50 Fun Facts About The Lost Boys

Who directed The Lost Boys?

Joel Schumacher disliked the script as a children's vampire adventure and took the job only once he could turn its heroes and villains into teenagers.

What is the name of the fictional California town the Emersons move to in The Lost Boys?

Santa Carla greets the Emersons with a cheery welcome sign whose back has been daubed with the words 'Murder Capital of the World'.

The title of The Lost Boys refers to characters from which classic story?

Peter Pan: the co-writer asked himself whether a boy who came out only at night, could fly and never grew up might simply be a vampire.

Which real California city stood in for the seaside town in The Lost Boys?

Santa Cruz: its beach boardwalk is the film's fairground, and Jordan Peele's Us, which opens there in 1986, slips in a line about a movie being shot nearby.

Who plays David, the leader of the vampire gang, in The Lost Boys?

Kiefer Sutherland was so little known that, the director recalled, the studio had never heard of him; he later became television's Jack Bauer in 24.

What job does Lucy take when the family arrives in town in The Lost Boys?

Clerk at a video store: the owner, Max, gives her the job and is soon courting her, which takes her out of the house on the nights that matter.

Where does Sam meet the vampire-hunting brothers Edgar and Alan Frog in The Lost Boys?

At the comic book store: the Frog brothers mind the counter there and press a horror comic on Sam as a survival manual, saying it could save his life.

In The Lost Boys, the vampires' lair is a grand hotel that was swallowed up by which disaster?

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake: the director wanted a ruined Victorian hotel that had dropped into the San Andreas Fault in place of the plain cave in the script.

In The Lost Boys, what does David make Michael's takeaway food seem to turn into?

Maggots and worms: the rice seems to crawl and the noodles to writhe, a trick of the mind David plays just before he hands Michael a bottle that really does hold blood.

What is the name of Sam's dog, who stops Michael from attacking him in The Lost Boys?

Nanook also joins the final battle, knocking one of the vampires into a bathtub the boys have filled with holy water and garlic.

Which gang member do Michael, Sam and the Frog brothers stake in the lair by day in The Lost Boys?

Marko: his screams wake the other vampires, and their leader swears to come for the boys that night.

How does Michael kill David in the final fight of The Lost Boys?

By impaling him on Grandpa's antlers: unlike the other vampires he neither explodes nor dissolves, because the director meant him to survive for a sequel that was never made.

Who turns out to be the head vampire in The Lost Boys?

Max, the video store owner, sails through the boys' garlic and mirror tests at dinner because he was invited into the house, which in the film's lore makes every test useless.

How is the head vampire finally destroyed in The Lost Boys?

A wooden post in Grandpa's crash: he drives through the wall, the post runs the vampire through, and with him destroyed those he half-turned become human again.

In the closing line of The Lost Boys, what does Grandpa say he never could stomach about living in town?

All the damn vampires: the film's last words are his, grumbled to his stunned family as if the undead were just one more nuisance of small-town life.

The Lost Boys was first meant to follow the style of which Richard Donner film?

The Goonies: in the original script the Frog brothers were chubby eight-year-old Cub Scouts and Star was a boy, and Donner himself was to direct until he left to make Lethal Weapon.

For roughly how much did two first-time writers sell The Lost Boys script in 1985?

$400,000 bought a children's adventure about pre-teen vampire hunters, and little of it survived: the script was rebuilt around teenagers before filming began.

Which actor turned down the role of Michael in The Lost Boys several times, wary of making a vampire film?

Jason Patric feared it would be an exploitation film; once he signed, he had a say in reshaping the script and even in who was cast opposite him.

Who plays Star in The Lost Boys?

Jami Gertz got the part because the film's leading man, who had just worked with her on another picture, pressed the director to cast her.

Dianne Wiest, Lucy in The Lost Boys, won an Oscar earlier in its release year for which film?

Hannah and Her Sisters won her Best Supporting Actress in March 1987; she had shot The Lost Boys the summer before, so it opened four months later with a new Oscar winner as its mom.

What injury forced the actor playing David to wear black gloves through much of The Lost Boys?

A broken wrist: he broke it showing off on a motorcycle early in the shoot, so the director put him in black gloves to hide the cast.

Besides Michael, which two characters in The Lost Boys are half-vampires who have yet to make a kill?

Star and Laddie: David meant Michael to be Star's first victim, but she fell for him and refused to kill, which left all three able to turn back.

The Lost Boys opened behind which Bond film?

The Living Daylights, Timothy Dalton's first Bond film, took about twice as much that weekend, yet The Lost Boys went on to earn nearly four times its $8.5 million budget.

Which muscle-bound saxophonist performs 'I Still Believe' on the boardwalk stage in The Lost Boys?

Tim Cappello's greased-up beach concert is where Michael first spots Star and leaves his brother to follow her, the step that leads him to the vampires.

'I Still Believe', the beach-concert song in The Lost Boys, was first recorded by which band?

The Call's singer Michael Been co-wrote it for the band a year before the film handed the song to a bare-chested saxophonist at a beach concert.

Which band covers the Doors' 'People Are Strange' on The Lost Boys soundtrack?

Echo & the Bunnymen had the Doors' own keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, produce their cover, which plays as the family first drives into town.

What is the title of The Lost Boys' theme song, recorded by Gerard McMann?

Cry Little Sister was written from the script alone: the director posted it to the songwriter in New York, who finished the song before seeing a frame of the film.

INXS teamed up with which Australian singer for 'Good Times' on The Lost Boys soundtrack?

Jimmy Barnes and INXS recorded the Easybeats cover to promote the Australian Made tour they headlined together, months before the film picked it up.

Which member of Foreigner recorded 'Lost in the Shadows' for The Lost Boys?

Lou Gramm, Foreigner's lead singer, wrote and sang it on his own, and the song drives the scene in which Michael races the gang's motorcycles toward a cliff.

Which composer, later nominated for The Shawshank Redemption and Skyfall, wrote The Lost Boys' organ-heavy score?

Thomas Newman had got his break four years earlier, when John Williams let him orchestrate the death of Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi.

Which Saturn Award did The Lost Boys win?

Best Horror Film: it beat Hellraiser, Evil Dead II and the rival vampire film Near Dark, while its own nominated actors and designers all went home empty-handed.

Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008) cast which relative of the actor who played David as its lead vampire?

His half-brother Angus led the new vampires in a direct-to-DVD sequel that the original's director had argued against, having pushed his own follow-up idea for years.

What was the title of the Lost Boys sequel released straight to DVD in 2010?

Lost Boys: The Thirst reunited the two Frog brothers on screen, after one brother's scenes had been cut from the 2008 sequel.

The Lost Boys' 2016 comic-book sequel came from Vertigo, an imprint of which publisher?

DC Comics: the publisher and the film's studio, Warner Bros., belong to the same company, so the sequel, in which the brothers must protect Star, stayed in the family.

The Lost Boys' Broadway musical turns the vampire gang into what?

A rock band: on stage Michael falls in with a local group and its charismatic leader, in a show that opened at the Palace Theatre and won four Tony Awards.

The creator of which TV series said The Lost Boys gave him vampires who look human until their faces change?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Joss Whedon said the switch from human face to monster came from The Lost Boys and was useful because it let a vampire fool the audience.

The Lost Boys was shot by Michael Chapman, the cinematographer of which Martin Scorsese film?

Taxi Driver: Chapman also shot Raging Bull, then spent four years as a director before choosing this vampire film for his return behind the camera.

Who plays Sam Emerson in The Lost Boys?

Corey Haim and co-star Corey Feldman became a teen-idol double act known as the two Coreys, making film after film together and, in 2007, a reality series.

What does Sam shout in The Lost Boys after killing a vampire with his bow and arrow?

Death by stereo! Sam's arrow pins the vampire to the hi-fi, which electrocutes him in a shower of sparks.

Which Anne Rice novel's child vampire inspired the co-writer who dreamed up The Lost Boys?

Interview with the Vampire: its Claudia is made a vampire as a small child and can never grow up, the image that set the co-writer thinking about undying youth.

Alex Winter, a vampire in The Lost Boys, later played which half of a comedy duo?

Bill S. Preston: two years after The Lost Boys, Winter and Keanu Reeves became the time-travelling slackers of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, parts they were still playing in 2020.

The director of The Lost Boys had just made which 1985 Brat Pack drama?

St. Elmo's Fire: its producer, Lauren Shuler Donner, was married to the man first lined up to direct The Lost Boys, and she put her own director forward for the job.

The director of The Lost Boys later made two films about which superhero?

Batman: he took over the film series with Batman Forever in 1995, with Tim Burton staying on as producer, and followed it with Batman & Robin.

Lost Boys rewriter Jeffrey Boam later scripted which Indiana Jones film?

The Last Crusade: Steven Spielberg brought him in after Innerspace, and Boam also wrote two Lethal Weapon sequels for the director who had walked away from The Lost Boys.

The actor who plays David in The Lost Boys had played the bully Ace Merrill a year earlier in which film?

Stand by Me: Corey Feldman was one of the boys his gang terrorised in that film, so the two faced each other again in The Lost Boys.

The actors who play Michael and Star in The Lost Boys had just co-starred in which 1986 film?

Solarbabies cast them as roller-skating orphans in a desert future; when he joined The Lost Boys he pressed the director until she was cast opposite him.

In The Lost Boys, where do David's gang dangle by their hands and drop into the fog to test Michael?

Beneath a railway bridge: Michael loses his grip and falls after them, only to wake up safe in his own bed the next day.

Which member of the Who covers Elton John's 'Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me' on The Lost Boys soundtrack?

Roger Daltrey sang the Elton John hit, an apt choice of title for a film whose villains cannot face daylight.

In The Lost Boys, whom does Sam threaten to tell after discovering that his brother is a vampire?

Their mother: he shouts that Michael had better wait till Mom finds out and locks himself in his room, yet when Lucy rushes home that night he covers for his brother instead.

From which desert city do the Emersons move to the California coast in The Lost Boys?

Phoenix: Lucy is newly divorced and flat broke, so she drives her two sons to the coast to move in with her eccentric father.