The Lost Boys

Sleep all day. Party all night. It’s fun being a vampire... but what happens when it’s time to grow up? Simon Bland celebrates 30 years of The Lost Boys

Adolescence can be a tricky time. There’s acne, angst and awkward encounters with the opposite sex to deal with, not to mention all the bloodsucking vampires knocking around. That was certainly the case for the cast of Joel Schumacher’s seminal 1987 horror The Lost Boys. His tale of brothers Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) struggling to fit into their new beach community amid an epidemic of party-loving neck-biters flipped the coming-of-age genre on its head and gave vampires a much needed makeover. For its stars, this rollercoaster ride was cemented in celluloid history during one crazy summer in 1986 and as the film turns 30, it manages to evoke fond memories from those involved.

“I’d done a bunch of little things but this was a whole other level. I was over the moon,” recalls Jamison Newlander on bagging the role of Alan Frog, one half of the film’s vampire hunting duo the Frog Brothers, alongside Corey Feldman’s Edgar. “I had a sense early on that Joel had a vision because he was very confident in what he was looking for, but it wasn’t until I was on set and saw what was going on that I really understood the vision he had for this new take on vampires.”

DEAD COOL