THE LOST BOYS (1987)— Straight Until Morning

Cinema of Cruelty (Movies for Masochists)

This week The Cultists Present Joel Schumacher’s ‘The Lost Boys’ (1987). At once a pulpy comedy about teenage boardwalk-dwelling vampires on the California coast and a startlingly deep horror critique of Regan Era conservatism, Schumacher reworks what was initially a kid-flick studio pitch of “Peter Pan with Vampires” into an aged-up love letter to letting go. Join us as we take a guided walking tour through this ageless cult classic about the erotic appeal of the eternal outsider— and the film that forever changed the face of the vampire in cinema.

Topics Include: production history, expanded and deleted scenes from the shooting script; the official film novelization; those glorious homoerotic overtones; what’s up with that sunken hotel, and why the filming location of Santa Cruz, California was really known as the “murder capitol of the world.” Oh, and the sequels. We watched (and read) ALL OF THE SEQUELS.

Episode Safeword(s): “Trademark New England”