History Film / TheLostBoys

* NobleBigotWithABadge: While not cops, Edgar and Alan hate all vampires, not just the bad ones. However, they are willing to help half-vampires get their humanity back, if grudgingly.

* GenreSavvy: Edgar and Alan make Sam read vampire comics to get him familiar with how to fight vampires.

* FantasticRacism: Edgar and Alan have hostile reservations against vampires, even ones like Star, Laddie, and Michael who are resisting the transformation. This is justified if one infers that the only vampires they've ever dealt with are like David and his crew.

* TheComicallySerious: Edgar and Allan are about as cheerful as their [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe namesake]], and take themselves as seriously as CIA agents, yet they are some of the nerdiest teenage comic store employees you'll ever see.

* TheAllegedExpert: The Frog brothers are comic store employees by day, but advertise themselves as professional vampire hunters. While they do have some useful and accurate lore to share, there are also some pretty big holes in their knowledge. For instance, they go to the vampires' lair, ready to stake them in their coffins, only to discover that they sleep hanging from the ceiling like bats, which they are completely shocked by. Then, the Frogs climb up to stake them and start with the weakest-looking one, at which point his death screams (predictably) wake the others up, which nearly gets Sam and the Frogs killed.

* TaxidermyTerror: Grandpa has a serious taxidermy hobby, and leaves several stuffed presents by Sam's bedside. Disgusted by them, Sam hides them in his closet.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Grandpa pretends to be an eccentric old man (and is to a certain extent), [[spoiler: but he's also a fairly skilled vampire hunter.]]

* InsaneTrollLogic: Grandpa's attitude towards television definitely falls into this category.
--> '''Sam:''' Wait, wait. You ''have'' a TV?
--> '''Grandpa:''' No. I just like to read the TV Guide. Read the TV Guide, you don't need a TV.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent:Grandpa making a spooked face at Max when he arrives for dinner.

** Grandpa shuts his office door when he sees [[spoiler:Max]] in the house, and in a later scene has covered his car in large wooden stakes.

* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Michael and Sam's grandfather seems to be just another senile old guy, until the end where [[spoiler: his car explodes into the house, killing Max, and it's revealed that he knew Santa Clara was infested with vampires all along.]]
* DeusExMachina: Grandpa crashes through the wall in his jeep and [[spoiler:impales Max with a fence post, then reveals that he knew about vampires all along]].

* CoolCar: Say what you will about him, Grandpa has one sweet ride.

* ChekhovsGun: We see Grandpa working on the fence, and his Jeep is still filled with fence posts when he goes on his date. [[spoiler:At the end of the movie, Grandpa crashes his car headlong into the house, and one of the fence posts stakes Max through the heart.]]
* CloudCuckoolander: Grandpa. Also, Edgar and Alan have shades of this, along with being ProperlyParanoid.

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Grandpa with his Cool Car]] saves the day in the end.
* CarFu: With Grandpa's CoolCar, no less!

* AdultsAreUseless: Subverted at the end, when [[spoiler:Grandpa returns just in time to kill the last vampire in the house and nonchalantly reveal he knew all along that there were loads of vamps around]].

* TakeMeInstead: [[spoiler: Lucy is willing to let Max bite her in order to spare Michael and Sam. Grandpa saves her from this fate at the last second by crashing his jeep into the house, sending a stake flying through Max's heart.]]

* PushoverParents:
** Being an ex-hippie NiceGirl who wants to be friends with her two teenage sons works about as well for Lucy as you'd expect, although she does start to put her foot down later in the movie.
--->'''Max:''' I tell ya, boys like Sam need discipline. Otherwise they walk all over you.\\
'''Lucy:''' Oh, [[BlatantLies he doesn't walk all over me.]]
** On the other hand, Michael and Sam aren't at all embarrassed by her affection for them, and are both quite devoted to her. [[spoiler: in the climax, even as Sam is being held hostage in a headlock by Max, he still urges Lucy not to become Max's 'bride'.]]

* MeaningfulName: Lucy, of course, shares her name with Mina's ill-fated friend from ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''. [[spoiler:And she does wind up pursued by a vampire who wishes to make her his bride -- a vampire named Max, itself possibly an allusion to Max Schreck of ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'' fame.]]

* PosterGalleryBedroom: Sam's bedroom, to be precise. Most prominently, he has posters of Molly Ringwald and Rob Lowe on his walls.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: When Lucy goes to apologize to Max for leaving their date early, Sam reads a vampire comic book that features a page all about the dangers of "Hellhounds: a special guard dog for vampires who sleep during the day". A few seconds later, Lucy almost gets eaten by Max's pet dog (and guard dog) Thorn, prompting Sam to save her.

* AdultsAreUseless: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that Sam and Michael's mom doesn't believe there are vampires; she believes the more rational explanation that her sons are having trouble coping with the idea of her dating again. Ironically, her current boyfriend [[spoiler: turns out to be the head vampire, who had his "boys" target her sons for recruitment/turning so she would join willingly and complete the "family".]]
** Subverted at the end, when [[spoiler:Grandpa returns just in time to kill the last vampire in the house and nonchalantly reveal he knew all along that there were loads of vamps around]].

* MundaneMadeAwesome: Sam's ability to rattle off the issue numbers and plot summaries of various superhero comics is treated as a badass feat.

* DudeNotFunny: Sam's reaction after Michael (fresh from joining David's group of vampires) makes a joke about their grandfather going on a date with the widow Johnson.
-->'''Michael:''' What'd you stuff for her? Mr. Johnson?
-->'''Sam:''' That wasn't funny, Mike!

* DoorHandleScare: We see Sam taking a bubble bath while his brother Michael slowly comes walking up the stairs. Sam sings to himself completely clueless, but his dog Nanook next to the bathtub hears Michael's footsteps coming up on the other side of the bathroom door. The music doesn't go silent, but in fact increases with the tension. Finally Michael stands outside the bathroom door, banging it, turning the knob with the camera focusing in as it rotates. Sam dunks completely under the water just as Michael's confronted by a growling and snarling Nanook, who then tackles Michael out the door and down the stairs, with the door slamming shut after him. Sam emerges from the water just after everything's all over.

* BreakingAndBloodsucking: Sam is hauling one of the creepy taxidermy animals into the closet. When he turns around, half-vampire Michael has suddenly appeared in the room by way of the second story window. After some arguing between the brothers, Star arrives, first yelling up to them from the ground, then suddenly floating in via the window.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Sam. He has a poster of Creator/RobLowe in a provocative pose on his wall -- specifically, on the door to his ''[[VisualPun closet]]''. He also croons both the boy and girl verses from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfXKGZo7RbE "I Ain't Got a Man"]] while taking a bubble bath. However, WordOfGod explains this in the commentary: the Rob Lowe and Creator/MollyRingwald posters in Sam's room were intended as a ShoutOut to the Creator/JohnHughes teen movies of the time, and Schumacher directed ''Film/StElmosFire'', which starred Lowe. It still doesn't explain Sam wearing a 'Born to Shop' T-shirt to bed, and some of his fashion choices aren't really justified by "it's the '80s". Maybe Sam's just a metrosexual ahead of his time?[[invoked]]

* LoveAtFirstSight: At the concert, Michael sees Star for the first time, and is immediately smitten with her.

* IAteWhat: Michael is tricked into drinking blood by prior illusions that make it look like his Chinese food is worms one minute, noodles the next, and again with rice/maggots [[note]]it's left somewhat ambiguous which is the illusion and which is real[[/note]]. By the time that he's told that the red beverage in the bottle is blood, he doesn't believe anything he hears.
--> '''David:''' ''(to Michael as he's eating some of the Chinese food)'' Maggots. You're eating maggots, Michael, how do they taste?
--> '''Star:''' ''(to Michael as he is about to drink from the bottle of "red wine")'' Don't. It's blood.

* HeroicWillpower: Michael uses this at the last minute to defeat David.
* HippieName: Discussed. Michael suspects his love interest Star had flowerchild parents because of her name, and mentions he came very close to having a Hippie Name himself.
-->'''Star''': What do you mean?\\
'''Michael''': Ex-hippies. I came this close to being called Moon Beam or Moon Child or something.