an interview about the test screening saying,"This film has the heart and soul of the original Lost Boys from 1987 but its more stylish, gory, hilarious and pretty mean spirited. The screening was a success and the fans went beserk after the light went up which was good for the diehard fans to look forward to.
- In an interview, Jason Blum of Blumhouse said that this was a dream come true for his studio and Joel Schumacher who wanted to do this film since the 90's.
- The Lost Boys (2020) has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 87% with the consensus stating, "Sexier, funnier and even gorier than it's 1987 counterpart, The Lost Boys is a nostalgic and scary trip down memory lane without losing the original's charm as it stakes you into a gleefully ghoulish entertainment".
- Avril Lavigne and Marilyn Manson teamed up again for the soundtrack by performing an epic rock driven version of the original film's theme song, "Cry Little Sister" originally performed by Gerard McMann with Halsey and Kylie Minogue doing a duet cover of Echo and The Bunnyman's "People Are Strange".
- Kiefer Sutherland attended the test screening and praised Goldstein and Daley's act of fan service to The Lost Boys.
- The Lost Boys premiered at The 2020 Sundance Film Festival to a very positive reaction.