The Lost Boys 2: The Tribe (2008)
Plot: When their parents die in a car accident, Chris Emerson (Tad Hilgenbrink) and his sister, Nicole (Autumn Reeser), move to a California beach town to live with their quirky Aunt Jillian, where Nicole falls for a local surfer, who, unbeknownst to her, is a vampire. Soon enough, Chris finds himself battling a whole gang of vampire surfers in an effort to rescue his sister. Corey Feldman co-stars in this sequel to 1987′s Lost Boys.
My Review: If you know me (or read my review from a couple weeks back) you know that I’m a huge fan of the original Lost Boys. I grew up with it and I just absolutely love it. If you’ve followed any The Lost Boys news at all on the internet over the last 10 years, you’ll know that a sequel featuring female vampires – “Lost Girls” – was rumored for many many years. But obviously never happened. Back in the day it sounded like a good idea. But as the years passed the movie was never made. Then it was announced a sequel was going to happen a few years back. At this point, most Lost Boys fans thought it had been way too long to do a real good sequel. Especially if none of the original cast was going to return. So I was with the majority of the fans, who thought a sequel at this point was a terrible idea. Of course then we discovered via the internet grapevine, (and the show The Two Corey’s) that Corey Feldman was coming back to reprise his role as Edger Frog. I had some hopes for the film, but pretty much expected garbage.
The movie starts out with a group of guys in their early to mid 20’s jumping over a fence to go onto a private beach to go surfing. The owner of the beach front property (which is legendary Make-up/FX artist Tom Savini) comes out and bitches at them for being on his property. Its here we see they are all vampires. They younger guys quickly dismember the older vampire (Tom Savini).
The credits roll and we see a bunch of tattooed people and beach goers. Two “teenagers” show up with a U-Haul to their aunts house where they are renting an apartment. We learn that their parents are dead. Its never specifically said WHO their parents are, but we do hear their last name is Emerson, which is Sam and Michaels last name from the first film…so its assumed that Star and Michael from the first film are their parents. Its really a shame that nothing about them is ever mentioned.
They head out to a surf shop where we learn that Chris is an ex-professional (or well known) surfer. We hear about a “Frog Brothers” surf shop that Sam is referred to. They arrive to the “Frog Brothers” trailer and see a lot of “no trespassing” signs and different “odd” things around the trailer. Those of us who are fans of the original know that the Frog brothers are Vampire hunters. So we as viewers understand the different odd things around the trailer. . .
Chris later is out on the town and runs into Shane, one of the vamp surfers from the beginning of the film. Turns out he’s also a pro surfer that went off the maps at one point and Chris is sort of in awe of being around him. He’s invited to a party, and so him and his sister attend it later that night. And in a role reversal, Nicole falls in love with the vampire instead of Chris falling for a “Halfling”. But really the whole love thing happens way too soon and just doesn’t feel “right” like Star and Michael felt in the first film.
Next thing we know, Chris is in the shower with a half vamp getting it on, and Nicole is in a bedroom with Shane talking. She spills her guts to him about her life and they seem to fall in love by the end of the night. Even with Star and Michael in the first film it wasn’t completely love at first sight. There was more feeling to it. Its also during this scene that we see that Shane has powers to bring things back from the dead. Since when do vamps have powers in this “universe”? They didn’t have powers in the first film, only thing they could do was fly. Of course Nicole drinks from a flask filled with vampire blood, and later she is half vampire. She goes out for a ride on Shane’s bike and seems to be in love with the guy. When she returns her brother is all pissy about her being gone, and attempts to attack Shane.
Nicole immediately seems to feel the effects of the blood she drank freaking out on the way home. But as soon as they are home she gets these funky black eyes and attacks her bother. We never saw this with Star or Michael early in the first film. We did see Michael change at the end, and Laddie. But we never see Star take on the “form” of a half vampire. Edger shows up in a camo and saves Chris from his sister. He and Edger form a plan to infiltrate the vampire group to kill them all and save Nicole.
If I continue along like this, I’ll tell you the whole movie, which isn’t the purpose of this review. But I will say Edger is really what connects this movie to the original Lost Boys. That’s it. He’s it. The movie really should have only been about him. He really makes the movie entertaining with his one liners and “unintentional“ goofiness. The rest of it as a “Lost Boys” film is only so-so and probably shouldn’t have been bothered to even been called a sequel. It really seems to take the same exact elements from the first film and twist them up a little.
Why did the kids move in with some unknown person? Why didn’t they move in with “Uncle Sam”? Was this ever even thought of? If it was, perhaps it was due to Corey Haim’s suspected drug issues during filming. I’m not sure, but it seems to me like it would have made a lot more sense to reunite Sam and Edger in that way (then they do during the credits of the film). Sam could have helped the kids when he realized what was going on, etc etc. It could have been a great film!
Nods to the original film – the antlers, the antler kill, the half naked sax guy, the “strange” people in the beginning, Nicole grabbing sunglasses to be outside, the “Cry Little Sister” sex scene. Not really a nod to the original, but the “Goonies” nod was pretty cute, as we all know Corey Feldman was in that movie.
This doesn’t really read as a review of someone who disliked the movie does it? Well, I can’t say I enjoyed it as a Lost Boys film. As a stand alone film it probably would have been kind of decent. Read below for more thoughts on why I didn’t like the film…
Gore/FX: At the party in the beginning the Vamps decide to stab and slaughter each other sort of as a joke, which is entertaining and funny. Also, each vampire “goes out” in a different method, which actually is described in the first film, and in this film, but they stick with regular vampire lore in the first film. In this movie it seems like that’s all out the window. Some vamps turn to stone and burst into light, others puke blood, and some melt for no reason, etc. It just seemed like they were going for creativeness. Not keeping with the lore that was set up in the first film. This is also a much more gory film then the first one, the first didn’t really rely on blood and gore, but this one has a lot.
Sexual Content: Sexy naked vampire chick in the shower with Chris, and later she’s naked trying to fuck him. The Cry Little Sister sex scene which they attempt to copy, and it fails, its just NOT sexy at all, in fact, I was quit disturbed by it, cause no offense, but I just don’t find Shane (Angus Sutherland) attractive in the least.
Acting: The best thing, by far, in this film is Corey Feldman coming back. But it lacks Haim – who was dealing with getting his life back together at the time from a suspected drug addiction relapse. Haim does make a VERY brief appearance during the credits, and in a few deleted scenes on the DVD. But his appearance really, in my opinion, was lame. They shouldn’t have even bothered at that point. It raises more questions and just felt messy. I hoped with the later announced Lost Boys 3, that Haim would reprise his role as Sam and things would be explained. But Haim passed away before filming started. Shane is played by Kiefer Sutherlands half brother, which is kinda neat for the fact that its his brother in the same sort of role, but Angus just doesn’t play the role well. He’s definitely grown on me in a few viewings, but first impression I thought he acted TERRIBLY. I still don’t think he was that great…at all, in fact, by far he was the worst actor of them all. I think maybe it was the weird accent that he had. I have no idea because I’ve never seen him in anything else. Those that may have watched the “O.C” will recognize Autumn Reeser as Nicole, and Tad Hilgenbrink, who plays Chris is more well known for his roles in “The Hills Run Red”, and “American Pie Presents Band Camp”.
Overall: This should have just been a regular vampire movie. It never should have been called The Lost Boys with how it played out. As I said above, it only had Feldman really going for it and he wasn’t even a huge part of the film. As far as a “Lost Boys” film, it gets 2 stars from me. Its not a bad awful horrible movie, just as a sequel it fails. But I gotta give Corey Feldman some credit for reprising his role and making the movie a little better to enjoy, and for that I’m giving it an extra star.
[rating:3/5]
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