Film

The Lost Boys

Name: The Lost Boys
Genre: Horror, Comedy, Thriller
Released: 1987
Cast: Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Barnard Hughes, Edward Herrmann

A gang of hair-metal vampires haunts a California boardwalk town, and two comic-book-obsessed brothers become the only line of defence. Equal parts horror, comedy and teen wish-fulfilment, it's pure 80s style — fog machines, saxophone solos, Kiefer Sutherland's earring — with just enough real menace underneath the mullets to keep you honest. For anyone who wants their vampires cool and their soundtrack loud.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love vampire stories that mix real dread with gleeful B-movie silliness, the kind where a sax-heavy 1980s soundtrack and a pair of wisecracking brothers sit comfortably beside the blood.

Skip it if the tone swings hard between teen-movie gags and genuinely nasty bloodshed, and if that lurch unsettles you, the dated effects and a couple of sluggish stretches will test your patience.

What it asks of you: Expect a brisk, looping ride of about ninety-seven minutes that rewards letting the mood wash over you, with bright seaside daylight giving way to shadowy nights.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Fright Night1985

Made two years earlier and just as gleefully aware of its own silliness, this is the other essential 80s teen vampire movie — a suburban kid convinced his neighbour is a bloodsucker, armed only with a washed-up horror host.

But The effects are more rubbery and the pacing looser — it's scrappier and less polished than Lost Boys.

Near Dark1987

Same year, same vampire-biker-gang premise, entirely different mood — Kathryn Bigelow strips out the jokes and plays it as a bleak, dusty western with real teeth.

But No comic relief, no Frog Brothers wit — this one commits fully to dread, which can feel like a cold shower after Lost Boys.

The Monster Squad1987

Released the same year, this is the kid-brother version — a gang of monster-obsessed pre-teens face off against Dracula and friends with the same scrappy, comic-book confidence as the Frog Brothers.

But It's aimed younger and goofier, with none of the horniness or cool-kid posturing that gives Lost Boys its edge.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Lost Boys

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Let the Right One In2008

Same outsider-meets-vampire setup as Lost Boys, but stripped of humour and swagger to ask what that seduction would actually feel like — lonely, cold, morally troubling rather than fun.

The same premise — a lonely kid pulled toward a vampire — played as a tender, wintry tragedy instead of a joke, with some of the most unsettling vampire imagery ever put on screen.

But It's subtitled, slow, and deeply melancholy — nobody cracks a joke and nobody looks cool doing any of it.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer1997

Takes the same idea — ordinary teen town, extraordinary vampire threat, plenty of quips — and stretches it into seven seasons of genuinely great, emotionally rich television.

But It's a huge commitment next to a 97-minute movie, and the first season's budget and writing take a while to find their footing.

What We Do in the Shadows2014

If you clocked how funny Lost Boys already is, this mockumentary about squabbling flatmate vampires takes the comedy the rest of the way and never looks back.

But There's no teen-horror tension here at all — it's a straight comedy, not a horror movie with jokes.

Interview with the Vampire1994

For the gothic glamour and eternal-outsider ache underneath all the Lost Boys mischief, this is the lush, tragic, velvet-and-candlelight version of the same vampire-as-seduction idea.

But It's slower and mournful, much more interested in centuries of guilt than in mullets and motorcycles.

Blade1998

Wants to know what happens if you take the vampire-hunter mythology dead seriously and add guns, techno and Wesley Snipes in a trench coat — pure genre confidence.

But The wit is traded for action-movie swagger; anyone hoping for Lost Boys' teasing humour will find this stony-faced by comparison.

Stand by Me1986

No vampires, but the same small-town-boys-on-bikes energy and coming-of-age heart, from the same late-80s moment when childhood friendship got treated as genuinely dramatic material.

But There's nothing supernatural or scary here — if you came for the horror, this is a completely different, gentler film.

Fear Street: 19942021

A newer, gorier throwback that borrows the same small-town-teens-vs-supernatural-threat structure, with a genuine love of 80s/90s horror iconography and a killer soundtrack.

But It leans much harder into slasher gore than vampire glamour, and the trilogy format means one film isn't the whole story.

Nosferatu1922

Lost Boys plays vampirism as glamour and comic-book rules; Nosferatu is the primal, wordless nightmare version those rules were invented to tame.

The vampire as gaunt, shadow-casting predator rather than seductive rock star — this silent German classic invented the visual grammar every vampire movie since has been riffing on or rebelling against.

But Silent, black-and-white, nearly a century old — it asks for patience Lost Boys never does.

The Warriors1979

The vampire gang's biker aesthetic and boardwalk turf in Lost Boys is basically borrowed from this cult gang thriller's night-city mythology — same swagger, no fangs required.

Swap fangs for switchblades and you've got the same nocturnal-gang-turf mythology — a night-city underworld of leather, bikes and territorial menace, shot with real grit.

But There's nothing supernatural about it — the danger is entirely human, and the tone is far tougher and less funny.