Lost Boys 2: The Tribe Fangs foR The memorieS It’s been 21 years since big-haired vamps The Lost Boys ran riot. Now, after decades in Development Hell, they’re back. But what’s this? Feuding Coreys? Kiefer’s half-brother? And straight-to-DVD? Empire heads on set to uncover the gory truth...
WORDS Nick de semlyen
here’s something place, is simple. Like its dubiously coiffured biting on the set bloodsucker stars, The Lost Boys is a movie of Lost Boys 2, and that refuses to die. Two decades on from Joel surprisingly it’s Schumacher’s 1987 camp horror classic — in not a vampire with which Kiefer led a gang of vampires terrorising a mullet. in fact, the Californian coastal town of Santa Carla it’sT the cold, the kind of bone-aching, finger- — and there are still hordes of fans able to numbing, malevolent freeze that could give an quote chunks of its juicy dialogue (“Death by ice cube shivers and make a walrus think twice stereo!”) or hum its Goth-rock soundtrack. before leaving the house. The reason for the Hence the 2008 revival, tying neatly in with big chill is not just the season (late September, the resurrection of other ’80s staples like Short 2007) or the time (midnight going on 1am), Circuit, RoboCop and The A-Team. And but the location: the uppermost slopes of hence the blizzard of rumours, veiled threats Mount Seymour, a giant Canadian peak and offended forum posts that revival has overlooking Vancouver. Put simply, we’re triggered, even though the film will never see standing inside a big cloud, in the dark, in the inside of a multiplex. Lost Boys fanboys, the middle of nowhere. Fun. it seems, are sensitive types. So the pressing question is, why the hell are “What do I say to the people making we here, huddled around a heater with a circle negative comments?” asks Pesce. “Fuck off! of crew members, passing round sets of gel Blow me. I say, bring it on, bitch. Take hand-warmers? After all, we’re not witnessing me one-on-one and I’ll kick your ass!” He the making of a cutting-edge blockbuster, or breaks into a laugh. “No, you know what even a smart arthouse project, but a straight-to- I say? I say I totally understand, and if I was DVD sequel to a horror film made over 20 years not directing this movie and I was out there, ago. The man in the director’s chair isn’t Peter I’m sure I’d be rolling my eyes, too. If I heard Jackson, or Steven Spielberg, or even McG, but about surfing vampires, I’d be going, ‘Oh P. J. Pesce, the creator of From Dusk Till Dawn Christ, that sounds like a pile of manure.’ 3 and a guy whose previous appearances in But the reality of the fact is that it’s not just Empire have been confined to Kim Newman’s surfing vampires. It’s a lot more than that.” Video Dungeon. And the actor sitting across Italian-American Pesce is a colourful from us, trying to defrost between takes, isn’t character. Tonight, as set dressers fiddle with world-famous celebrity and Golden Globe- flaming barrels outside the Lost Boys’ crypt- winner Kiefer Sutherland, but barely-heard-of lair (in reality a disused sewage treatment Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo plant), he roams around performing magic Bay star and empty-mantlepieced Angus tricks with a deck of cards, quoting Orson Sutherland, Kiefer’s younger half-brother. Welles and discussing the recent There will be blood... Left, from top: going for the jugular; vampire hunter Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman) The answer to that question, and the reason works of Wong Kar-Wai. It’s not and Chris (Tad Hilgenbrink); one of the new Lost Boys. everyone is perched on this mountain in the first exactly what you’d expect from Above and main: Feldman in 1987 and 2008.
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Briefing The Lost And Lost Boys 2: Found Boys The Tribe Beyond the Coreys, we trace the fates Released: September 8, of the other Lost Boys… available only on double-pack DVD with the original film Jason Patric Directed by: P. J. Pesce (Michael Emerson) Starring: Corey Feldman, Having returned from the Tad Hilgenbrink, Autumn dead after the debacle Reeser, Angus Sutherland that was Speed 2: Cruise The original: The 1987 hit Control, Patric has done about teen vampires made impressive turns in lo-fi fare such as Narc and stars of Kiefer Sutherland, In The Valley Of Elah. Will next be seen in star- Jason Patric and (for a while) Left: Feldman unleashes a rocket- stuffed courtroom drama My Sister’s Keeper. Coreys Feldman and Haim. propelled holy water balloon at the Twenty-one years later… undead. Right: one of the new breed, Chris (Hilgenbrink) and his post-light snack. Jami Gertz (Star) kid sister (Reeser) move to Little has been seen of the Californian surf town of Gertz on the big screen Luna Bay — only to find it since her turn as Patric’s infested with vampires... vampish love interest. Aside from a supporting role in Twister, she has mostly kept herself busy with TV — the eagle-eyed among you may have spotted her on Seinfeld, ER and Ally McBeal.
Alex Winter “If I wasn’t directing this movie, I’m sure (Marko) Despite being the first vamp to bite the dust, I’d be rolling my eyes too.” P. J. Pesce Winter found immortality as Bill S. Preston, Esq. in the Bill & Ted movies. He later forged a second someone who masterminded Sniper 3 with Tom talk of The Lost Girls, a mooted re-envisioning career as a director — FYI, he’s behind the all- Berenger. But Pesce seems completely self-aware, of the first film with an all-female vamp gang. Above: Gnarly! Our hero, hot on the CG Tony The Tiger Frosties ads. trail of blood-craving boarders. Left: conscious that he is, as he puts it, “in the minor “Oy vey, kill me now!” laughs Pesce when Angus Sutherland as crypt-keeper leagues”, and happy to admit that, “While I’m we bring the subject up. “That just sounded Shane. Right: P. J. Pesce with pal. Brooke McCarter extremely proud of the From Dusk Till Dawn like a pile of steaming shite. It sounds like the (Paul) prequel, nobody will ever take it seriously.” He equivalent of... what was that fucking horrible — and an air-propelled rocket-launcher Best known as the blood- may be under fire from all directions, but he’s Western they did? Bad Girls?” for holy water balloons. Oh, plus a garlic sucker who took an early confident he’ll surprise everyone by delivering Another non-fan of the idea is Corey bolo, which is always nice.” (holy water-filled) bath, a sequel with all the charm of Schumacher’s Feldman, the original ’80s lost boy who starred The atmosphere on set is light, as McCarter has now all but movie, plus a sizable dose of gory mayhem. in the first film at the height of his fame and Feldman bops around, dispensing hugs, retired from acting. Throughout the ’90s he was “Severed heads being punted around like returns to the second a lower-profile but wiser wisecracking about the relentless night Corey Haim’s manager; he now lives in Florida, footballs, spinal cords hitting people in the man. “I was not thrilled with the Lost Girls shoots (“I haven’t felt like this since running his own production company. face, blood everywhere... As someone said concept,” Feldman says. “To me that was always I smoked crack!”) and receiving a farewell on set the other day, ‘Okay, this is starting to kind of half-assed. I never really signed onto the gift from the crew: an ornate prop crucifix. cast list. He succeeded, only for Haim not to Billy Wirth become Lost Boys-slash-Irreversible!’” campaign. It seemed like a pointless venture.” But there is undeniably a long shadow hanging turn up on set, ostensibly due to visa issues, (Dwayne) His enthusiasm for this movie, though, is over the proceedings, and it’s cast by a person an excuse which no-one seems to believe. Since “Death by stereo” was only o, you were not obvious. The scene currently being prepped who’s not even here. As fans of faded child then, the two have attacked each other via the start for Wirth. While hallucinating — involves Feldman and the movie’s leading man, stars will know, we’re talking about Corey media interviews. So, have they really fallen his movie roles dried up, you did read the Tad Hilgenbrink (aka Stifler’s brother in Haim, Feldman’s old friend, fellow former out? Is the whole thing a publicity stunt? And he’s been busy fronting LA words “surfing American Pie spin-off Band Camp), driving drug addict and Lost Boys co-star, who recently if someone’s lying, who? rock band Dust N’ Bones and appearing on vampires” two up to the entrance of a monster-infested mine- stirred up one of the biggest message-board “Essentially everything you read on my side American Gladiators, where he famously hit paragraphs up. shaft in a souped-up Range Rover. Statuettes storms in eons. was true,” retorts Feldman with a grin. “And we Gemini in the back of the head with a powerball. InN fact, the new film, officially titled Lost of the Virgin Mary adorn the dashboard; a logo The bizarre tale of Haim’s non-involvement all know who the cool one is. No, what happened Boys 2: The Tribe, sees the Boys modernised reading “Frog Brothers” is printed on the vehicle’s in the sequel can be pieced together with on the show was real. The original concept I was Kiefer Sutherland as adrenalin junkies, riding waves at night and side. It can mean only one thing: Feldman is fragments from various websites, including the told about did not involve Haim and had a very (David) skateboarding while holding onto the backs back as vampire-hunter extraordinaire Edgar Coreys’ own blogs, and it goes a little something small cameo from me, and that was what I told With a career that has of motorcycles doing 150 miles per hour. The Frog, global scourge of garlic-haters. His like this: on July 29, 2007, an episode of reality him about and it broke him up. I told him, ‘I’m rollercoasted as wildly as surfing was a holdover from the first draft of arsenal of weapons has been greatly beefed up, show The Two Coreys aired, showing footage of not doing it without you,’ and they came back to his personal life, the son the script Pesce was given, in which the vampires as has his screen time, and Feldman, about to Feldman breaking the news to his friend that a) me five different times and I turned them down of Donald’s post-Lost Boys spent their off-time on the beach waiting for complete his last day of filming, is eager to talk there was to be a Lost Boys sequel and b) only over and over and over. Finally, they came back career hasn’t been massively consistent, but the ultimate tube. The idea got canned, just one us through it: “My vamp artilleries, as I call one Corey’s services were required. Haim broke to me at my birthday party, where ironically all it is as the clock-racing star of 24 that he has
more casualty in this sequel’s torturously lengthy them, include a plethora of stakes — from down in tears on camera, whereupon Feldman the Lost Boys, including Jamison Newlander found lasting fame. He’ll next be seen on the ››
development period. Most infamous of all was wooden ones to metal and carbon fibre types (1) photofest (2), kobal set about trying to get his buddy added to the and Corey, were there in one place. They said, big screen in horror pic Mirrors. GLEN FERRIS
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“It’s been tough, a lot of night
shoots. I haven’t felt like this since Clockwise from left: Feldman takes a break from monster-murdering in the Frogmobile; the two Coreys in a publicity shot for their reality TV show, The Two I smoked crack!” Corey Feldman Coreys; on set of the original with co-star Jamison Newlander; Saxaphone Man now (with Pesce) and then.
‘Listen, we’ve rewritten the script, you’re he fashion has been fans over? Or will Lost Boys 2: The Tribe end a major part of it, we’re gonna incorporate radically rehauled, up in bargain bins, alongside the likes of Blues Haim and Newlander — now will you do it? as evidenced by a Brothers 2000 and Return Of The Fly? “Last time I saw Haim it was like, ‘See you parade of the new “I’m in the ghetto of the genre filmmaking in Vancouver!’” he continues. “I had put it in vampires wheeling world,” muses Pesce. “But I like to work and my contract that I wouldn’t do it without him. their motorbikes up I like to invest everything I do with a certain Then I got here and there was no Corey. When Tto the crypt entrance for the next scene, but what level of quality and care. I think of myself as I heard what was happening I gave him a call has this sequel kept over from its predecessor? this little Italian tailor. There’s a lot of bad- and asked him what was going on and never Pesce’s answer is not exactly what we expected. mouthing going on, but as a director you just got a clear answer. So I was obviously taken “Remember that guy with the saxophone at get used to that. You become inured to it... aback when he tried to turn around and make that cheesy party? Dude, we brought him back. I mean, even Quentin Tarantino; on Kill Bill it my fault. Because in a town with many I mean, not the real guy, but we hired a big, fat all the grips were going, ‘That guy’s an idiot, he inconsistencies, there’s not many people willing extra, wrote ‘Tips’ across his belly and made him doesn’t know what he’s doing.’ I went online to go out on a limb and risk losing a job play sax. ’Cause when you’re watching Lost Boys, recently and it was like opening Pandora’s Box because of a counterpart. Will I see him when all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Aaargh!’ In a horror — GRRRAAAHHH!!! — all this screaming I go back to LA tomorrow? No.” movie, that’s truly the most horrifying moment, and yelling about this movie I’m making.” Despite that vow, the latest word on the when you see that guy pumping his hips. I mean, But surely, we ask, somewhere, someone fiasco is that they’ve reconciled some of their who greased him up like that? Such a bizarre is saying something nice about it? differences (the second season of The Two Coreys character. So this is our little homage. We Pesce thinks it over for a moment, then airs in July), if not many of them (a recent blog thought, ‘Where would that guy be 20 years laughs again: “Yeah — my mom.” entry by Feldman says, “Maybe at the end of later?’ Maybe on the street, begging for change.” [email protected] the day Haim and I will be able to resurrect our Erm, okay... And as well as Saxophone Man, broken friendship, despite the fact we may never we’re promised the reprise of iconic track Cry ›› Lost Boys 2: The Tribe is available in resolve our professional relationship”). Oh, and Little Sister, by Gerard McMann, albeit in a a DVD double-pack with The Lost Boys Haim apparently will turn up in Lost Boys 2: new, “thrashing” form. Will these touchstones, from September 8 and will be reviewed The Tribe in an unspecified cameo. along with some Coreys and a Sutherland, win in the October issue.
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