Lost Boys: The Tribe

Watching Lost Boys: The Tribe a second time since I rented it during its anticipated release the first time, I can say I was even less impressed (if that could have been possible; I thought not at the time) this go-around. I had these plans to re-visit some of my favorites from childhood this summer (The Lost Boys, Fright Night, The Monster Squad, The Gate), so I was catching up on some of the sequels (The Fright Night movies over the last few weeks), this weekend watching the Lost Boys direct-to-dvd releases.


The Tribe has your basic horror plotting. Two out-of-towners in need of a fresh start (a punished surfer pro and his sister, both having endured familial loss) make it to beachfront community known as Luna Bay, provided a dump by their real estate aunt (they believe she will giving it to them free, but they're badly mistaken), and eventually run into a gang of vampires led by Shane Powers (Angus Sutherland, inspired casting due to his bro's (Kiefer) involvement as the leader in The Lost Boys), once known as one of the best surfers in the world who just vanished from the scene altogether. Chris (Tad Hilgenbrink) and his sis, Nicole (Autumn Reeser) aren't particularly fond of their new digs but when Shane eyes them, their lives become even more complicated. Shane desires Nicole (and vice versa) and Chris soon realizes that in order to save what little family he has left, a dangerous plot to defeat them will need to be orchestrated...with help from a vampire-hunting Frog Brother, Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman, cast to throw us old fans a bone). When Nicole drinks of Shane's blood, believing it to be liquor, she is caught under his vampiric spell. Chris will need to kill the lead vampire before Nicole feeds her first time--being that she's only half-vampire, there's still time to save her mortal soul from eternal damnation.

The synopsis above is the basic plotting I was speaking of. There's simply nothing here (including a really average ending that is over before it ever really starts) that was worth all the excitement Lost Boys fans had developed prior to the release of The Tribe. The gore is here, however, and that might just be enough, and some titillation (a babe vampire tries to take a bite out of Chris while getting naked and hot for him twice, including the steamy shower; there's also a timid sex scene between Shane and Nicole that is edited to reveal nothing of their nakedness) addition to it. An attractive cast (not an ugly person in the cast, including a rather nerdy local named Evan (Greyston Holt) who has an interest in Nicole) and the camera seems to love Angus. Angus isn't Kiefer, mind you (not by a mile), but he rocks the GQ vampire look impressively. Nicole is cute and Chris is the ideal chick magnet. Corey's part isn't all that extraordinary but he fulfills the obligation as the member of the cast meant for those of us wanting to see Edgar again after a considerable absence.

We were led to believe that Corey Haim would have a significant part in the film like Feldman, but that would not be the case much to our chagrin. Corey Haim's death long after left quite a sadness to a lot of us who grew up with him, and the missed opportunity to feature him in the Lost Boys sequel was a huge disappointment. Nobody in the cast in the sequel exactly sets the world on fire so seeing the two Coreys with substantial roles in the film would have been cool. Sadly, this would not come to fruition.

Cool spot at the beginning with Tom Savini, an old vampire who meets his match with Shane and his brood...ripping him apart and tossing his head in the nearby ocean sets the film off nicely. The vampire feeding frenzy around a campfire as Shane's brood feasts on local hotties offers the chance to showcase a little more gore, a kind of companion piece to Savini's demise. Chris, of course, with a little help from Edgar, is able to withstand the horde, but it's Nicole that makes the difference in the end. I can honestly say that this is forgettable, somewhat passable, and totally uncreative horror fare with some graphic violence that delivers, with rambunctious vampires and non-stop profanity. I'm not surprised it was critically frowned upon after the release (which was a hit in dvd sales), and now the film is unceremoniously lying in its rightful place...behind a copy of The Lost Boys on the dvd shelf in the horror section where it belongs.