Last Updated on October 12, 2021
In 1987, director Joel Schumacher brought us the story of a new kid in town getting mixed up with a group of teenage vampires in THE LOST BOYS. Nine years later, director Andrew Fleming brought us the story of a new kid in town getting mixed up with a group of teenage witches in THE CRAFT. Both of these movies quickly earned a large following and continue to be popular to this day, decades down the line from their releases. They're so popular that they're both getting reboots – a TV series based on THE LOST BOYS is currently in the works, while Blumhouse Productions will soon be bringing us a new take on THE CRAFT. So while we wait to see what these new versions of these familiar stories will be like, let's take a look back at the original films… and have them face off with each other.
After their parents' divorce, teen brothers Michael and Sam Emerson join their mom as she moves in with their eccentric Grandpa in the oddball beach town of Santa Carla, California. Michael is a motorcycle-riding cool guy who quickly wades into the local culture on a quest to hook up with an attractive girl he spots at the beach. Sam thinks he's super cool, but actually isn't even cool enough to read horror comics. It is nice to see that Michael and Sam care deeply for each other, especially since Michael finds himself turning into a vampire while Sam befriends a pair of vampire slayers.
Teenager Sarah Bailey has had a rough time right from the start, when her mom passed away during childbirth. Sarah has recently attempted suicide when her father and stepmom decide to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles, where she ends up running into even more trouble. Sarah is a “natural witch” who has had supernatural abilities all her life, but has never been able to figure out how to make them work correctly. The experiences she has in Los Angeles will help her learn how to take control of her powers, while she also proves to the viewer that she is a good, conscientious heroine.
Michael runs into a whole group of bad influences in Santa Carla, but Paul, Dwayne, and Marko wouldn't add up to anything if they weren't following the lead of David, a captivating young man who seems to be offering Michael the chance to be part of their group but keeps playing cruel mind games with him. We'll come to find out that David never had any intention of keeping Michael around for long. David and his buddies sleep all day and party all night, with their idea of good times including pulling off stunts that would kill the average person. They also like to kill the average person and drink their blood.
Sarah coincidentally ends up enrolled in a school where a trio of girls having been getting into witchcraft and have been looking for a fourth girl to join their coven and complete their circle. Each of these girls want to use magic to improve their lives in some way; Nancy is tired of her trashy lifestyle and her mother's abusive boyfriend, Bonnie wants to heal the burn scars that cover a large portion of her body, Rochelle is tired of dealing with racism. The problem is that they go too far, seek to gain too much power, and are too careless with how they treat people. Their fun and games soon turn deadly serious.
David and his pals are a bunch of shit-sucking vampires. Excuse me, no, that's just something Sam says at one point. They are bloodsuckers who take on bat-like features and sleep hanging upside down in a cave during the day, then go out at night seeking to feed. They can fly and are able to tear through groups of people quickly and easily, but they also have the usual vampire weaknesses: sunlight, holy water, and wooden stakes are not things they're fond of. You wouldn't want to get on their bad side, but if you did there's still a chance you might be able to take them out.
Sarah becomes extremely powerful over the course of this movie, but I'm fine with that. I trust her with her power. But when Nancy, Bonnie, and Rochelle become extremely powerful, it actually makes me uneasy to watch them, because there's no doubt they're going to use their powers to do terrible things. Nancy in particular wants to absorb all the powers of the god-like being Manon, and the closer she gets to Manon the more insane she becomes. The witches in this film can fly around, cause terrifying hallucinations, take on someone elses's appearance, and make people fall under their spell.
In a genre packed with awesome siege sequences, the final confrontation in THE LOST BOYS ranks among the best. Sam, the vampire slaying Frog brothers, Nanook the dog, and Michael – who is on the verge of becoming a full-fledged vampire himself – gather weapons and prepare for attack at Grandpa's house. Night falls, David and his lackeys show up, and our heroes take them on with stakes, arrows, holy water… even a stereo gets put to use in this battle. The vampires die spectacular deaths.
Tired of Sarah being a good girl and trying to ruin their fun, Nancy, Bonnie, and Rochelle put her through a living nightmare in the climax of the film, making her imagine that her home is infested with snakes, bugs, and rats. I wouldn't have even wanted to be on the set when this stuff was filmed, let alone be in Sarah's shoes when she thinks she's in danger from these things. The situation eventually becomes a “who is stronger?” competition between Sarah and the raving mad Nancy.
THE LOST BOYS is gloriously '80s, from the rock soundtrack (Gerard McMann's “Cry Little Sister”, written for the film, is one of the all-time greats) to the Sam character. The decade puked all over that kid, giving him his fashion sense, his love of MTV, and his taste in posters – his bedroom walls are decorated with shots of Molly Ringwald and Rob Lowe. I'm not complaining about any of this. I was born in the '80s and love to revisit the decade through film, especially horror films, and THE LOST BOYS is about as '80s as it gets.
The fact that we got a horror movie this good in early 1996 was quite a feat. The horror genre wasn't having much luck for most of the '90s. The film is packed with music, a lot of it covers of older songs. “How Soon Is Now?”, somehow the official theme song of '90s witches, is in there, and a song I always associate with this movie is the Letters to Cleo version of “Dangerous Type”. THE CRAFT feels as '90s as THE LOST BOYS feels '80s, so it comes down to which decade you're more nostalgic for.
The vampires of THE LOST BOYS are iconic, but the witches of THE CRAFT were able to beat them in head-to-head competition due to the fact that the witches are more powerful and, unlike the group of vampires, each member of "the circle" actually has a personality. Unfortunately for THE CRAFT, THE LOST BOYS takes the win in every other category – which means it also wins this Face-Off overall. The Emersons are more entertaining than Sarah, that final confrontation is really great, and I prefer '80s style over '90s.
This article is being posted on July 31st and THE LOST BOYS happened to be released on July 31st, 1987, so this victory also serves as an anniversary celebration.
Do you agree with the outcome of this Face-Off, or do you think THE CRAFT should have taken the win? Share your thoughts on these films in the comments section below. If you have any suggestions for future Face-Off articles, you can send them to [email protected].
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