The Lost Boys

Lost boys is and will always be one of the greatest 80’s movies and possibly the best vampire movies ever made. So it would stand to reason that one day, Warner Bros would resurrect the format for a potential franchise, and some 20 years later comes Lost Boys: The Tribe, not a patch on the original, but does have 80’s legend Corey Feldman (The Goonies, Stand by me, Gremlins) reprising his role as Edgar Frog, one of the young vampire slayers of the first outing.
The Tribe had its moments, and a number of nods to the original, which for a fan like myself, was pretty cool. As well as the revelation that Edgar’s brother and fellow hunter has been turned into the undead since we last saw him in The Lost Boys. A revelation that isn’t given any thought till the final moments of the film, when we see Alan Frog speeding along in his blacked out car, and Edgar is visited by Corey Haim, reprising his role as Sam Emerson, who has also been turned.
Then we have the third instalment, Lost Boys: The Thirst, which if it had followed on from the set up left at the end of The Tribe, could have been something special, or at least it had me excited. But alas, it was an even more lame effort than The Tribe. Which sees Edgar teaming up with his vampiric bother Alan, to take down DJ X (I know it sounds horrible already, but despite the rubbish name the premise does get better) who his putting on illegal raves and handing out a new designer drug called The Thirst, which is actually vampire blood, with the aim of creating a vampire army.
The Thirst fails on several accounts but the two major ones, the first being Feldman’s performance, where he seems to have become an even bigger characture of the original role. This is highlighted by the second mistake, the inclusions of clips from the original Lost Boys, acting as Feldman’s flashbacks to a better time (not just for him, but for us too) where both his brother and Sam Emerson, where still human, as it also transpires Emerson had not only been turned, but also killed by Edgar Frog. These moments that I can only assume are supposed to be touching, only show how far we have spiralled down from the first film and how ridiculous Feldman’s characterisation has become.
However these flashbacks also provide one of the best moments of The Thirst. Earlier in the film Edgar, who is on the verge of being evicted, sells his collection of comics, all except his issue of Batman no.14, which we are reminded later through flashback forms the first conversation Sam Emerson has with the Frog brothers. Feldman’s character then visit’s the grave of Emerson, where he places the comic at the graveside in tribute. This is not only an emotional moment for Frog, saying goodbye to his lifelong friend, but it also resonates into real life, where Corey Feldman (Frog) and Corey Haim (Emerson) were also lifelong friends, up until Haim’s sudden death before the films production. What we end up with is a life imitating art moment, with Feldman is also paying tribute to his friend.