The Lost Boys

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

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The origin of the monster movie stems from folklore and myths passed on for generations. However, the iterations of these creatures that stayed true for decades have been altered by cinema in a matter of years.

The original cinema vampires were Dracula and Nosferatu in the 1930s. With their thick accents, coffin beds, capes, and fear of sunlight, they are almost indistinguishable from modern cinema vampires.

The Lost Boys created a punk teen biker gang version of vampires, making them “cool” to younger audiences. While there were a lot of attempts at making well-received vampire films in the 80s, like Near Dark, Fright Night, and Vampire’s Kiss, none of them have stood the test of time, like The Lost Boys.

It seems as though all creatures have evolved in some way. Zombies are now speedy and super strong, Vampires are now annoying indie kids that wear all black, The Creature from the Black Lagoon is now someone’s love interest, and King Kong now fights Godzilla.

I find it interesting how the need for new and improved cinema and iterations of things almost always leads to a worse version than the original. For example, I think The Lost Boys was a successful change to the vampire genre, but something like Van Helsing — yes, I am hating — was a bad alteration.

All that being said, with all the remakes and sequels coming out in the last few years, I always sit back and wonder, was this better the way it was? Or did the new version improve or add something to the source material?