The Lost Boys

Ah, the 1980s - the big hair, the appalling music, the frankly preposterous clothes. All can be found in The Lost Boys, a film that documents all that was bad about the bland decade.

This isn't to suggest that Joel Schumacher's movie, made long before he sold his soul to direct Batman & Robin, is dull. In fact, few feature films are as downright entertaining as this teen movie with a twist. (The Lost Boys plays like a hybrid of The Goonies and Near Dark.)

Jason Patric and Corey Haim play Michael and Sam, the brothers brought to a coastal Californian town by their mother Lucy (Weist, as annoying and loveable as ever), who discover that the town is infested with vampires, ostensibly lead by the charismatic Michael (Kiefer Sutherland). The race is on to prevent Michael elder sibling from falling under the spell of the undead, and to drive the bloodsuckers out of town once and for all.

Corey Haim is incredibly likeable as concerned young brother, Sam. Ditto Patric, who almost manages to out-brood Sutherland. Look out too for Alex Winter, who would enjoy greater success as Bill S. Preston Esquire in the Bill & Ted movies. Haim's namesake Feldman also has a key role as teenage vampire slayer-cum-comic book store clerk Edgar Frog (his brother and partner is played by Jamison Newlander).

A picture that's still influencing popular culture (the phrase "vamp out" is often used on Buffy), The Lost Boys is so knee-deep in the 1980s, it's occasionally distracting (Lucy's new beau is played by Edward Hermann, in some remarkable jackets only topped by Haim's shirts).

Schumacher, however, is to be congratulated for teasing uniformly excellent performances out of his young cast, and for making sure that for every fright (and the film is sometimes genuinely scary), there's a fine comic set-piece.