Sightlines · reception

How The Lost Boys was received

1987 · Joel Schumacher · The Lost Boys on Sightlines

The arc

A solid hit in summer '87 with critics mostly shrugging at its MTV gloss, it's since been fully canonized as the definitive 80s vampire movie — and after Joel Schumacher's death in 2020, widely reclaimed as his most purely enjoyable film.

What’s debated

The eternal fight: is it a genuinely great vampire film or pure style-over-substance 80s cheese — with fans insisting the style IS the substance.

Its footprint

The oiled, shirtless saxophone man (Tim Cappello belting 'I Still Believe') became an immortal internet meme, 'Cry Little Sister' still haunts goth playlists, and the tagline — 'Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire.' — is one of the all-timers.

Where it stands

A beloved cult staple and Halloween-season rewatch — the film that made vampires young, gorgeous, and cool a full two decades before Twilight.

Did you know? It began as a Goonies-style adventure about kid vampires with Richard Donner set to direct; when Donner left for Lethal Weapon, Schumacher took over on the condition he could age the characters up into sexy teens — and it became the first pairing of 'The Two Coreys,' Haim and Feldman.