Lost Boys (1987)

"Lost Boys" is one of the best vampire movies of all time and is easily the number one vampire film from the 80's. It has an amazing cast, a storyline that is constantly raising the stakes (no pun intended) for its characters; characters that you actually care for. The film has some thrilling moments, knows and uses vampire lore and mythos expertly, and even though the movie is obviously from the mid 1980’s it still feels almost timeless (except for the rock band on the beach, but we can overlook that). This is the movie that really launched Kiefer Sutherland’s career as well as being the first movie to feature both Corey Haim and Corey Feldman. Edward Herrmann and Dianne Wiest help round out the stellar cast.

Michael, Sam, and their recently divorced mother Lucy move in with their grandfather who lives in Santa Carla, California. The boys quickly get a feel for the beach side scene with Sam making “friends” with the Frog Brothers while Michael meets a cute girl named Star. Unfortunately Star is already with David but that doesn’t stop Michael from trying to win her from him. One thing leads to another and before he knows what’s happening, Michael has been inducted into David’s gang….of vampires. Sam realizes what has happened to Michael before Michael even knows, and with the help of the Frog Brothers, Sam and Michael go on the hunt to cure Michael before he turns completely into one of the undead.

Silver Bullet (1985)

I’m finally reviewing a second movie that’s associated with Stephen King. Don’t worry, there’ll many more to go over as the weeks go on. The film “Silver Bullet” is adapted from King’s novella called “The Cycle of the Werewolf”. It’s a good movie but not nearly as dark as some other werewolf movies from the 1980’s such as “An American Werewolf in London” or “The Howling”. “Silver Bullet” wasn’t as great as I remember when I first watched it in the late 1980’s and then rented it in the 90’s. It also has the distinct dialogue that most of King’s secondary characters tend to have; I’ve noticed that they all sound the same and if you are watching a film that he wrote the screenplay for, you can often tell it’s one of his stories by this trait. It stars Gary Busey and Corey Haim; two years later Haim would star in his best known film “The Lost Boys”.

The movie “Silver Bullet” is about Marty, a young boy who is paralyzed from the waist down, his favorite Uncle Red who makes motorized wheel chairs for him but isn’t the best role model due to his drinking, and his older sister Jane who he fights with but ends up becoming close to during the year when several people die in their small town. When four murders occur one after another, each in a very violent manner, a mob of locals form a vigilante group to go find the murder but some are killed during one night. The town’s Reverend Lowe had begged for them not to go and begins to have horrible dreams and it is revealed that he is the werewolf and responsible for the deaths in town. Marty discovers this as well when one night he shoots a bottle rocket into the beast’s eye and when Jane later sees Reverend Lowe with the same wound. They beg for help from their uncle who agrees to do what he can, first by sending their parents away on a romantic weekend and then staying with the kids until the Reverend Lowe comes to kill them all. There is a brutal showdown between the four but Marty is able to save his sister and uncle when he fires a single silver bullet to the werewolf’s good eye kills it.

Favorite moment – The nightmare sequence is probably the strongest horror moment in the film beside the ending itself.