Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Horror Movie Review: Lost Boys: The Tribe

Lost Boys: The Tribe

Starring: Tad Hilgenbrink, Autumn Reeser, Corey Feldman, and Angus Sutherland

Directed by: PJ Pesce

Written by: Hans Rodionoff based on characters by Janice Fischer and James Jeremias

Release Date: July 29, 2008

Some sequels just shouldn't be made. Most have, at least, potential. Poltergeist II: The Other Side is a prime example. It has a great predecessor, great characters that can return, and, well, poltergeists! But in this case we had execution fail! Carol Anne's disembodied voice talking about "the other side", creepy. Seeing "the other side", yawn. Robbie being attacked by the tree outside, scary. Robbie being attacked by his own braces? Trying a bit too much for a Nightmare on Elm Street feel. All poltergeist activity caused without physical manifestation, creepy. Old country preacher looking physical manifestation of poltergeist? Bwahahaha...and it doesn't make sense if we're talking evel spirits from ancient Indian burial grounds, you know?

But then there are those sequels that, when you hear they exist, you have to ask, "Why?" The Exorcist II, The Birds II: Lands End, and Lost Boys: The Tribe.

I knew what I was getting when I Netflixed Lost Boys: The Tribe. A straight to video sequel of a movie released 21 years ago. But sometimes you have to face the evil and call it by its proper name to weaken the evil, and this evil's proper name is...crap.

Orphans Chris and Nicole move to Luna Bay to stay in one of their aunt's properties. Pretty quickly they get wrapped up in some local surfer vampires. Lead surf-pire Shane falls for hottie Nicole and begins turning into a vampire to join the Tribe.

Chris, realizing something is amiss, befriends Edgar Frog, vampire hunter, to help save his sister...roll credits.

Sound familiar? Yep, pretty much the same as the original. But with worse acting. And some things don't make sense. They are surfers, but very little surfing is shown. It just seemed odd that that seemed like a big connection between Shane and Chris, but other than, "Dude, we're both great surfers who dropped out of the spotlight! Tubular!" (not an actual quote), it's left alone. Think about the cool stuff they could have had vampires do while surfing! But nada...

You keep expecting there to be a secret head vampire, but there's not...and something's not right about two kids of similar age with one being the lead vampire and the other, not...I was hoping the aunt, which would have provided a novel twist, but nope.

There are, however, two redeeming features of the film: 1) Corey Feldman returns as Edgar Frog. He makes the movie barable. He makes it funny. His one-liners a re cheesy and fit the character perfectly. And Feldman's over the top acting is still better than everyone else's. 2) Nudity! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, all of us who, when watching the original, spent the entire movie waiting for the nude scene with Jami Gertz as Star, the scene which never came, we get ample nudity! Thank you Moneca Delain!

I am disturbed to discover that there are plans for a 2010 straight to video release of Lost Boys 3...Hopefully, things fall apart before that happens. If you're just looking for a movie with Corey Feldman and breasts that you'll make fun of during and after the viewing? This movie is for you. Otherwise, pick something else up.








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