One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach; all the damn vampires. – The Lost Boys (1987)
Today I am joined by Katherine Cornelison of the Creepy Americana podcast to talk about the great 1980s glam vampire movie, The Lost Boys (1987). This great 1980s glam vampire movie is a fantastic time capsule of the era. This movie was directed by Joel Schumacher. The fantastic cast consisted of Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Dianne Wiest, Jami Gertz, Edward Herrmann, Alex Winter, and Barnard Hughes.
This was also the movie that started the two Coreys with Corey Feldman and the late Corey Haim.
We delve into vampire lore and movie trivia as the conversation progresses.
Automated Transcript
John:
Hey, I’m here today with Katherine Cornelison from the Creepy Americana podcast. And, she is somewhat of an expert on The Lost Boys (1987)
Katherine:
Somewhat. I’m good. How about you?
John:
Not doing bad. I’m not doing bad.
Katherine:
Good, good.
John:
Yeah. Hey Katherine. So, tell me about this movie we’re going to talk about today.
Katherine:
Okay. We are talking about from 1987.
John:
Okay. Great movie. Great.
Katherine:
Yeah. So, I definitely have loved this movie for a really long time and it is definitely one of my favorite movies. One that I watch probably once a year. Do you hear that?
John:
I hear that, but you can’t do anything about it. So, it’s really an 80s type glam movie, you know, with the hair and the fashion and everything. It’s stuck clearly in that era. Don’t you think?
Katherine:
Oh, absolutely. This is like a timestamp of the eighties and it’s perfect too, because it was partially filmed, in, California, Santa Cruz, boardwalk. It was filmed in the Santa Cruz boardwalk. And so, some of the scenes that are filmed there are just seeing scenes of real people, just kind of hanging out and dressing the way that they dressed at that time period. It’s very much this time capsule.
John:
They hired like 2000 extras for the, for the, for those boardwalks scenes.
Katherine:
Yeah. It was just, it just feels, but you know, that actually brings me to a really interesting point too, because our director, Joel Schumacher started his career actually in film as a costume designer and like a set director and stuff. So, he very much had an eye for that sort of stuff. So, that makes perfect sense. Yeah.
John:
So, the real name of the town is Santa Cruz, right?
Katherine:
Santa Cruz is where is where they filmed the boardwalk. Yeah.
John:
Changed it to Santa Carla. So people wouldn’t think there were real vampires running around there.
Katherine:
Yeah. We don’t need another “War of The Worlds” (Radio) situation. Right.
John:
Right. So you, want us to start the story and tell us the story and then I’ll see what I can throw in to help it out.
Katherine:
Do you want me to tell you about actors or?
John:
you tell me about whatever you want to tell me about. Who’s grandpa?
Katherine:
Okay. Well, I wanted to start off a little bit with the casts. So the cast. We definitely have some heavyweights and some lesser-knowns. I will start off with the main character. Who is Michael he’s played by Jason Patric. He only really had two acting credits before this movie, but, he did go on to star in some relatively larger movies. in 1996, he was in Speed Two: Cruise Control (1996) with Sandra Bullock. And, in 2010, he was in the movie, The Losers (2010) which actually has a lot of really big names in it. Like Zoe Saldana, Idris Elba, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Chris Evans. So
John:
I saw that you put Speed Two in your notes. And I just thought, I wondered how that got above Geronimo: An American Legend (1993) and the, I forgot the name of it. The one where they were drug agents undercover.
Katherine:
I’m just telling you, you know, I mean, I guess I am a little bit younger. And so like to me, I see a movie like
John:
Jason Patrick was in the Beast of War (1988), which I reviewed not too long back. Geronimo: An American Legend (1993) and Rush (1991). That was the name of that movie.
Katherine:
Okay. I don’t know. I just, you know, I like Sandra Bullock and, I know that like the first speed movie was like a pretty big deal. And I just thought that the title was really funny Speed Two: Cruise Control. Like that’s very silly to me.
John:
It was very silly. Wasn’t that? Cause it was a boat. Everybody likes Sandra Bullock, but that was kind of a stupid movie.
Katherine:
Oh yeah. Everyone likes Sandra Bullock. I just know it has a lot of like pretty big names. So,
John:
So, you don’t have to defend it if you like it, you know, that’s all there is to it. If you like it.
Katherine:
I’ve never seen it. I said, so the next we have Michael’s brother Sam, he’s the little brother. and I think other than grandpa, he has, some of the best lines in the whole movie. Like these fun little one-liners, you know? Yeah.
John:
You know this movie so go ahead.
Katherine:
He was played by Corey Haim. and Haim was definitely a pretty big star even before The Lost Boys. though I really can’t say that I’ve seen much else with him in it. I just know that he was like kind of a teen heartthrob and stuff at that time, you know?
John:
Yeah. This movie started the two Coreys.
Katherine:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I’ll get into the other Corey a little bit later.
John:
Yeah. I was going to say this movie is 34 years old. If you haven’t it by now, we can expose the ending
John:
You’ve had 34 years.
Katherine:
No, I get that. But like also there are people who are younger, who like don’t know about it or, you know what, you know what I mean? Like there’s still, there are people out there who don’t know the ending of The Sixth Sense (1999) or Fight Club (1999) or, you know, so I said like, you can, you can still preserve a little bit of mystery
John:
I don’t try to preserve any mystery though on this show if you’ve never listened to any of these podcasts.
Katherine:
No, no, I understand. I’m just saying like, for me personally, I would like maybe a little bit, I wouldn’t want, you know, it’s like when you watch a trailer and all like the best lines are given away in the trailer, so then you go and watch the movie and it’s like, well, everything was already in the trailer. Like what was the point of me even watching the movie.
John:
Yeah. Right. Okay. So, you got Michael and his brother, Sam what’s going on with them?
Katherine:
I think Sam’s like a little bit queer coded. like, I don’t know if you’re like, so later on in the movie, he’s in the bathtub scene and he’s like washing his hair and he’s hanging out with his dog Nanook and he’s like crooning along to the song “I Ain’t Got a Home” by Clarence Frogman Henry in which the singer says, “I sing like a girl and I sing like a frog as well as I ain’t got a man. I’m a lonely girl.” But it’s a man singing. He just He has a very high voice, you know, sounds like that. Right. Also Sam’s character has a poster of Rob Lowe hanging up in his room and he’s, closely aligned with his mother. There’s a scene, earlier on in the movie where the mom comes in and, he’s, his grandfather keeps giving him these taxidermied animals. For some reason, it’s like a very weird aspect of the movie. And like the animals are, you know, kind of creepy. So he keeps putting them in the closet. and so he like gets in bed and his mom comes in to like, you know, talk to him or whatever. And he asks her to, you know, close the closet door and she says something like, “you know, one of the reasons that I think I divorced your father is because he never believed in the closet monster.”
John:
Okay. Well, I don’t want to stick any pinholes in your bubble, but the picture of Rob Lowe was on the door because Joel Schumacher had just directed Rob Lowe in the previous film.
Katherine:
Yeah. But I mean, you know, every piece of a set is very intentional. And like I said, Joel Schumacher also started his career doing set designs and doing costuming. So like, I don’t think that it’s necessarily unintentional, but it’s, you know like maybe there is that coincidence, but also like he could have decided not to have that poster there. He could have picked a different poster or, you know what I mean?
John:
I do. Know what you mean. I’m looking for a piece of information, keep dogging.
Katherine:
Okay. and on top of that, Joel Schumacher himself is actually, well, was actually gay. I mean, he’s dead now, but, you know, I think that that does come out in his work a little bit, especially in this movie. I mean, Joel Schumacher, at least to people, my age is probably best known for those Batman movies in the nineties where Batman’s costume has bat nips for some reason. Everyone’s like what? And so I think it’s, I think he did that Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997). You know, those movies.
Katherine:
Right. And I know those movies, I don’t, I’m not a big fan of them, but okay. Yeah. I’m not saying that anybody’s a big fan of those movies. I think they’re pretty well known for being stinkers, but I’m also saying that like people, my age, like that’s probably his most known works by him for people my age.
John:
You guys don’t know St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) with Rob Lowe in it.
Katherine:
Not really. I know the song St. Elmo’s Fire.
John:
That’s from the movie.
Katherine:
I mean, I figured as much. Yeah.
John:
Yeah. Okay. So It’s still what I meant. What was going on for you got into that thing. I want, I meant what was going on and would say I’m in my clothes. Why are they coming to this town?
Katherine:
Oh, well, I was going to get into that. I promise I’m getting there. So we’re talking now about the mother, the mother is Lucy. Who is played by the illustrious Dianne Wiest. Is it West or Wiest? Wiest. Okay. Yeah. Cause I mean, it is spelled with an I, but anyway,
John:
Is she the mother of that other Rachel Weisz?
Katherine:
That’s Rachel Weise. No, no, no. Yeah. Rachel Weisz from, The Mummy (1999), that’s like the one that is like best known for Rachel Weisz. No, I think they’re probably close to the same age honestly, but, Diane Wiest, to me, is just like this nineties mom figure, you know, she was in, Edward Scissorhands (1990) with Johnny Depp She was in The Birdcage (1996) in 1996 with Nathan Lane and Robin Williams. And she’s in Practical Magic (1998) as one of the aunts also alongside Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. So I just like, I don’t know, she’s like, she just has this really nice-looking face. She’s a real lady and she’s always playing these like kind of, dour kind of, kind of, dowdy, you know, late women, either like, you know, an aunt or a mom or something like that. So that’s
John:
The kind of woman that would be attracted if a flashy vampire gave her some attention.
Katherine:
Perhaps, perhaps especially ’cause she just got divorced, which is why they’re moving to California. So they are originally from Phoenix. The mom just got divorced and she’s definitely having financial problems. So as a woman, I think probably in her forties or so, she’s having to move back in with her father in California. And, her father is played by Barnard Hughes, who definitely, who has quite a few acting credits. Some of his more known ones would probably be Tron (1982), Doc Hollywood (1991) with Michael J. Fox, and Sister Act Two: Back in The Habit (1993).
Katherine:
Oh yeah. He’s really good at it. Like he’s, some of the best stuff in that movie, you know, is where he’s just kinda like yelling at his grandkids about, you know, how it is around here. And I told you not to touch my food and you know, that rule about taking the car out and not filling it up, back up with gas. And they’re like, no, oh grandpa. And he’s like, well, you do, you do one of the funniest characters in, in the, in the movie for sure. I mean, and, and he, he delivers that last line of the movie so perfectly so perfect. It’s just excellent. But I really, if you’ve never seen the movie, I really don’t want to spoil that because I just think it’s so good.
John:
Well, I’ll spoil it at the end, but okay. So they moved, they moved to this new town and what goes on there and when they get there?
Katherine:
Okay. So we’re introduced to them from like an aerial view as they’re driving down this little highway on the coast and the mom’s listening to her, like kind of older music and stuff. And she she’s like, I think it’s, Ray Charles and some others like that. And they’re like, mom, mom, this sucks, you know? And she’s like, okay, okay. And so then as they’re driving by, they see this billboard that says, you know, the name of the town, Santa Carla. And they’re like, okay, Santa Carla. And then as they pass it on the backside of the billboard, it says murder capital of the world. And as that, as they pass the billboard, the music changes into “People Are Strange,” by Echo and the Bunnymen.
John:
I thought that was people are strange by The Doors.
Katherine:
It’s Echo and the Bunnymen. Yeah. Now you do so, it’s, it’s a good, it’s a good little song. I really enjoy it. It’s kind of along with one other song in the movie, it’s kind of the theme there’s like kind of that song and then, cry little sister
Katherine:
Thou shall not, not whatever.
John:
Okay. Okay. I know it’s when you talking about the actual town where the film was made move, or excuse me, the actual town where the film was shot, had a string of murders in the eighties, plus some doozies, I’m sorry, in the seventies. And they were trying to try and to lose that image. And that’s one reason they wanted them to change the name of the town.
John:
I don’t think it works. No.
Katherine:
No, definitely not. But I mean, I, I guess, California certainly did have a lot of murders in the seventies. I mean, you know, you got ed Kemper, you got all kinds of folks that were out there. just, you know, murdering folks,
John:
some Of those crazy Manson people were still hanging around That time.
Katherine:
Oh yeah. I mean, yeah. Some of them were, were not in jail at that point, you know, Squeaky Frome and all that sort of stuff. So yeah, for sure. It’s a weird time.
John:
Okay. So they go out, they’re young, they’re going out and looking for adventure and they ended up on the boardwalk and of it takes place there actually,
Katherine:
Actually at the beginning, they’re not just like hanging out there, they’re actually looking for jobs. So Michael and the mom are like asking around. And during that time, we’re, we’re still in that montage of the boardwalk and like introducing people. And like, you got these gutter punks and you got like ex-hippies and you got like, you know, drugged out people and you get tourists and all that sort of stuff. And so it’s still playin, the Echo and The Bunny Men, and they’re kind of asking for jobs. And, at one point Michael goes, you got a job here and the guy goes nothing legal and yeah. Instead of mom’s, mom’s, um looking for a job too. And then they, I don’t know what kind of mowing pattern this man has, but like get away from me go
John:
It’s something about recording. Cause the Jackass next door. Was using a spray compressor yesterday when I was trying to record.
Katherine:
I know the second you hit that record button, it’s like, oh, they’re recording. It’s time to make as much noise as possible. So, okay.
John:
So, so Diane, the mother, it’s her name? Carol Lucy. Lucy goes into a video store, right.
Katherine:
We haven’t gotten there yet. Okay.
John:
You only have six hours to get this recorded.
Katherine:
Wow. Okay. Okay. Well, anyway, so they’re looking for jobs and they don’t really come up with anything. So they, go to the grandfather’s house and as they pull up, they see laying on the porch and they’re like, oh my God, is he dead? You know, like the mom runs up to him. She’s just like dad, dad and Sam, the younger brother goes, “if he’s dead, can we go back to Phoenix?” And then the grandpa sits up and he goes “playing dead. But by the sound of it, doing a good job of it.” So that’s just kind of what you can expect from that character throughout the movie. He’s just very silly and weird and quirky. And he’s definitely kind of an old hippie guy. He wears like his little headband and stuff. And you know, he’s got all kinds of like little wooden figurines and wind chimes and all kinds of stuff. And so they go into the house and they just kind of looking around and checking things out and he’s like, let me give you some ground rules. So he, you know, he’s like the second shelf is my shelf. You don’t touch the shelf. It’s got my Double Stuff Oreos and my sodas or whatever, you know? he’s like a little old fart and he’s like very, you know, set in his ways. and then he, he, they, they also find his taxidermy lab or whatever. He’s like stay out of here. And they’re like, okay, so right off the bat, very weird, very interesting, like set design and all that sort of stuff. So you can really see Schumacher’s kind of expertise shining through there in that way, so before the end of that scene, though, he has this great line and they they’re basically like grandpa, did we really move to the murder capital of the world? And he’s has this great line. And, I don’t know if he like want to insert it in there.
John:
Oh, so what is the great line
Katherine:
He says, “well let me put it this way. If all the corpses buried around here, were to stand up all at once, we’d have one hell of a population problem.” Yeah. So then in the next scene, they go back to the boardwalk and that’s when we see them, they go to that little concert where the guy’s all shirtless and muscley and oiled up and he’s playing the saxophone. And, and then
John:
Let’s talk about that guy for a minute.
Katherine:
Yeah. Let’s talk about that guy.
John:
Tell me some stuff.
Katherine:
He’s the saxophone player for Tina Turner.
John:
Yeah, he was. And also for Ringo Starr later on.
Katherine:
Oh, how about that? I didn’t know that part, but it, it, you know, it’s kind of funny because up until like probably maybe five years ago, I never really realized that they weren’t actually like watching him. Like he wasn’t actually there on set or whatever. It was just like, like, the way they edited it and stuff. And I was like, oh, he’s not really there. And it was just like, oh, okay. We got little me. They tricked me,
John:
Tim Capella. Capello is the guy’s name. And I think everybody said, I’m going to get in shape just like that saxophone player.
Katherine:
Yeah. And he’s really buff dude, like very buff. So, yeah. So at this concert, this is actually where Michael first sees Star and Star is played by what is her name? Jamie Gertz. Hold on. Let me, let me get yet. Jamie Gertz. and Jamie Gertz was like pretty big in the eighties and stuff. I don’t think. Yeah. I don’t think she really went on to do too much else, but I do remember later on in life watching a movie called Less Than Zero (1987), which had Robert Downey Jr. In it and based on a Bret Easton Ellis book, which is the guy who wrote “American Psycho.” And, she was in that movie and I was like, oh, I know her, but I really haven’t seen her in too much else beyond that. I think sometimes she plays like mom characters these days, but she’s kind of much more of a background actor, I think. But she was very big in the eighties.
John:
She played the new girlfriend in Twister and she was in 16 Candles.
Katherine:
Yeah. Yep. That’s a good one.
John:
Yeah. So she’s a good actress. So he sees her cause she’s strikingly beautiful in her eighties.
Katherine:
Yes. Which actually is very interesting. that role, they, the guy who played main character, Joel Schumacher gave him like a lot of creative freedom because that’s the, that was really the only way that Joel Schumacher could get him to play the part. So that guy really wanted, like Meg Ryan to play the part he wanted like a blonde waifish looking kind of person to play that role. but they got Jamie Gertz instead, but I think she’s good for the part. I, I think that she, she really did a good job and I think she, yeah, she’s very 80. She’s got her big curly, dark hair, you know, striking eyes and stuff like that. So
John:
The black hair vampires are better anyway. Now wouldn’t you? Yeah, I think so. Blonde vampires. I don’t know.
Katherine:
Well, what about Keifer Sutherland’s main character main vampire. Then
John:
Doesn’t he have that white, white, white
Katherine:
Alex Winters of, bill and Ted fame. He’s also one of the vampires in the crew and he’s got this big curly blonde hair.
John:
Okay. I take it back. Girl vampires need to have black hair.
Katherine:
Oh, I see. Okay. Only girl vampires.
John:
So, w which main character were you talking about that gave, that gave that, he gave freedom to?
Katherine:
the guy who plays Michael, Patrick is the last name.
John:
Jason Patric?
Katherine:
Yeah.
John:
You know that is also, Jackie Gleason’s grandson.
Katherine:
Okay. Yeah. I mean, honestly, if you look at Hollywood, basically everybody in there’s some kind of legacy, you know,
John:
That’s why we have to bring English actors over to do serious parts because everybody in America is on a legacy Thing and over in England, practicing on Shakespeare.
Katherine:
Dude, like Drew Barrymore. She’s like third generation, her grandfather, her grandfather. I forget what his last, I mean, his first name is, I know, obviously it’s Barymore, but he was,
John:
Oh, a lot of Lionel Barrymore or John Barrymore,
Katherine:
I think it’s, I think it’s John Barrymore. he, he, he was like out in Hollywood and like the original, you know, acting colony, like when it first moved out there in the twenties and thirties, he was, you know,
John:
At least she can pull off an acting role and be funny, you know, and say Dakota Johnson, who’s third generation and horrible in everything.
Katherine:
Yeah. I, I don’t know. I really, I’ve never seen, 50 Shades of Gray () and I don’t think I’ve really seen anything else , so with her in it. So I can’t really speak to that, but, you know, yeah. I think that is probably the popular, wisdom about her. Is that she’s yeah. Not, not the best. Right.
John:
Okay. So what goes next? What happens next?
Katherine:
So, he’s definitely very like interested in her and he kind of, she kind of leaves the concert and he starts following her and Sam’s like, what are you doing? You like her, don’t you? What are you doing? And Michael’s like, buzz off, go do something else. And, I think during this time too, we see the mom, Lucy, she’s still trying to find a job and she sees this little, little kid, who doesn’t know where his mom is. And so she like helps him. And she like takes him inside this video store and saying like, Hey, have you seen this kid’s mom? And the video store owner, a man named max, is very charmed by her and sees like this maternal instinct in her. And so she’s like, I, I came here looking for a job and he’s like, well, I can give you a job. And so now Lucy has a job at the video store. So then we see the younger brother, Sam walk into a comic book store and the comic bookstore is run by these two brothers, Edgar and Allan Frog, which I always took them to be a reference to Edgar Allan Poe. Right. Edgar and Allan. Edgar is played by Corey Feldman, who, like we were talking about earlier is one of the two, you know, the two Coreys, right. Corey Hiam passed away in 2010, I believe. But, Corey Feldman is very much still alive and somehow a cult leader. He’s got this weird. Yeah. He’s got this weird harem of like younger women who just like live in his house and he kind of just like tells them what he wants them to do and how he wants them to look and stuff. It’s very…disconcerting.
John:
He was married last time I saw anything about him.
Katherine:
Yeah. But I mean, I, he’s also been like a very vocal person about kind of the pedophilia and stuff in Hollywood. So like, I’m certain that some of his…eccentricities probably have something to do with, you know, abuse suffered as a child.
John:
No doubt about it, but at least it didn’t drive him to kill himself with drugs. Like it did Corey Haim.
Katherine:
Exactly. Yeah. I was, I was just about to say that, but yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s tough, you know, so not to like go off to an, into too much of a tangent, but it does just sort of make me think about Britney Spears and about how, like, you know, that’s, that’s something that’s kind of, topical right now where she’s kind of dealing with that conservatorship and stuff. And it’s all because of her, you know, mental health stuff that she dealt with in the, early mid two thousands. And, you know, it was, it was all because like creepy pedophiles in, in the music industry were making this like 16, 17, 18-year-old girl wear like skin tight, latex suits and stuff. And everyone is like, oh, she’s a slut, she’s a slut. And, yeah, it’s, it’s tough. So anyway, the brother is Allan and I didn’t even actually put his name because the actor’s like such an unknown and like, I haven’t seen him in anything else. So I don’t know. And not to say he’s like an unimportant person,
John:
which brother?
Katherine:
the other guy who’s not, Corey Feldman.
John:
Oh, right, right, right, right. I know what you’re talking about.
Katherine:
I didn’t even put his name because I don’t
John:
The kinda New Jersey kid.
Katherine:
Yeah, yeah. He’s yeah. He, he reminds me a little bit of a Rocky Balboa or whatever, you know,
John:
Jamison NewLander, whoever that is.
Katherine:
Yeah. Like, sorry, dude. I’m sure you have a wonderful and fulfilling lifestyle and whatever, but you know, I don’t think he went on to do a whole lot. So anyway, so it’s the, the comic books are well going way back to the story. The comic book store is run by these two brothers because their parents are these kind of like drugged out hippies who are like asleep and stuff. So they’re not even paying any attention to, the store and stuff. So it’s basically run by these, you know, two brothers and, he’s like walking around and they kind of come up to him and they’re like a little bit intimidating. And he’s like, well, you can’t put this Superman comic issue 300 with, you know, issue 25 because you know this thing.
John:
Red kryptonite, it hasn’t been introduced yet.
Katherine:
Exactly. So it’s like very silly, like he’s obviously really nerdy and they like pull out this comic book and they’re like shoving it at him. Right. And they’re like, here, read this, read this. And he’s like, no, I’m good. I’m not really into horror comics. And they’re like, think of it less as like a comic book and more of a survival guide. And he’s like, okay. And they’re like, yeah, just pray. You never need to call us. And he’s like, oh, I’ll pray. I never need to call you. And then, so he, he’s got this comic book and he takes it and you know, he leaves, then we go back to David and, not David, sorry, Michael and Star. And they’re, you know, talking on the boardwalk and whatever. And, she introduces herself as Star and he says your parents too. And she’s like, what do you mean? He’s like, you know, X hippies. I was this close to being called Moonbeam or moonshot. And, then they’re interrupted by David and his Merry band of motorcycle driving vampire dudes, you know? And he’s like, what are you doing Star? And we go
John:
Any further. David does Kiefer Sutherland is Alex winter was in there. And then the two other guys in the, in the, in
Katherine:
The group, I don’t know who they are. And they aren’t particularly famous still. I mean, obviously, I mean, speaking of like Hollywood legacies, you know, keeper, Sutherland’s fathers, obviously Donald Sutherland and Donald Sutherland is a very famous actor, you know, invasion of the body snatchers and all kinds of stuff. So he’s, he’s a very, big name in Hollywood and, and keep your Sutherland, honestly, in his own right. Has, has really made a name for himself. Obviously, he was really famous for the, TV show 24. Right. You and mom watched extensively. Yes. and then he’s, I think now he’s a nutshell designated survivor or something. So he’s like, oh, okay. Got canceled. Well, you know, I guess that’s things are weird with COVID and all that stuff and what people want to watch. And I dunno, so, oh
John:
Yeah. He’s a good actor and he’s holding his own other than what we spoke. We said before
Katherine:
About those other ones about legacies now, I think, yeah. He definitely holds his own. so yeah, he’s, he’s the main vampire guy who’s, antagonistic towards Michael. and they’re sort of competing for Star in, in a way. And they’re, they’re, they’re kind of vaguely obsessed with themselves or with each other, you know, it’s, it’s just this weird arrival, situation. so David and his group kind of show up on their motorbikes and, Star kind of gets taken away by David. Right. So then we get this really weird chase scene where it’s like the two of them on their bikes and they’re like their motorcycles and they’re, they’re just like racing and it’s like dark and it’s foggy and you can’t really see. And then all of a sudden you see that they’re like racing towards this cliff edge and it’s like really intense and they’re, you know, racing and it’s kind of a game of chicken and it’s like, who’s going to stop first. And then finally Michael stops first. Yeah. So he gets off the bike and he’s like, you’re trying to kill me. And he like punches him and says, just you just me and you, we’re going to fight right now. And he’s like, nah, we’re not going to fight. Come, come hang out with us. You know? So he takes my goal down into this like weird, I don’t know what you would call it. I guess it’s kind of a cave.
John:
Okay. So it’s a hotel that’s been wrecked and it’s now become a cave because it’s been collapsed.
Katherine:
It becomes a cave. Right. Because, you know, sometime in the 1920s, there was like a huge earthquake that like opened up and swallowed the hotel. So now they kind of squat down in there.
John:
Some of the original stuff from the boardwalk has been destroyed by another earthquake since then some of the stuff that was in the movie. Yeah.
Katherine:
Oh. So anyway, they can go down there and there, they’re checking out this, this old hotel and stuff and they have, you know, like posters up and there’s like this, this poster of, Jim Morrison in the back. And I don’t know, I maybe I’m crazy, but I always kinda thought that, the main character kind of looked like, Jim Morrison. So I didn’t know if like the director was kind of trying to make some sort of connection between the two, especially like the, people are strange song is, you know, like a cover of a song and, and that sort of stuff. Yeah.
John:
and he does kind of favored Jim Morrison. I can see that too. I just noted, noted something here that he said that, the poster of the Jim Morrison’s up there in the cave, but later when Laddy and Star were carried into the bedroom, there’s a poster of Echo and Bunnymen on the door and see all this time. I thought that was just the doors it’s saying,
Katherine:
It’s on there you go. See, it’s all coming together. It’s all full circle. Right? Yep. So Star is there with them and they’re just kind of hanging out and being dudes. And they’re like, let’s see, you know, we, we got this, this, Chinese food, right. So, Mike, David’s eating some like noodles and then he kind of like holds it out and offers it to Michael and Michael takes it and he starts eating it. And David’s like, it’s worms. And he’s like, no, it’s not. And then he looks down and it’s worms. And so he drops it and then, you know, the worms are wriggling and stuff. And then the, all the vampires are laughing and, Star’s like, leave him alone. You know, being like a weird kind of damsel in distress. It’s like, it’s very strange dynamic. and then he brings out the rice and he’s eating the rice.
Katherine:
And, he like tries to offer it to, to Michael. And Michael’s like, no, thank you. And he’s like, come on, Michael, can a billion Chinese people be wrong because I don’t know, rice and stuff. It’s very, it’s a very strange line. so then, you know, Michael tries to eat it and then of course it’s like magots or whatever. And he’s like, whoa, it’s disgusting. You know? So he drops it, but then like, it looks on the ground and it’s just like rice. And so he’s like, what the heck? You know, it’s like this kind of weird game that they’re playing. So then they bring out this bottle that looks like a bottle of wine. And they’re like, you know, they’re kind of passing it around and then they like pass it to Michael. And, Star’s like, don’t drink it. It’s blood. And Michael’s like, yeah, sure. And then he, you know, throws it back and drink some of it. So it’s kind of all part of that little game they played with him. Cause you know, they’re like, is it, is it not? So he’s like, well, they already played tricks on me, so it’s probably not blood. So he drinks it. Of course, of course it is. Of course it is right.
John:
Let’s stop right here and just go back to a complete horror thing. What is the effect of Michael drinking the blood with the vampires? Any old lore? There’s no traditional lore, there’s no drinking the vampire’s blood like a swallow.
Katherine:
Sure, sure. So, I mean, I, I read this book, it’s a book that’s called Vampires, Burial and Death. And so, it’s, it’s a very like dry non-fiction book about basically the origin of vampires. and basically what it comes down to is medieval folks, not really understanding human decomposition. And so, a lot of times, you know, they would see that like a grave was dug up most likely by wolves or something, trying to eat the body. and so then they would sort of go through it and, and, and check the body. And like, if the body had like blood, like red lips, you know, they’d be like, oh, well, this vampire has been sucking the blood of the people, you know, but of course it’s just, the person got sick. They died, you know, and, and instead of, sorry, they died.
Katherine:
And then when the family members inevitably die, the, the villagers all are like, oh, the person who was a vampire came back and sucked the lives out of their family members. But, you know, in reality, we know that it’s, you know, the, that person who was initially sick got the rest of the family sick and then they died. Right. So it’s very much this, like whole thing about misunderstanding, decomposition and dead bodies. So, you kind of have this sort of vampire zombie undead Revenant kind of thing in a lot of different cultures. So, but the majority of it kind of starts around like the 15 hundreds kind of that middle ages. So it’s like post black death. but there’s still like these remanence of people getting sick, a lot of outbreaks of death and sickness that like, they still really don’t understand because they don’t really understand germ theory. We didn’t understand germ theory until well into the 18 hundreds, you know,
John:
I guess, I understand that, but it’s almost like you’re implying that vampires. Aren’t real first off. And I was asking like, is there any, anything in the traditional legends has, I know they put it in, like a, Stott interview with the vampire about, and some of that about drinking their blood to be turned into a manpower. But what about the drinking out of a bottle? Is there anything, cause it goes into the illumination scene next.
Katherine:
Yes. So as far as I know there, isn’t because our kind of modern vampire things sort of also springs out of zombies. So you have like the guy who wrote I am legend, which, obviously was the source material for The Omega Man (1971) and The Last Man on Earth (1964), both movies that you reviewed, I think like back in 2015 or something like that very early on, that guy, I think his last name is Mathison. So he wrote, I am legend and that’s kind of where a lot of our zombie and vampire stuff comes from because the creatures in that book are really, they’re not, they’re not described as either, right. But that’s that source material is where we get, Night of the Living Dead (1968). So that’s very formative for, zombie movies and our zombie culture. Obviously, a very early vampire book is, you know, Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”,” in that look, I don’t think that there’s much about how you become a vampire. It’s just like the vampires kind of exist.
John:
Well, I think they bought it. They bite you three times and you become a Vampyr three bites, which is just an inversion of the price, you know, after he died, resurrected his, see in verse myth of the yeah.
Katherine:
Well, and that, that makes perfect sense that it’s like this, kind of pseudo-Christian thing. I’m looking up really quick. What the, inter interview with a vampire I’m going to do, I’m trying to see, he came out 81 or 82, 76. So, Interview With a Vampire (1994). So I’m going to assume that, probably the vampire lore in, the loss was probably takes a lot from Anne Rice because she was so formative, but like the thing about Ann Rice’s writing and her, her, her vampires in particular, they’re very pseudo-sexual, so it’s not explicitly sexual, but there’s definitely a lot of that. And, I think there’s also something kind of going on in this movie where, there’s, what is it called? It’s called the, indirect kiss, I think. So it’s basically, you do something where like you drink from a bottle and then you like pass it to somebody in that person drinks from it.
Katherine:
And that’s an indirect kiss. Or if you like eat the same food or you liked to smoke the same cigarette, or do you like light somebody’s cigarette and something it’s, it’s kind of this, literary way of kind of implying some sort of intimacy between people without actually like doing that. So I, I mean, obviously I’m reading a little bit into it and it’s, you know, I am an English major. So like, what do you expect from me? But, you know, so we see it as like very close up shot of Michael, like drinking from the bottle or not, sorry, not Michael, David drinking from the bottle. And it’s like, he like closes his eyes and he’s like kind of an ecstasy as he’s like drinking this, you know, blood. And so there is that, kind of pseudo-sexual situation there. And then he passes it to David and David drinks her mid as well. You know, I can’t tell you exactly what Joel Schumacher was thinking when he directed it this way, when he, you know, when it happened this way, but that is certainly a way that it could be read.
John:
Okay. So, okay. So then they, they leave the cave and that is when the railroad part happens,
Katherine:
Right? Yes. So they’re like, we’re going to go do something fun, Michael, follow us. And so he’s like, okay. And they are walking along the railroad tracks and it’s kind of this, bridge railroad sort of like in, stand by me, right with the bullet. Is there like, going across the bridge. And so stand by me, came out before this movie and also started keeper Southern.
John:
I was going to ask you that Kiefer Sutherland was the older brother, right? One of the older,
Katherine:
Yeah. Yeah. So there’s, there’s a little bit of a connection there. It could be a reference to that movie it’s very entirely possible. So they’re crossing it. And, then one by one, the vampire start jumping down and Michael was like, what the hell what’s going on? What are they doing? And then finally, you know, David goes last and Michael’s kind of left there standing by himself. And it’s very clear that a train is coming and it’s shaking and you hear the train horn going and all this stuff. And he’s like, I don’t know what to do. And so then he jobs too. And then we see that the vampires are just kind of holding on underneath the railroad as it’s shaking. And like, for some reason this is a fun thing for them. I really don’t understand the scene and I’ve never understood the scene. And then as the, the train is going by and it’s shaking and he’s like, his arms are getting weaker and he can’t pull himself up and then the vampires start letting go and they just kind of dropped down into the mist. And finally, when Michael lets go, he drops down into the mist. And then it’s a very weird scene where he’s like, kind of doing almost this matrix style, like arms flailing and is like leaning backwards and he’s kind of screaming and he’s falling down through the mess. And then he lays in his bed,
John:
Wakes up in his bed. Right. And see, I think that was some kind of more of the mind and we drank the blood and they got into his mind. And this was the first transitioning of him into the vampire.
Katherine:
Absolutely. Cause at that point, when he wakes up, it’s like super late in the afternoon. He’s been asleep all day and like his mom’s at work and she called and she’s like trying to talk to him. She’s like, well, what’s going on with you? Why are you asleep? And so I think also there’s kind of this thing about this, like the son who’s kind of disconnected with his mom. and he’s like, I don’t like, I’m too cool for you. I’m too cool for my mom. And you know, so there’s a little bit of that, a little bit of a theme of like, you know, transition adolescents, you know, moving into kind of this new phase of life and sort of stuff like that. cause the little brother is still, like I said earlier, still kind of aligned with the mom and he’s still very close to her. And so he’s clearly like a younger child who’s, you know, still really concerned about his mom. I mean, they’re, they’re both concerned about their mom, but like obviously Michael’s like going through some stuff, you know? So he kind of, can’t be totally focused on the mom the way that the younger brother can
John:
I told you not to hang out with those vampires. You’ll get into trouble.
Katherine:
Exactly. Exactly. So he’s like hanging out with a bad crowd and stuff. Yeah. Okay. so,
John:
Does Lucy, go to visit her boss during the day?
Katherine:
Yeah, she’s the work and he kind of like asks her out on a date, you know, and she just got divorced and she’s kinda lonely and you know, she’s, she’s going through tough times herself. And so of course she’s like, yeah, this like nice guy wants to go out on a date with me. And so that’s really cool. And I kinda, you know, I want to go out on a date with him. So you guys just kind of hang out here and be good and you know, don’t, don’t get into too much trouble. I think that’s when Michael wakes up on the ceiling, I don’t remember that part vampire stuff is like making him like float, float. Yeah. He’s like up on the ceiling. So he wakes up, he’s like this and then he kind of rolls his face and like, you know, he’s like on the ceiling and he’s like freaking out and I’m no, no, no, no. If that doesn’t happen yet, I only know let’s, let’s talk about the bathtubs.
John:
Well let’s before we get oh, with Corey, we’ll do the sure. Go ahead.
Katherine:
Well, did you have something you wanted to say? Okay, so Corey, finds out, no, sorry. His name is not Corey. Sam finds out that his brother is a vampire through a very interesting way. So Sam is just like at home and he’s like taking a bath and he’s washing his hair and he’s hanging out with his dog, Nick and I did talk about this a little bit earlier and all of a sudden, and the nook is like freaking out and he’s like rallying and stuff. And Michael kind of burst in the bathroom and then look like jumps on him and bites him. And you know, of course, like Sam’s freaked out and stuff and he’s like, what’s going on? You know? And so he sees the blood on Michael’s hand and he’s like, what, what did you do to my dog? You.
Katherine:
And he’s like, it’s my blood. He bit me. And he’s like, why did my dog bite you? And then he sees that Michael is kind of translucent, not all the way in, in reflection, not all the way translucent, but partially. And he, then he like, you know, the gears click this horror comic that he’s been reading and these like the weird frog brothers and all that stuff. He’s like, oh my , you’re a vampire. And he has this great line. And if you want to put in the audio for that, I think that would be good as they can hear that. Cause that’s just what a great line.
John:
And that line is?
Katherine:
I can’t believe that my own brother, a Godamn shit sucking vampire
John:
It’s somewhere in the, the phrase is used vamping out. And that was the first time it was ever used. Her vamp out was the, was the origin of that phrase.
Katherine:
Yeah. I think it was the Frog brothers. They say something like, just so you know, if you vent out in any way, we will not hesitate distinct.
John:
Okay. So he does the Sam, the little brother. Does he contact the Frog brothers who, load up with the holy water and garlic and come over, right?
Katherine:
Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, he contacted them, I don’t remember. Cause there was that scene and then another scene where he Michael’s asleep and he wakes up and he’s on the ceiling. As I said, he’s like floating around and Sam freaks out and he like shuts himself in his room and then like Michael’s outside the window and he’s like, help me, like help me, help me, help me. And Sam calls his mom, who’s on a date and he’s like screaming and he’s like, oh, she’s coming to get me. So then the mom like runs out of the restaurant and like, you know, tries to come home because like she’s freaked out because her son is like calling her screaming. And so then Sam calls the frog brothers and he’s like, what do I do? And they’re like, oh, he’s obviously a vampire. So you got to kill him. And he’s like, no, I can’t do that. There has to be some other option. And they’re like, well, if he’s, if he’s only partially a vampire, he’s not full vampire, he hasn’t fed on any human blood yet. Then if we kill the head vampire, then he’ll stop being a vampire. So that is kind of the conflict there. That’s like kind of how they are going about solving the rest of this, this problem. The rest of the movie is all about figuring out the head vampire is.
John:
So we are we’re over an hour. So let’s just sum it up and say, let’s say Michael grabs Star and Laddie a little boy.
Katherine:
We didn’t even talk about Laddie, but yeah, he’s like a little half-vampire too. Yeah. Eddie Muster
John:
Lady anyway. So they, he brings it back to the house to protect them. And the frog brothers are coming and they set up a defense. So it’s up to the three younger boys and the dog because grandpa was out on his date and the mother’s not there and the vampires are coming towards the house. So it’s the big tension scene.
Katherine:
Yes. They like four to five, the house, they got all their holy water. They got garlic in the bathtub like they’re doing the whole thing. And so they have a showdown cause the vampires come in the house, then they’re like, you know, squirt in the holy water and you know, all this sort of stuff. And you had these great Kilz scenes that are like, so I think these are, I think the kill scenes are definitely worth just watching even like, I don’t, I don’t want to describe them too much because I think it’s worth watching or like yes, death by stereo, another great line by Sam. and then like with the, when the pipes all explode and stuff with the blood and everything, it’s great. It’s super worth watching. And then you have the final showdown between Michael and David and they’re like flying around the ceiling and they’re like fighting and you tried to make me a killer. I tried to make you a mortal, all kinds
John:
Of, animal heads, mounted animal heads with orange. So you’d know somebody can end up on those horns eventually.
Katherine:
Absolutely. Cause you know, yeah. The grandfather’s a weird taxidermist for some reason. And yeah. So finally Michael is triumphant when he slams day that into some horns in the grandfather’s, taxidermy lab or whatever, but it’s super weird because David, no, because Michael and Star and Laddie all seem to still be vampires. They still didn’t change back.
John:
It’s like they haven’t killed the head vampire
Katherine:
Yet. Like they haven’t killed the head vampire. What’s up with that. So then max shows up, Max is the mom’s kind of love interest, boyfriend guy who they’ve gone on a couple of dates and stuff. And he’s like, silly boy, you’ve never invited empire into your house. And then he like goes all in and then you find out why the name of this movie is the lost boys. It’s because max is kind of the Peter pan. And the other vampires are, you know, the lost boys, this group that never grows old, they never die. You know, they want everything kids forever and max wanted a windy for his last boys. That’s right. but now all the vampires are dead, but max still wants Lucy in his, in his family and stuff and he wants the boys to be in there too. Should we, should we spoil the ending? Sure.
John:
Are we, should we going to say they’re spoilers if you want to listen past here, there are spoilers.
Katherine:
Okay. Yes. All right. Well, we’ll say it that way. So you hear this (musical humming) and then all of a sudden the grandfather’s car drives right through the house and like the stakes that he kind of set up outside the house, fly in through and, just stab Max right in the stomach. And you know, of course, he dies and thank God, you know, Michael and Star and Laddie are all, you know, back to normal now because they finally really killed the head man. And everybody’s all covered and stood and it’s dirty and all this sort of stuff. And then the grandpa just kind of wanders in the house and it’s dark. And he just like walks over to the kitchen and he opens the fridge door and there’s just kind of a little bit of light on Michael and Sam and Lucy as they kind of like follow the grandfather into the kitchen. And he gets out his self, a little soda, and drinks, a little drink, and he goes, one thing I never could stand about living in Santa Carla, all the damn vampires. And then it goes dark and then it starts playing People Are Strange. Exactly.
John:
Great movie. So basically, I guess Michael inherited a family, cause he gets Star and Laddie, he’s stuck with that kid.
Katherine:
I mean, yeah, I guess so I, because the kid is like missing and stuff. I mean he must have a family right.
John:
Killed his parents.
Katherine:
Maybe they did. But all I know is that, there, there is a shot that I do think is really interesting and also definitely says something about kind of the culture of the eighties is you, you see the child, the missing poster on a milk carton that’s in their house. Right. So, I mean that, that time period is really when that children on milk cartons things started popping up. Right. Because there was this whole thing about stranger danger and kids being kidnapped. Right. You got like John Walsh’s kid who was kidnapped from the Sears in south Florida. And you know, you got Johnny, gosh, he was kidnapped while he was, you know, doing a paper route and all that stuff. So it was very much like, a thing about, you know, missing kids and, stranger danger and stuff at that time period. Okay. So
John:
That’s why yall couldn’t play outside,
Katherine:
Absolutely. In the nineties, absolutely kids were not playing outside, but you couldn’t just go down the street and hang out with your, you know, you had to stay in your yard. You couldn’t like, you know, be unwatched for too long. For sure. I know. So
John:
What do you think is this movie rates in the vampire Pantheon?
Katherine:
I mean, for me personally, I think it’s, it was a very formative movie. Again. I, you know, it’s something that I watched probably once a year. sometimes maybe more just depending on the year I think, but, you know, everybody who ever had watched it has always really enjoyed it. I mean it, yeah, it’s a little bit silly and yet it has some weird dialogue and stuff like that, but it’s just a super fun movie and it’s so personally I think it rates really I up there, I’d certainly watched it. I would watch this over, you know, Interview With a Vampire (1994) and stuff like that.
John:
It’s up there with the Dracula (1931) and the Spanish Dracula (1931). It’s in that, it’s in that range.
Katherine:
It’s up there in the top five. Yeah, I would say so for sure. And I, I mean, I think that there’s, I think that it’s been influential in vampire media in general, I think, because this is kind of silly, but you know, how in the Twilight books and stuff, everyone’s always like, ha ha the vampire skin is all sparkly or whatever, like, and sparkly vampires, you know, that’s, but it’s actually seen in the lost boys where they stake a vampire and the blood, like, you know, drips down on them and they like go out into the sunshine and the blood is all glittery. I don’t know if that’s just like a coincidence, but I always did think that was interesting. You know, I, I was a 13-year-old girl once I certainly read all those vampire books, the Twilight books, but I, you know, I read other ones too. I was like eighth grade. I had a super vampire phase. I would go to the public library and just like go into the, young kids section or whatever, where the goosebumps and stuff all were and just like, look for vampire books. So,
John:
All right. All right, well, look, I appreciate you doing this, but yeah, it’s gonna take me a while to edit it because it’s pretty long, but definitely that we’ll definitely do it, so, okay. I’m going to stop there. Thanks for coming. I appreciate it. And you want to say the name of your show again, please
Katherine:
John:
Creepy Americana and that’s podcasts. You can get it at apple and where other podcasts are hosted.
Katherine:
Right. Only apple and Google play and like that sort of stuff. So, yeah, we’re, we’re around.
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