Eerie Horror Film Festival’s got something creepy and crawly for everyone, including Lost Boy Corey Feldman
That’s how actor Corey Feldman knew the film he just completed — a then-radical, goth-rock, horror project called “The Lost Boys” — might catch on.
The year was 1987. Feldman, back then, was a close friend of roaring, raging comedian Sam Kinison and invited him to the “The Lost Boys” premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
“He sat right behind me and I remember the whole movie he was screaming and yelling and clapping his hands loudly,” Feldman said. “Afterward, he was like, ‘Dude, this is the best movie I’ve ever seen!’ He was so excited about it.”
Kinison then took matters a step further.
“His whole group of comedians started calling each other the lost boys. He had the soundtrack and would play it all the time. He was like, ‘It’s the only rock and roll vampire movie that’s ever existed and it’s the coolest thing ever!’
“Literally, people starting taking on aliases as ‘Lost Boys,’” Feldman added. “That’s when I knew we were into something and this would have a life, long after the release of the film.”
He should have staked a bet on it.
While “Twilight” might reign as today’s vampire flick du jour, horror fans continue to find “The Lost Boys” fascinating. The past few years, assorted cast members have drawn huge crowds at horror conventions, such as the Eerie Horror Film Festival where Feldman, Jamison Newlander, Chance Michael Corbett, Brooke McCarter, and musician Gerard McMann appear this weekend.
Two years ago, a “Lost Boys” reunion drew 4,000 fans who watched the original film on an inflatable screen on the Santa Cruz boardwalk, where much of it was filmed.
A much-belated sequel, “Lost Boys 2: The Tribe” debuted on DVD in 2008, and Feldman recently announced he and McCarter will start filming “Lost Boys 3: The Thirst” on Nov. 1 in South Africa.
Why all the love for a 22-year-old flick? Perhaps because “Lost Boys” arrived as a new breed of vampire film. Stylishly directed by Joel Schumacher, it presented vampires not as aging barons amok in Transylvania but hip, motorcycle-loving teens hanging out in Santa Cruz (renamed Santa Carla).
The film featured a hot young cast, including Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Feldman, a hip, alternative soundtrack that reflected a growing goth-rock culture, gore galore, and a welcome sense of humor.
“It was superb casting, superb direction, a killer soundtrack,” said McCarter, who played “Lost Boy” Paul. “And the fact that it mixed the horror genre with the comedy, that’s what did it.”
McCarter and Feldman arrived at “Lost Boys” from different directions. McCarter had just appeared in “Thrashin,’” a low-budget skateboard film with production design by a young Catherine Hardwicke, who would later direct “Twilight.” He originally auditioned for the part of David, the “Lost Boys” teen leader.
“I read for two months across from Jason Patric,” he said. “I was pretty much cast as David. Then, they really wanted Kiefer so they offered me to be one of the lost boys. The wardrobe was so cool and the hair was so cool, I said yes. I was just happy to have an acting job.”
Feldman was coming off a series of hits — “Gremlins,” “Goonies,” “Stand By Me,” that made him one of the 1980s biggest young stars.
Director Richard Donner pitched “Lost Boys” to him. Feldman would play Edgar Frog, one of the Frog brothers, who hunt vampires. He was in, immediately.
“I said, ‘Whatever you’ll be doing, it’ll be great,’” recalled Feldman. “The whole theory of rock and roll vampires was a little out at that time but I kind of went with it.”
Then, Donner was out as director, replaced by Schumacher.
“I knew right away he had great sensibilities,” Feldman said. “He gave me the direction for creating the character of Edgar Frog. He said these two guys — they’re like comic-book geeks. On the other hand, they really believe they’re these tough, violent guys.
“He said I needed to do research, watch old Chuck Norris war movies and Rambo to create a character similar to all of them. So that’s what I did.”
Most of the shooting took place in Santa Cruz, Calif. and on Warner Bros. soundstages.
“It was a rough shoot, to be honest,” Feldman said. “There were a lot of voices in the creative department. You had to be able to work well with others. It was a good melting pot of people but tempers certainly flared. I remember a lot of yelling. It was a very stressful environment.”
McCarter and Feldman also remember fun times, like hanging out at a hotel that Warner Bros. rented for the entire cast. Feldman and Haim bonded; they were 14. The teenage “Lost Boys” hung out, while Edward Herrmann and Dianne Wiest stuck by each together.
was like high school where everyone has their own clique,” Feldman said.
Except Haim and Feldman wanted to hang with the older lost boys.
“They’d be knocking on the hotel room door at 6 a.m.,” McCarter said. “Because we had night shoots, we’d get off work at like 6 and you just don’t want to go to bed after 12 hours. We’d have like 40 people in the hotel room and Haim, Feldman, and Newlander all wanted in.”
McCarter also remembers working with talented makeup artists Ve Neill and Greg Cannom, who would each go on to win three Oscars, including one in 2009 for Cannom for “Benjamin Button.”
“It was almost like groundbreaking work at the time,” McCarter said. “But it was miserable to wear the contact lenses and be hanging upside down, shackled by your feet in some cave. You’d have all the blood rushing to your head with the contacts in and the workers moving lights would kick dirt and dust down at you. It was horrible.”
McCarter, as Paul, dies a horrific, fiery death in “Lost Boys.” Fans ask him about it all the time.
“They say, ‘How was it to get knocked into a tub full of holy water and garlic?’ They always tell me I have the coolest death scene.”
Gerard McMann wrote the cool “Lost Boys” theme song, “Cry Little Sister” under unusual circumstances. He didn’t see a rough cut; he wrote it after reading the script.
“I’d never done that before; I always had the privilege to look at a film and get a vibe for it,” said McMann, who tours under the name G Tom Mac. “Kiefer comes to my shows,” he added.
Musically, he captured the goth-rock vibe so strongly that, years later, people mistakenly credited Sisters of Mercy with writing “Cry Little Sister.”
Schumacher was impressed when he heard the demo.
“He said, ‘Remarkable song. How did I know what he was shooting matched the song perfectly, the overall feel?’ I was kind of shocked myself,” McMann said.
“If I had seen the film, I may not have written that song. It comes down to reading the script and getting the vibe of the characters they conjured up and watching the whole thing in your own mind. And I was living in New York on a street with crackheads and homeless at the time; it was kind of a vampire world, anyway.”
Like the movie, “Cry Little Sister” lives on. McMann recently cut a new version for HBO vampire series “True Blood.”
“If you had told me 20 years ago, that my song and the movie would blow up the way they did globally, I would have said, ‘Maybe you’re high,’” McMann said.
McCarter remains tied to the film, too. He filmed a documentary about the 2007 “Lost Boys” reunion and outdoor screening in Santa Cruz.
“It was really neat to be walking down the boardwalk 20 years later, and then having thousands of people show up on the beach to watch the movie,” he said. “It was surreal.”
Source - www.goerie.com
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