Original Lost Boys actor Corey Feldman made it known this past week that he does not think that franchise would benefit from an all-female reboot in the tradition of this week’s much talked about Ghostbusters reboot. While The Lost Girls had been discussed at one point, it’s gained much more traction as a fan idea—albeit a good one—than an actual, solid reboot. It’s a longstanding rumor, to be sure, but the project had not been in the news for a long time when Feldman brought it up, and there had never been any clear movement to show that it was actually going to happen.
Which means that the actor really had no reason to go on about it, but he did. He explained that he didn’t think that Lost Boys would benefit from the same treatment that Ghostbusters got, as if he was just picking a random film from his own filmography as a hypothetical example.
The irony, however, is that I think few films would so perfectly benefit from an all-female reboot as The Lost Boys. Whether it was selected at random or not, it seems to be the perfect case for why a female driven reboot should work. First, you have to look at the homoerotic subtext that was incredibly prevalent in the original film. It’s not an overly testosterone heavy picture. Yes, there’s a romantic subplot between Michael and Star, but all of the tension derives from Michael and David. Michael’s transformation into becoming a vampire easily serves as a metaphor for a teenager coming to terms with his homosexuality.
That’s not necessarily a reason to do a female reboot on its own. You don’t want to do an update with a cast of women just because of a mistaken belief that the original is ‘girly,’ that’s not the case at all. But what would be interesting would be to explore the same subtext that is crucial to the original from another angle. That’s one of the things that would make Lost Girls a smart and fresh direction in which to take the next reboot or sequel.
Lesbian vampire fiction is some of the oldest vampire fiction. J. Sheridan LeFanu’s classic novella Carmilla not only predates Dracula, but served as a major influence on Stoker’s novel. If anything, we need more lesbian vampire movies because they’re so intrinsically tied to this particular sub-genre. Gender-swapping the main cast would allow for a story that wouldn’t be exploitative like, say, the Jess Franco lesbian vampire flicks because it would be told entirely from a female perspective.
Lost Boys director Joel Schumacher never had any involvement with getting any kind of Lost Girls movie off the ground other than the name being something he suggested the studio look into instead of Lost Boys 2. He had tried to get another movie off the ground for a number of years, but that was a separate idea, a prequel that would explain how David and the gang became vampires. Instead, we got Lost Boys: The Tribe and Lost Boys: The Thirst, two straight-to-video sequels that have their own moments of fun but definitely don’t live up to the original by any means.
The ironic thing is that Lost Girls should have been the second movie. It should have been the direction the franchise took immediately after the original. But the beauty of a hard reboot/sequel like this is that it’s never really too late. If anything, the timing’s better for Lost Girls now than ever.
Subtext aside, it would make for a really cool feature. The setting, the gender-swapped cast of characters, the empowerment of a badass group of vampires claiming the boardwalk as their turf. The sibling—or friend, I guess—who doesn’t get bitten could team up with the Frog Sisters. Hell, you could even get Corey Feldman to cameo as Edgar, their dad. The Pretty Reckless could contribute a cover of “Cry Little Sister.” There are literally dozens of possibilities as to what The Lost Girls could entail.
The reasons Feldman gives for not wanting to support this idea are strange, to say the least. Particularly because he makes it sound like he wants you to know he’s really sticking to his convictions and speaking without agenda because it would make more sense on paper for him to support The Lost Girls than not. His reason for this is that if Lost Girls were made he could cast it with his own live-in rock/talent group Corey’s Angels. This is naturally assuming that if the reboot was green lit he automatically be grandfathered in as producer or director.
And I’m not going to knock the guy too hard, because guess what? If they released another DTV Lost Boys sequel starring Corey Feldman, I’d watch it. I’d pick it up day one, but that doesn’t mean it’s what I want. I want a reason to get excited for this franchise again. I want something that’s going to come along and feel fresh and different while reminding me of everything I loved about The Lost Boys to begin with.
And I, personally, think Lost Girls would be the way to do that. It was something I’d thought a lot about in high school, back when it was being a rumored direction for the series to take. I hadn’t thought about it in years. So thank you, Corey Feldman, for reminding me of just what a great idea this actually is.
