History YMMV / TheLostBoys

** ''The Lost Girl'' comic, by Tim Seeley et al.: Taking place shortly after the first film, [[GreaterScopeVillain Agnes Underwood]] poses as a [[WiseOldFolkFacade sweet old woman]], but she's secretly the head vampire of the Blood Belles, preying on the needs of lost and lonely girls before turning them into vampires. She masterminds the murder hunters of Santa Carla (including Grandpa Emerson), abductions of multiple [[WouldHurtAChild children]], and plot to awaken Tlahuelpuchi -- Mother Vampires -- to bring about the age of vampires. Agnes also had Star infiltrate the Lost Boys to make a power play in Santa Carla. It's revealed that all this happens because Agnes sought the blood of the mother vampires to [[ImmortalityImmorality restore her youth]]. Agnes also takes Lucy Emerson and Laddie hostage, and kills and turns the [[WouldHarmASenior residents]] and orderlies at a local retirement home. Besides having no loyalty to anyone, Agnes dismisses the deaths of her girls, simply saying she can make more, and tries to force Star to test the Tlahuelpuchi blood to see whether it will kill her or make her lose her humanity, calling it a win-win either way.
** ''Film/TheLostBoys: The Beginning'': In the script written for the unproduced prequel of the original film, [[VampireMonarch Vlad Tepsch]] is a legendary vampire king known as "[[UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler The Impaler]]" for how he dispatches his victims. First arriving in America while butchering the crew of a ship he's aboard, after being mugged, Vlad chases down the Lost Boys and begins to slowly turn them into vampires. Seeming to have their best interests at heart, Vlad helps make the boys rich and acquire ownership of a extravagant hotel, while killing random people all around him, from hotel guests to a gang to a unit of Marines. Later, Vlad reveals his intent to use the coastline of San Francisco to create armies of vampires and a worldwide empire for himself to rule over. When David tries to leave him, Vlad forcibly turns his girlfriend Anastasia Rostov into a vampire as a "gift", causing the girl to [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]] out of terror, and makes it clear to the boys that he sees them as mere soldiers he can easily throw away.

*** Related to this is the fact that actor Creator/RobertPattinson would ''also'' have a career-shift from [[Literature/TheTwilightSaga attractive vampires]] to [[Film/TheBatman2021 the caped crusader]].

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Given that it set the tone for works like ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/TrueBlood'', viewers tend to forget how different this movie was when it first came out. It was one of the first works to portray vampires as [[YoungerAndHipper trendy teenagers]] rather than old-fashioned aristocrats, which subsequently became a popular portrayal for vampires.

** [[TheDragon David]] is the leader of the vampire gang under his "father" and sire [[spoiler:Max]]. A wild, brash youth with a calculating mind, David is the one who scouts out Michael and grows impressed with him. Tricking him into drinking [[spoiler:Max]]'s blood, David [[TheCorruptor sways Michael to the dark side]] while showing him the true nature of vampirism. Upon the death of one of their gang, David lays siege to the home of the Emersons, still attempting to pull Michael into darkness during their final battle. In the comics, David returns, masterminding the slaughter of the vampire hunters of Santa Carla and ending with a vial of elder blood in victory.

%%** In ''The Thirst'', [[spoiler:DJ X is set-up as the [[BigBad Alpha Vampire]], it's revealed towards the end that it's really Peter Lieber, and most of the film was an EvilPlan so he could turn Edgar into his personal hitman]].

* OlderThanTheyThink: This movie used the phrase "vamping out" before ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Plus, the main vampire is a badass with blonde hair and wears leather, not unlike Spike.

** Take a look at the drying vampire gore on the heroes' clothes when they flee the hotel after their daytime raid. It's strangely...[[Literature/{{Twilight}} sparkly]].

*** Related to this is the fact that actor Creator/RobertPattinson would ''also'' have a career-shift from [[Literature/{{Twilight}} attractive vampires]] to [[Film/TheBatman2021 the caped crusader]].

* SignatureScene: The ''People are Strange'' scene is pretty beloved by fans for the SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic, the good introduction to the boardwalk environment of the film, and the ominous backdrop provided by the occasional missing child posts and "Murder capitol of the world" graffiti.

** The first film has [[spoiler:[[BigBad Max]] the video store owner, who is secretly the head vampire and the "father" of the Lost Boys. Desiring to find a wife and a mother for his vampiric "boys," Max uses his [[AffablyEvil genuine charm and politeness]] to enchant the recently divorced Lucy Emerson into going out with him while staying beneath suspicion. Instructing his Lost Boys to turn her children so that they can be a happy vampire family together, Max goes on multiple dates with her. When entering Lucy's home, Max ensures he is explicitly invited in, rendering him immune to tests which would otherwise reveal his vampiric nature. When tested and accused by Lucy's son Sam, he quickly and effortlessly spins a narrative that the boy is afraid Max will try to replace his father, discrediting him further. Taking Lucy for a date at his house, Max returns to hers to find the Lost Boys killed. Calmly lamenting the circumstances and their deaths, he reveals his true nature, never losing his kind tone, and threatens Sam to ensure Lucy will agree to being turned and marrying him due to his [[VillainousCrush genuine care for her]], being stopped [[NearVillainVictory mere seconds from victory]], and only by something he never could have predicted]].
** [[TheDragon David]] is the leader of the vampire gang [[spoiler:under his "father" and sire Max]]. A wild, brash youth (well, he ''looks'' like a youth) with a calculating mind, David is the one who scouts out Michael and grows impressed with him. Tricking him into drinking vampire blood, David [[TheCorruptor sways Michael to the dark side]] while showing him the true nature of vampirism. Upon the death of one of his gang, David lays siege to the home of the Emersons, still attempting to pull Michael into darkness during their final battle. In the comics, David returns, masterminding the slaughter of the vampire hunters of Santa Carla and ending in victory with a vial of elder blood.

** ''Film/TheLostBoys: The Beginning'': In the script written for the unproduced prequel of the original film, [[VampireMonarch Vlad Tepsch]] is a legendary vampire king known as "[[UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler The Impaler]]" for how he dispatches his victims. First arriving in America while butchering the crew of a ship he's aboard, after being mugged Vlad chases down the Lost Boys and begins to slowly turn them into vampires. Seeming to have their best interests at heart, Vlad helps make the boys rich and acquire ownership of a extravagant hotel, while killing random people all around him, from hotel guests, to a gang, to a unit of Marines. Later, Vlad reveals his intent to use the coastline of San Francisco to create armies of vampires and a worldwide empire for himself to rule over. When David tries to leave him, Vlad forcibly turns his girlfriend Anastasia Rostov into a vampire as a "gift", causing the girl to [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]] out of terror, and makes it clear to the boys that he sees them as mere soldiers he can easily throw away.
* DirectorDisplacement: Creator/RichardDonner produced, but Creator/JoelSchumacher directed due to Donner's commitment to ''Film/LethalWeapon1987''.
* DracoInLeatherPants: All the Lost Boys tend to get this treatment to varying degrees due to their attractiveness and EvilIsCool factor, but David especially gets this treatment as he tends to come off as more civil than the others and appears to genuinely care for his gang and potential members like Michael. However, this is overlooking the fact they're all unrepentant murderers who gleefully terrify and kill innocent people, and actively trick people into joining the gang (including kidnapping and turning a young child).

* FirstInstallmentWins: The original 1987 film is widely considered one of the best vampire movies ever and ended up having quite the lasting impact on vampire portrayals in pop culture. The direct-to-video sequels...well, a lot of people don't even know they exist and those that have watched generally don't have much good to say about them.

** The Vampires lair is in the ruins of a hotel destroyed by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake 1906 Earthquake]]. The town of Santa Cruz, where the movie was filmed, was badly damaged by the 1989 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Loma_Prieta_earthquake Loma Prieta Earthquake]]. The bandstand where the concert was filmed and the Frog Brothers Comic Book Store were both destroyed.

** Take a look at the drying vampire gore on the heroes' clothes when they flee the hotel. It's strangely...[[Literature/{{Twilight}} sparkly]].
** Creator/KieferSutherland playing a vampire was funny enough to think as it is, but then ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' took it to the next level by having Dracula replace [[Series/TwentyFour Jack Bauer]] as the lead.
** Creator/JoelSchumacher directing a movie about creatures with a [[Film/BatmanForever bat]] [[Film/BatmanAndRobin motif]]. Especially since Sam walks into a comic book store looking for Batman comics. This also doubles as a CreatorThumbprint, as in that same scene, Sam asks for Superman comics as well (Executive Producer Creator/RichardDonner worked on the first two Superman movies).
** Two members of David's posse are named [[WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil Star and Marco]].

** David and Michael. Just... David and Michael. David pretty much seduces him in a strange blood drinking sequence, half hypnotises him with continuous usage of his name and makes him hallucinate, ignores the pretty love interest in favor of Michael, and spends the whole movie trying desperately to get Michael to see things his way. Never mind David's insistence [[spoiler:leads to him dropping his guard, therefore leading to his death... he never makes a move to kill Michael, even when his victim blindly refuses to become a full vampire. David actually looks genuinely hurt by this rejection.]] The amount of eyesex and shimmering sexual tension in this film concerning these two is just amazing.

** A little TruthInTelevision here, as Creator/JoelSchumacher was gay, and vampires were (and still are) commonly used to represent the AIDS crisis that was especially prominent among the gay community in the 80s. There's actually a few articles floating around on homoerotic subtext in the movie - you can read one [[http://www.horror-movies.ca/2014/09/new-perspective-lost-boys-homosexual-film/ here]].
** There's also Sam and Michael apparently mesmerized by the oily saxophone player on the docks.

** The first film has [[spoiler:[[BigBad Max]] the video store owner who is secretly the head vampire, and the "father" of the Lost Boys. Desiring to find a wife and a mother to his vampiric "boys," Max uses his charm and [[AffablyEvil genuine politeness]] to enchant the recently divorced Lucy Emerson into going out with him while staying beneath suspicion. Instructing his Lost Boys to vampirize her children so that they can be a happy family, Max goes on multiple dates with her. When entering Lucy's home, Max ensures he is invited in, rendering him immune to tests which would reveal his vampiric nature. When tested and accused by Lucy's son Sam, he quickly and effortlessly spins a narrative that the boy is afraid Max will try to replace his father, discrediting him further. Taking Lucy for a date at his house, Max returns to hers to find the Lost Boys killed. Calmly lamenting the circumstances and their deaths, he reveals his true nature, never letting up his kind tone, and threatens Sam to ensure Lucy will agree to being turned and marrying him due to his [[VillainousCrush genuine care for her]], being stopped [[NearVillainVictory mere seconds from victory]], and only by something he never could have predicted]].
** [[TheDragon David]] is the leader of the vampire gang [[spoiler:under his "father" and sire Max. A wild, brash youth (well, he ''looks'' like a youth) with a calculating mind, David is the one who scouts out Michael and grows impressed with him. Tricking him into drinking vampire blood, David [[TheCorruptor sways Michael to the dark side]] while showing him the true nature of vampirism. Upon the death of one of their gang, David lays siege to the home of the Emersons, still attempting to pull Michael into darkness during their final battle. In the comics, David returns, masterminding the slaughter of the vampire hunters of Santa Carla and ending with a vial of elder blood in victory.

* OlderThanTheyThink: This movie uses the phrase "vamping out" before ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Plus the main vampire is a badass with blonde hair and wears leather, not unlike Spike.

** David is [[Series/TwentyFour Jack Bauer]]... Which actually explains a lot about Jack.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Given that it set the tone for works like ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/TrueBlood'', viewers tend to forget how different this was when it first came out. It was one of the first films to portray vampires as [[YoungerAndHipper trendy teenagers]] rather than old-fashioned aristocrats, which subsequently became a popular portrayal for vampires.

* StrangledByTheRedString: Michael and Star have sex when they barely know each other, although it's strongly indicated they're having SexForSolace out of despair over their predicament. Plus they're both {{Hormone Addled Teen}}s who have previously expressed attraction to each other.

* {{Squick}}: The maggots and worms that David hypnotizes Michael into seeing instead of takeout. Doubly so when WordOfGod instructs budding filmmakers that maggots tend to just lie there. How to get them to wriggle? Squeeze lemon juice on them.

** There's a conversation about ''Magazine/TVGuide'', a relic of the days when you needed a published programming listings to know what was going to be on television. Sam is confused by Grandpa reading it, since he doesn't have a television, making it useless. Modern ''TV Guide'' is more like a magazine with articles and would actually be more useful for Grandpa's intended use.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The make-up for the vampires looks incredible and holds up extremely well to this day, making the vampires look predatory in an elegant sort of way. The luminous red-gold contact lenses really helps complete the look, which almost offsets the fact they were highly uncomfortable to wear.

** "Cry Little Sister", the haunting goth rock theme song by Gerard [=McMahon=]. It perfectly establishes the film's atmosphere in the opening scene and is extremely fitting not just for ''The Lost Boys'' but many other vampire stories (given how often it gets used in fan videos for various vampire-themed works). [Mcmahon=] also stated that he didn't write the song to "be specific to the vampire. I wanted it to be about the longing for family from a rejected youth's perspective, which I went through myself and that many of us have felt.", so it's a great listen even if you aren't into vampires. It was so awesome, it's been covered and remixed by many other musicians for other works over the years, including by Music/MarilynManson for ''Film/TheNewMutants'' and ''Series/Titans2018''.
%%** The ENTIRE soundtrack.

** ''The Thirst'': Peter is known publicly as the brother of vampire novelist Gwen Lieber but is secretly is the Alpha Vampire and her alleged lover. He is seemingly held hostage by DJ X, who used Peter's blood to make a drug to create vampires. However, once DJ X was killed, Peter took control of the consumers, nearly sending them into a feeding frenzy. Upon being revealed as the Alpha Vampire, we are treated to a flashback of him leading a vampire attack of a village. He offered Gwen a chance to become a vampire if she brings him Edgar and Alan Frog, and once she does the task, he kills her. He reveals that his true intentions all along were to turn Edgar and Alan into vampires themselves, so they can be his personal hitmen and cull the expanding vampire race, so there can be more people to feed on. Since Alan was already transforming, Peter uses his partial control over Alan to force him to fight Edgar.
** ''The Lost Girl'' comic, by Tim Seeley et al.: Taking place shortly after the first film, [[GreaterScopeVillain Agnes Underwood]] poses as a [[WiseOldFolkFacade sweet old woman]] while secretly the head vampire of the Blood Belles, preying on the needs of lost and lonely girls before turning them into vampires. She masterminds the murder hunters of Santa Carla, including Grandpa Emerson, abductions of multiple [[WouldHurtAChild children]], and plot to awaken Tlahuelpuchi--Mother Vampires--to bring about the age of vampires. Agnes also had Star infiltrate the Lost Boys to make a power play in Santa Carla. It's revealed that all this was that Agnes sought the blood of the mother vampires to [[ImmortalityImmorality restore her youth]]. Agnes also takes Lucy Emerson and Laddie hostage, and also kills and turns the [[WouldHarmASenior residents]] and orderlies as a local retirement home. Besides having no loyalty to anyone, Agnes dismisses the deaths of her girls, simply saying she can make more, and tries to force Star to test the Tlahuelpuchi blood to see if it will kill her or make her lose her humanity, calling it a win-win.

* StrangledByTheRedString: Michael and Star have sex when they barely know each other, although it's strongly indicated they're having SexForSolace out of despair over their predicament. Plus they're both HormoneAddledTeens who have previously expressed attraction to each other.

* IdiotPlot: You'd think that Lucy would suspect something's up with her son Mike after he becomes a vampire, but instead, she's too busy blaming his brother Sam for a few mishaps that occur.

** [[TheDragon David]] is the leader of the vampire gang under his "father" and sire [[spoiler:Max]]. A wild, brash youth with a calculating mind, David is the one who scouts out Michael and grows impressed with him. Tricking him into drinking [[spoiler:Max]]'s blood, David [[TheCorruptor sways Michael to the dark side]] while showing him the true nature of vampirism. Upon the death of one of their gang, David lays siege to the home of the Emersons, still attempting to pull Michael into darkness during their final battle. In the comics, David returns, masterminding the slaughter of the vampire hunters of Santa Carla and ending with a vial of elder blood in victory.

** The fashions are aggressively 1980s. The Lost Boys have hair metal-inspired costumes, and Michael gets one ear pierced with a dangling earring in an early scene. Sam also wears a gold stud in one ear and some incredibly colorful, baggy shirts that even other character remark are gaudy.