Corey Haim Tribute

Posted on Mar 10, 2010

The Lost Boys (1987)
Directed By: Joel Schumacher

Written By: Justin Bozung
Mondo Film & Video Guide Co-Founder

IMDb.com Link

Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die.
A Look Back On A Few Seconds Of Childhood: Corey Haim Tribute

I was a kid of the 80′s.  I was born in 1977, and by the time it became 1987, I was ten, and a avid movie fan..   Every Friday night, my childhood best friend and I, whom was born two days later than I was, and has the same first name, (Justin B and M) would go to the movies.  It was a tiny little movie theatre down the street from our houses.  It was old, but majestic.  It had a special smell, like old history.. If the walls could talk there.

When you went through the front doors there, it was lit very dimly, and it’s tint was that of a faded antique’d yellow.   The concession booth was 80′s contemporay, but around it, the candy, soda, and popcorn, the walls where faded maroon and green, and the floor was marble’d and speck’d with dozens of footprints that had stepped their before. It felt like you where outta place there, unless you had a tuxedo on.

Around Halloween time, 1987, my friend and I, made a special pilgrimage to this theatre, to see a movie, we had been begging our parents about, The Lost Boys.  It was a 9pm showing, and it was freshly dark outside, cause of daylight savings time.. We rarely when to the 9 o’clock show, our parents wouldn’t let us, usually we frequented the 7pm. At 7pm, you’d go in, and it was bright outside, and when you came out, it was black as midnight.  On the concession booth glass, there was a giant green bowl, filled to the brim with popcorn, and inside you could see a man’s hand wiggling around very slowly.   The women behind the counter said, “go ahead, get some popcorn, if you dare?”  We declined, and moved toward the theatre…

This particular theatre was so beautiful, but also kinda creepy.  When you’re ten, the silliest things can scare the shit out of you. This place did that for me. I loved it, but you couldn’t help but feel like someone or something was always watching you there.  Going back now, to this same theatre, it’s absolutely beautiful, still as it was back in 1987. And it doesn’t feel haunted anymore, but lonely.  My dad used to go here back in the 1950′s and 1960′s as a kid, on saturday afternoons, and see some of those William Castle movies. He once told me, that they used to have mechanical ghosts on wires flying over the audience, and people in halloween costumes running out on the floor of the theatre and popping up in the balconies during the movies back when he used to come here.  I Can’t even imagine that today?  Wouldn’t it be so cool?

My friend and I (the two Justin’s), went to this movie theatre every week on Friday night for years!  We could see anything with an R rating, as long as we brought a permission slip from our parents.   Sometimes they’d give us one, sometimes we’d get lucky, and the ticket lady would give it back to us, once we show’d it to her, so we could “recycle” them.  And other times, while, NOT OFTEN, we would forge them!  We saw, Gremlins, Bill & Ted Excellent’s Adventure,Scrooged, Pale Rider, Boyz In The Hood, and hundreds of other 80′s films together in this ole palace.

The Lost Boys(1987) is the story of two brothers and their mother, who move to Santa Clara, California, to live with their grandfather, after their family is seperated via father’s death.  It’s east coast, meets west coast culture. Sam ( the now late, Corey Haim) and Michael (Jason Patrick) begin the accumulation process of fitting into their new surroundings by spending time at the Santa Clara carnival boardwalk, the boys become en-grossed in the local scene, checking out the women, the comic book stores, and the local gang of late teen bikers, who just happen to be blood thirsty teen angst driven vampires.

Boy meets girl, girl tells boy they can’t be together, even though she wants them too, Boy gets in fight over girl with blood thirsty gang of late teen bikers who just happen to be vampires..  Boy gets turned into vampire to get the girl.  Younger brother, sees, no-one believes him, he gets help from his horror comic book loving, friends, who THINK they are fearless vampire killers aka the infamous Frog Brothers (Edgar and Alan) Some stakings later, and the vampire body count climbs, and the finale in the family home, makes it all worth while for the 1st time viewer.

Death By Stereo!

You can see where this goes pretty quickly.   However, the movie is exceeding well directed by Joel Schumacher (Phone Booth) and is the most fun you’ll probably ever have at the movies. It doesn’t take it’s self very seriously.  It’s beautifully casted with then new, up and coming actors Keifer Sutherland, Billy Wirth, Alex Winter, Jami Gertz, and the two Coreys ( Haim and Feldman), who at this time, where really just starting to become Hollywood royality.  Throw in some cool Vampire make up effects, and a soundtrack, that did just as well as the movie, and you’ve got one of the best horror films of 1987, Hands down..  For me, personally, at 10 it scared the shit outta me, and made such an impression, that at age 32, I still have the poster I got from the theatre I saw The Lost Boys in for the first time, hanging on my wall framed, autographed by a large portion of the cast…  I love this movie, and I’ve easily seen it, more times that anyone out there reading this!  I promise.  The movie has a loyal cult following of 80′s enthusiasts, and even spawned a direct to video sequel in 2008, The Lost Boys 2: The Tribe, with Corey Feldman and Haim, making a brief cameo reprising their roles.

On March 10th, 2010 Corey Haim passed away via a drug overdose in Burbank, California. He was the quintessential 1980′s teen hearthrob, starring in several classics, such as Silver Bullet, License To Drive, Lucas, Dream and Little Dream, and my favorite, The Lost Boys. Haim even auditioned originally for Rob Reiner’s, Stand By Me (1986)   The Lost Boys is just “one of those movies” that inspired me to be interested in film.

For the next two-three years, the two of us (Justin M and Justin B) stay’d close, obsessively going back to this same theatre weekend after weekend, to catch the latest flixs that we wanted to see. We saw most of the two Corey’s movies there, Licensed To Drive, Dream and Little Dream ect.  Justin M’s sister, Jaine, who was several years older than us, used to have her bedroom walls COVERED with Teen Beat magazine pictures of Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, and Aylssia Milano amongst others..  It was the 1980′s. It sucked, but it’s part of all of us..   To steal from “The Wonder Years”…. Justin M and I, started high school at the same time in the fall of 1991, and we drifted apart, we still stay’d friendly to each other, inside and outside of the classroom.  He fell into his own new group of friends, as did I.  But looking back at these days of PRE high-school mysteries, I miss them, and our Friday Night travels to the theatre we both loved.   I dream of buying that theatre one day and I’ll live upstairs in it with my family, and I’ll step inside of it’s ancient walls, and think of those days when two little kids sat in it’s seats eagerly, and gazed at the screen in wonder.

Justin Bozung is the co-founder of the Mondo Film & Video Guide.  You can email him directly at justinb@mondo-video.com