Lost Boys: The Thirst (2010)

Title: Lost Boys: The Thirst (2010)

Director: Dario Piana

Cast: Corey Feldman, Jamison Newlander

Review:

Finally, a Lost Boys sequel that’s worth a damn! Okay, first off, I’ve never been happy with the fact that they decided to take the straight to video route with these sequels because in my book Joel Schumacher’s original film was one of the best vampire films to come out of the 80’s, and it deserved a proper theatrically released sequel. But who’s to understand the logic behind a studio executives mind? All they care about is money anyways! In my opinion, they were sitting in a gold mine and they missed the opportunity to go theatrical with this series of films. The first of these straight to dvd sequels was called Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008). It was a terrible film! I watched it but I didn’t enjoy it. At all. The main reason being that it was step by step the same movie as the first, only badly developed. It went through the same exact plot points, only with different characters. Also, The Tribe didn’t have any of the original films sense of humor. In my eyes, Lost Boys: The Tribe took itself too seriously. So when I heard about this third one being made, I didn’t really care about the idea. Until I saw the previews for it that is. There was something there, a spark of promise to it. Could this new Lost Boys film have recovered some of the coolness that the original had?

The Meanest, The Baddest! Awesome Monster Bashers!

On Lost Boys: The Thirst we meet with The Frog Brothers again, Edgar and Alan Frog. Together, these two brothers ran a comic book shop during the day and slayed vampires during the night. They were Santa Carla’s own vampire hunters, dedicated to a higher purpose; they were fighters of truth, justice and the American way. Problem is, they broke up. They haven’t been the “Frog Brothers” in a long time. Alan was turned into a vampire and is now in hiding, and into taxidermy. Edgar (Corey Feldman) needs his brothers’ help in stopping a group of vampires that’s going around selling vampire blood, making kids think it’s a new designer drug. At the same time, the vampires have kidnapped the brother of a famous novelist, who is the author of a series of vampire novels that glamorize vampirism, ala Twilight. The author has decided to get the help of the famous Frog Brothers to try and rescue her brother and stop these vampires from spreading vampirism across the land. Will the Frog Brothers reunite once again? Will they again be the “meanest and baddest” vampire slayers in town?

The Frog Bros. are back in town!

The filmmakers got something right when they got together to make this one. You see, they aimed their guns on making a film that oozes nostalgia. The filmmakers really aimed to please fans of the original film, and if you ask me they succeeded. A lot of things in this film feel familiar, for example Edgar is still hanging around comic book stores selling old back issues of comics. The theme from The Lost Boys “Cry Little Sister” is played through out this awesome sequence where these vampires jump out of a plane in mid-flight. By the way, dont know what it is, but I never get tired of that song! Alan Frog is back, and he is played by Jamison Newlander, the same guy who played the character in the first film, it was great to see them get the same guy. It wouldn’t have felt right other wise. But most important of all, is the fact that the film got its comedy back. The original wasn’t a flat out comedy, but the way the characters talked, the one liners the Frog Brothers spewed was part of what made the first film entertaining. It felt like one big comic book of a vampire movie, which essentially the first film is. This new sequel got that comic book groove back and I loved that about it.

The film pays it's respects to Corey Haim.

Lost Boys: The Thirst feels like it exists within the same universe as the originals. It quotes the original film a lot, at times repeating lines of dialog; it even has flashbacks to the original. The film also took its time to remember Corey Haim, who recently passed away. It was touching to see him remembered through a series of flashbacks that show Corey Haim slaying vampires along with The Frog Brothers. It was a touching way of remembering Corey Haim’s better days, when drugs had not ravaged his life. Taking this in consideration, it makes perfect sense that this time around The Frog Brothers are trying to stop a coven of vampires that are selling a new “drug” to kids. A drug that is made up of vampires blood. In a way, the film takes a stance against the thing that killed Corey Haim, and pays homage to him. I thought that gave the movie lots of heart as well.

The Corey's during their glory days

But not all is nostalgia in The Thirst. The film does present us with a new thing or two. For example, the kid that gets kidnapped and that The Frog Brothers have to rescue is the brother of a famous novelist who’s responsible for a series of books that glamorize vampirism. I love this element of the movie because it gave the filmmakers a chance to voice how real horror fans feel about the whole Twilight phenomenon. “Your books suck! They glamorize vampires, and there is nothing glamorous about vampires!” says Edgar at one point in the film. Well, said! I almost applauded after Edgar said that to the novelist! There’s this other thing about a ‘celebrity blogger’ that had me laughing as well! They take a hit at blogging on this movie! Hee-la-rious! Then, another “modern” touch that the film has is that the vampires put on these rave parties with techno music, where everybody dances the night away high and drunk. And top less. Speaking of top less babes, there’s lots of them on this film as well! There is also a rival vampire hunter that tags along with Edgar, who is shooting a reality show as he tags along. That character was making fun of ‘reality shows’ and how fake they are. As Edgar states it “Everything is staged in those reality shows!” Was Feldman commenting on his experiences making his reality show ‘The Two Coreys’? More than likely!

Speaking of the vampires in this film, they all look like a bunch of heavy metal dudes and dudettes from the eighties, which is awesome of course because it goes with the vibe of the original film. It makes you feel like your right back in Santa Carla amongst the biker vampires of the first film. The vamps in this movie are the anti-twilight, nothing glamorous about them at all. These guys are vicious! Dangerous! They feed like animals, shredding apart their victims’ throats with their fangs. There is this one awesome feeding sequence where the first thing that came to mind was: “wow! Vampires finally got their balls back!” Yeah! So I loved that about this movie as well.

"Lady, your books suck! Did you ever read 'Destroy all Vampires?' Now theres a book!"

The best thing about this one though? Seeing The Frog Brothers back in action! Corey Feldman knows this character inside and out by now, he really has the character fleshed out. The guy speaks in grunts, and whenever he doesn’t like something he grunts like a frog. I like how Feldman has embraced this character and made it his own. The Frog Brothers have a couple of friends to help them along the way this time around, they aren’t completely alone. They have this guy that makes weapons for them. Edgar goes visit him to stock up on weapons, before hitting the vampires den. The scene felt like something right out of a James Bond movie or Escape from New York with Edgar stocking up on a bunch of cool vampire killing weapons like ultraviolet guns and holy water grenade launchers. The finale of the film is filled with non stop vampire slaying, right smack in the middle of a rave.

So what we got here ladies and gentlemen is a step up from the second film. Does this one feel good simply because the last one sucked? I don’t think so, because had this film been the second film, I would have been extremely happy with it. I mean, these straight to video movies might not be theatrical releases, but if done right, they can be entertaining. Any fan of the original Lost Boys film will feel a familiarity and respect towards the original with The Thirst that will keep you happy and satisfied. Corey Feldman plays a great Edgar, and it’s great to see both Frog Brothers back in action! Not a bad sequel at all. It is fun, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and has vicious vampires that spit on the whole Twilight phenomenon. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind seeing another Lost Boys film of which I’m sure we will see more of. Especially when we take in consideration the cliffhanger that this one ends with. Of course this isnt the best movie ever made, it's not groundbreaking or anything. Yes, its formulaic, yes it is similar to the original in many ways, but for a straight to dvd sequel? It's damn fun.

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5