Before ushering in a new era of Batman for the big screen, Joel Schumacher scored rave reviews for his work on The Lost Boys. The horror-comedy centered on a single mom and her two sons moving to a small California beach town after her divorce, only to find the town home to a clan of bloodthirsty vampires who slowly influence the eldest of the brothers.
The Lost Boys featured an ensemble roster of stars including Corey Haim, Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Edward Hermann, Billy Wirth, Brooke McCarter, Alex Winter, Jamison Newlander, and Barnard Hughes.
In honor of the film's 35th anniversary and 4K Ultra-HD remaster, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with stars Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander to discuss The Lost Boys, the film's long-standing legacy, the 4K re-release, and their thoughts on a potential new sequel.
Screen Rant: It's amazing that The Lost Boys continues to be such an iconic staple of the horror-comedy genre, and I love that it's getting this beautiful new 4K release. How does it feel for you both that it's getting this wonderful remaster all these years later?
Jamison Newlander: I just think that to be in this movie, that we had such a blast making it and it was so much a part of my childhood or my teenage years, and then that this is enduring, and that people are watching us have a great time on screen, and it's meaningful to them. Then, they're showing it to their kids and their kids are showing it to their kids, it's just really exciting for me that we're still here and the new 4K, I'm really excited about it, it's gonna look really cool.
Corey Feldman: I think a sign of the times or a sign of the film's popularity and sticktoitiveness is the fact that we're doing a press junket 35 years later for the same movie that we've done multiple press junkets. We've done big reunions for Goonies, we've done some reunion stuff for Stand by Me, and we've done some stuff for this, but this is the first time I can’t think of any of my films where the studio's that excited, and they know it's going to do that well that it's worth doing something of this magnitude, where we're doing different interviews with different press people all day long, to promote a 35-year-old movie, that's gonna look brand new.
I think the 4K release is going to look so clean and so shiny and so beautiful, it's gonna bring it back to life. That's a great thing about celluloid, people forget celluloid is a living art. Literally, the film is alive, there's cells in it, and it's a living thing, it's a living, breathing thing. Movies that come out on film really have such a more impactful presence on your soul when you watch it, because you're feeling that life come to life. I think it's just beautiful, I'm really glad that they're doing this, and I'm really grateful to be a part of something that's still in everybody's mind and still in everybody's heart.
When you look back on the making of the film, do you guys remember any specific moment where your chemistry just clicked with one another?
Corey Feldman: Every day? [Chuckles]
Jamison Newlander: Yeah, whenever we were shooting, it was just a lot of fun in that way, that we were working off each other. The thing I think of mostly, and it might just be because there's a picture of it, it's in the comic book store, where Haim was on the other side of the rack, and we, just with a little glance or something, it just was so enjoyable. Both Coreys, even though they were, at that point, pretty big actors, they were just really giving, and it was really enjoyable to be on screen.
Corey Feldman: Thanks, buddy, I appreciate that. Well, I have to say touché, there weren't many guys that could keep up with us, because we were seasoned professionals. I had been doing it for a decade already, and on the day that I met Jamison, they had me come in and read with a series of different guys as Alan, and it was all about like, “Where's the chemistry, who's gonna fit, who's the perfect fit?”
I remember immediately when Jamison came in, he was so dry, and he was so just stoic, and I remember thinking, “Is this gonna come off? I mean, this guy's kind of bland.” Then, when he started acting and playing the role, it hit perfectly, it was the perfect chemistry, it was the perfect give and take. A lot of actors, they get self-obsessed, they're in their own mind, and they're doing their performance, but they're not thinking about how their performance affects your performance. But he's always had the natural ability to give back, which is incredible.
Jamison Newlander: Thanks a lot. Look at that, we're just complementing each other. But it was incredible.
Corey Feldman: And now, we've done four films together. So, we're used to working together.
Jamison Newlander: Yeah, and we do these videos for fans, sometimes, cameos or other things, and we just have a blast. It's much more broad comedy than in the movie.
Corey Feldman: Yeah, we're kind of lampooning ourselves as the Frog brothers, but it's fun, it's a lot of fun. Also, by the way, Jamison is now a singer, I've been on tour with my band over the summer promoting my new album, and Jamison has started to make appearances with us. I do, “Cry Little Sister” at every show, and people love it, it's their favorite part of the show. We have the film clips playing behind us on the screen, and then he comes up and does, “People Are Strange,” so that adds a whole other dimension. Now, we’ve got Lost Boys Live.
Jamison Newlander: It’s really cool. Corey's show is really great, it really rocks, it’s an awesome thing. To come up and be a part of that and the crowd going wild, it's just great.
That's incredible. I'm going to have to try and make my way out to one of those shows.
Corey Feldman: We're gonna be doing a second leg, by the way. On October 29, we're going to be in Houston, Texas with The Lost Boys thing, and then we're in New Orleans on the 30th, and on the 31st, we're doing a big Halloween special in Dallas, Texas. They're going to show the film, and we're hoping that Jamie's gonna join us for that one as well.
That's pretty epic. With the 4K release, Joel Schumacher is just a wonderful visual director. Is there any one sequence that you're really excited for people to get to see in this new remaster?
Jamison Newlander: Well, I think this stuff that's really cool for me, visually, I mean, is the stuff in the cave with the worms and the maggots and Jim Morrison. That whole thing, I think, is gonna look really cool, I'm really excited to see that part.
Corey Feldman: Yeah, yep. I agree, and I think particularly the slime is going to come to life in a whole new way. A lot of people don't realize, but in the blood, they didn't want it to look like blood, because Schumacher was very cognizant of the fact that you didn't want to scare kids, you wanted to keep it in a family-oriented thing. Even though they went with an R rating, I think the intention originally was to make it like a teenage romp for like the whole family, so to stay away from it being too gory for little kids, he wanted to make it more realistic that vampires wouldn't have your normal blood, it wouldn't be dark red, it wouldn't be blood looking, it would be kind of slimy and glittery.
They took this slime, it was actual Nickelodeon slime, and then they put a bunch of glitter in it with chunks of stuff. Sometimes, it was supposed to be vampire guts, I guess, and they would drape us with this stuff every day, we'd have to come in and get sopped with it, because it'd have to match whenever we did the scene before it, where we kill them or whatever. So I think in high def and in 4K, you're gonna actually see the sparkle of the slime come to life, so people might notice the detail.
Jamison Newlander: The slime detail.
Corey Feldman: I'm on slime detail tonight, thank you very much.
There you go, and that's what I love about this movie and many movies from that era, is just that practical nature to it. It's such a killer thing to look back on when it's done as well as this. Before I let you guys go, everybody has always been curious to see the Frog brothers reunite to take down Kiefer, given that his fate has always been kind of left ambiguous, and I'm curious, what are your thoughts on possibly coming back for that in the future?
Jamison Newlander: I think that's an interesting idea to actually go after Kiefer once and for all, I've long thought about bringing the Frog brothers to a new level, that a Frog brothers show would be really cool to really get into the ins-and-outs of who they are. I think that's not a bad idea.
Corey Feldman: Jamison has actually had an idea for a while, a concept to do a Frog brothers TV show where we kind of go after different creatures or things every night. But also along with that, we did the two Lost Boys sequels, but they were kind of half-assed sequels, I guess you would say, direct-to-DVD, not everybody knew they were out. They weren't as big as the original, and they didn't have all the cast back, and obviously with the loss of Haim and Brooke, there's a couple of them that aren't there with us anymore. But that said, Jason's still here, Kiefer's still here, we're still here, so I think there is a way to do it.
I actually had a concept, I had a really good treatment, which I did pitch Warner Bros. at one point, but they said it was too expensive. It had like a prequel and a current timeline that kind of met up in the middle. The idea was to go back in a flashback to show Kiefer and Angus, who played the lead vampire in the sequel, The Tribe, and it was Kiefer's [real half-] brother, Angus. So, we wanted to show both of them as brothers before they got bit, to show the history of how it happened, how they became who they are, and then to show the prequel history of the Frog brothers and how they came to be vampire hunters, and the lineage between it all, because if you think about it, it's a family film, it's about three different families.
To go back in the history of how those families got to that point, and then going forward, how we would finally get Kiefer in the end, and also, there was a surprise, new bad vampire who would be the boys' father. Ding, ding, ding, Donald Sutherland! I mean, it's a cool idea. Right?
Jamison Newlander: It was a cool idea just to bring those two together, because they actually are brothers.
Corey Feldman: Yeah, exactly, and then you have their dad actually be the dad. I'm just saying it was a good idea.
I think it's a great idea, and hopefully with this 4K release, it sparks some new interest, and they hit you guys up.
Corey Feldman: Yeah, wouldn't that be awesome? You heard him, Warner Bros.!
About The Lost Boys
When their parents’ divorce, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam Emerson (Corey Haim) move with their mother to their grandfather’s house in a California town nicknamed, “The Murder Capital of the World.” Soon after arriving, Michael gets involved with a hell-raising motorcycle gang of vampires with a charismatic leader (Kiefer Sutherland). When Sam becomes involved with the Frog Brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander), who confess to being undercover Vampire hunters, he realizes it’s up to them to save Michael and the rest of the town from the vampire gang.
The Lost Boys is available to purchase in glorious 4K for the first time on shelves and digital platforms now.