Welcome back to Behind The Scenes Saturday! If I could list three horror films that were the pinnacle of my childhood, I’d choose The Monster Squad, Ernest Scared Stupid, and The Lost Boys. The Lost Boys impacted me so much, and it will always be my favorite vampire movie! I loved taking this trip down memory lane and I hope you do to!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

• The original script was centered around the notion Peter Pan and the lost boys never grew up because they were vampires. The vampire gang was supposed to be a group of “Goonie-type 5th-6th grade kid vampires”. The Frog brothers were supposed to be chubby 8-year-old cub scouts, and David (Kiefer Sutherland) was originally named Peter. Joel Schumacher hated the idea and only agreed to sign on if he could make them teenagers instead of kids, because he believed it would be more interesting.
• The fake blood in the film had glitter in it to give it a “shimmering effect.” According to Corey Haim (Sam), it was “slimier than other fake blood.”
• Gerard McMahon created the film’s theme “Cry Little Sister” after only reading the script. He didn’t see a single frame of the film before writing the theme.
• At the time of filming, Jamison Newlander (Alan Frog) had hair on his chest. During the scene where Paul (Brooke McCarter) is pushed into the bathtub, he grabbed Newlander by the shirt as well as his chest hair. Newlander stated, “the pain you see on my face is actually quite real.”
• Keenan Wynn and John Carradine were both original choices to play Grandpa. However, Wynn passed away and Carradine was too ill, so the role went to Barnard Hughes.

• Laddie (Chance Michael Corbitt) isn’t related to Star (Jami Gertz) in any way. He was just a little boy the vampire gang picked up as a companion for Star.
• Jim Carrey was considered for the role of David.
• For a brief moment, Corey Feldman (Edgar) was fired from the film. At the time, Corey was struggling with drug abuse and kept dozing off on set while coming down from a cocaine binge. Joel Schumacher was very upset and fired Feldman. The next day, Corey apologized and promised to come to work prepared from then on. Feldman kept his word.
• Fred Gwynne was considered for the role of Max before it went to Edward Herrmann.
• Kiefer Sutherland was originally reluctant to star in the film. Then, he heard that Joel Schumacher lined up INXS and Jimmy Barnes for the soundtrack. Kiefer spent time in Australia as a child and became a big fan of their music.

• Corey Haim and Brooke McCarter got along so well on set, McCarter ended up being Haim’s manager in the early ‘90s.
• During the dinner scene when Alan puts out the candles with his fingers, he wasn’t informed that he had to wet his fingers first, so he ended up burning himself. For the other takes, he dipped his hands in water before putting out the candles.
• Before filming, Kiefer Sutherland decided to show off in front of a girl and do a wheelie on his dirt bike. He ended up crashing and breaking his wrist. Joel Schumacher had to improvise for the film, so they put the clutch and accelerator on the right side of Kiefer’s bike. Kiefer also had to wear black gloves throughout most of the film to hide his cast.
• During the scene where Sam and the Frog brothers pull David’s arm into the sunlight and it catches on fire, you can see a tear stream down David’s face. This was actually unintentional because the tear was due to Kiefer’s contact lenses, which were stinging him terribly. They kept the take in the film because it was perfect for the scene.
• When David is impaled with the antlers, it actually didn’t kill him. It was going to be brought up in the unfinished sequel, The Lost Girls. In the comics, The Lost Boys: Reign of The Frogs, it’s implied that David survived the events of the first film and ended up creating Shane, who appears in the sequel, Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008). Ironically, Shane is played by Kiefer’s brother, Angus Sutherland.

• Santa Cruz, the place where the film was shot, was actually called the “murder capitol” due to a serial killer’s slayings in the ‘70s. The Santa Cruz chamber of commerce was not happy with reliving the moniker for this film.
• Star was originally written with a blonde woman in mind. After working with Jami Gertz on Solarbabies (1986), Jason Patric (Michael) was the one who recommended her to Joel Schumacher for the role.
• The character Lucy (Dianne Wiest) was named after Lucy Westernra from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
• After Richard Donner passed on directing the film, Mary Lambert was brought on. She ended up leaving due to “creative differences.”
• The Frog brothers’ names, Edgar and Alan, are an obvious homage to famous horror writer, Edgar Allen Poe.