Friday FaBOOolousness – The Boo Factor: The Lost Boys

Perhaps every decade has a right to claim its movies faBOOolous, but the ‘80s reigned supreme with slasher franchise giants such as Friday the 13^th and A Nightmare on Elm Street – both of which still live on today in our generation of remakes.

Today, we’re focusing on the 1987 supernatural great, and one of my all-time favorite vampire movies: The Lost Boys.

Michael (Jason Patric), Sam (Corey Haim), and their mother, Lucy Emerson ((Diane Weist), move to Santa Clara, California to live with their grandfather (“Grandpa” played by Barnard Hughes) following Lucy’s divorce.

Michael: On their first night in town, the brothers head out to the town boardwalk, where Michael sees Star (Jami Gertz) dancing in the moonlight.  Seduced by her moves, he follows her, where he meets David (Keifer Sutherland) and his friends for the first time.  The next night, Michael runs into David again; only this time, David challenges Michael to join him on a motorcycle ride.  Wanting to impress Star, Michael agrees and later follows the mysterious teens back to their underground lair.  Peer pressure and temptation ensue, and Michael drinks from the wine bottle that David and his friends pass around.

The next morning, Michael is sensitive to the sunlight, and his transformation begins.

Sam: The younger of the Emerson brothers, Sam, finds solace in a local comic book store on the boardwalk where he meets the Frog brothers: Edgar (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander).  The Frog brothers claim to be vampire hunters, and provide Sam with tons of reading material to prepare for living in Santa Clara, a town plagued by the night’s creatures.

How else does one explain all of the missing person flyers?

Sam shrugs the crazy brothers off, until later that night when his dog, Nanook, begins growling ferociously at the bathroom door while Sam bathes.  Bothered by Nanook’s reaction, Sam robes up only to find his brother Michael hiding in the darkness.

Spooked by the combination of the Frog brothers’ tale and by Nanook, Sam runs from Michael.  He locks himself in his room, calls his mother, and looks out the window to see his brother floating in the air.  At this point, Michael knows something is very wrong, and he returns to David’s lair seeking answers from his new so-called friends.  Instead, he finds Star, who immediately commiserates with Michael and the two bond (physically and emotionally).

Sam seeks the Frog brothers’ help, but refuses to follow their advice, which is to kill Michael.  Sam does, however, believe them now that Santa Clara is crawling with vampires, and asks for their help in saving his brother.  In the meantime, Sam begins questioning anyone he comes in contact with, including his mom’s new boyfriend, Max (Edward Herrmann).  The Frog brothers accept Sam’s invitation to dinner where they test Max with Holy water and garlic, infuriating Lucy and embarrassing Sam.

Michael decides to join David and his gang on another outing, even after the group taunted him on a motorcycle ride and forced him to hang from a railroad bridge. This time, he witnesses the young vampires feed on a group of teens at a camp site.  He refuses to kill, but now knows exactly what is happening to him.

Michael returns home, where Sam and the Frog brothers hatch a plan to kill David, clearly the head-vampire.   Things go from bad to worse when their murderous attempt fails, and Michael realizes David will seek revenge and hunt him at nightfall.

The fight scenes at the end of The Lost Boys were faBOOolously choreographed and had brilliant special effects for its time.  I don’t want to give the ending away for those who have yet to see the movie (are there really those out there who have not seen The Lost Boys?), but will wrap with the famous closing line: “One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach, all the damn vampires.”

And, who can forget Jason Patric and Corey Haim’s blue eyes just before the fade to black?  The closing scene solidified those two as ‘80s heart-throbs.  Right girls?

It would be wrong of me to end the post without mentioning the music.  The Lost Boys has one of the best motion picture soundtracks of the ‘80s with musical greats including INXS, popular hit songs such as “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and “People Are Strange,” as well as the ever-haunting theme song, “Cry Little Sister.”

Who’s your favorite character in The Lost Boys? Did you guess the head-vampire correctly, or were you surprised at the end?  Did you want a Husky after falling in love with Nanook? What are some of your favorite quotes from this ‘80s classic?  Did you watch any of the sequels?  Do you have another favorite ‘80s scary movie?  I’d love to hear from you!

Friday FaBOOolousness – The “Boo” Factor #2

The endearment “Sweet Dreams” changed drastically in 1984 when audiences met Freddy Krueger for the first time.

 

Happy and carefree high school students in Springwood, Ohio transformed overnight into terrified teenagers afraid to fall asleep.  It all started when Tina dreamed of being chased by a horribly burned man wearing a green and red striped sweater, teasing her with his razor-sharp knives in lieu of fingers on his right hand.  Tina escaped his clutches just in time, and woke up with tears in her night-gown.  How can something that occurs in a dream actually happen?

Tina’s best friend, Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), experienced a similar dream the very same night.  Nancy dismissed her nightmare as just that, a nightmare.  Being the good friend that she was, Nancy agreed to spend the night with Tina so that she wouldn’t be alone.  Joining the girls, of course, was Tina’s boyfriend, Rod, and Nancy’s boyfriend, Glen (introducing Johnny Depp, ladies).  Tina fell asleep feeling safe with her friends nearby, and Freddy appeared again; only this time, Freddy didn’t miss slashing Tina with his razor-sharp claws.

Do you remember that scene?  Tina, wearing the oversized, white button down shirt, flailing about, blood spraying everywhere, levitating, crawling on the ceiling, and finally crashing into her bed — dead.  Her boyfriend standing helplessly by, watching an invisible knife slash through his girlfriend, screaming her name, “Tina!” – completely terrified and confused.   

The nightmares continued for Nancy, finally convincing her that she and Tina were dreaming about the same man.  Continuing to have nightmares, Nancy saw the burned man kill Rod; and, later found Rod dead in reality too – just like Tina.

Finally, Nancy’s mother confessed that the man haunting and stalking her in her dreams was Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) – a child murderer that was burned and killed at the hands of the children’s parents.  Together, Nancy & Glen devised a plan to trap and kill Freddy, but Glen made one fatal mistake – he fell asleep.

Do you remember that scene?  Glen lying on his bed in his midriff jersey t-shirt with his television & gigantic head phones, sinking through the bed as Freddy sucked him in, the blood rushing through the mattress with the velocity of a fire hydrant.

Alone, Nancy battled Krueger to the end, living to see another day; actually, Nancy survived to see another few installments of the Nightmare franchise: Nightmare 3 and New Nightmare.

Do you remember the eerie nursery rhyme?  The little girls dressed in beautiful white baby-doll dresses playing hop-scotch and jumping rope in the parks?

“One, Two, Freddy’s coming for you.

Three, Four, Better lock your door.

Five, Six, Grab your crucifix.

Seven, Eight, Gotta stay up late.

Nine, Ten, Never sleep again.”

Say what you will, that rhyme still spooks me to this very day!  Not to mention the fact that I have a hard time remembering the actual lyrics to the peaceful, children’s song.

Wes Craven created the Nightmare franchise with his horrifying screenplay and his directing brilliance.  Robert Englund may still be recognized today as his character, Freddy Krueger, more than he is as Robert Englund, the actor.

A Nightmare on Elm Street opened the door for nine feature films, including a 2010 remake produced by Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller.  The original Nightmare will always be great; but, the remake included more of the back-story of Freddy Krueger, and the children he preyed on, making the 2010 film very exciting for a Nightmare-aholic like myself.

Wake Up!

The Nightmare franchise has also featured an array of popular actors over the years in addition to Langenkamp, Englund and Depp, such as Patricia Arquette, Laurence Fishburne, Jason Ritter, Breckin Meyer, and Lochlyn Munro.  Additionally, Rosanne Barr and Tom Arnold appeared briefly in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.  The 2010 movie successfully catered to today’s teenage audience by casting the brilliant Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy (in an absolutely FaBOoolous performance assuming the role from Englund), Katie Cassidy (Gossip Girl), Kellan Lutz (The Twilight Movies), Kyle Gallner (Jennifer’s Body), Rooney Mara (The Social Network), and Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles).

Hopefully, the franchise will live on.

Do you believe that if you die in your sleep, will you die in real life?  Do you prefer the 1984 original or the 2010 remake?  Do you fear Freddy, Jason, or Michael more?  What’s your favorite scary movie?   I’d love to hear from you!