Movies That Bite: Lost Boys- The Tribe

If a Film Franchise is lost in the Woods, will anyone care?  Today's film is Lost Boys: The Tribe, the long-delayed sequel to the 1980's Cult Classic.  For the record, I've re-watched the original- on Blu-Ray to boot- and it's damn good.  It holds up really well, aside from the obvious fashion issues.  A few years ago, they finally got around to making a new film.  Only one of the major Cast Members returns- in Scenes that stayed in anyways- so it's not like this was a big get.  Granted- the dead Characters can't return.  Although, to be fair, one of them actually does!  It's not addressed well in the film- leaving that to a tie-in Comic-, but I'll go over it in a bit.  The movie attempts to tell a new story, but mostly just tells the old one again.  They do that 'let's address this as a Sequel, but pretty much repeat things anyways' bit that I really don't care for.  Just make a new story or don't- there's no need to rub my nose in your laziness!  The plot involves- get this- a couple of young people moving to the Town from the first film and finding out there are Vampires there.  On top of that, one of them gets lured to the fang side.  Can the brother save her or is she a goner?  How will a once-famous teen Actor play into this?  Will his comically-deep voice be comical?  To find out, read on...

In the Cold Open, a bunch of Biker Surfers- haven't seen that before- ride up to an Island and run across...Tom Savini.  Get this- he's playing Keifer Sutherland's Character from the first film, who was told to survive in the Comic Book.

They kill him, signifying some sort of 'changing of the guard'...provided that you knew his name (not said), made the connection (not explained) and knew that the character wasn't dead (not mentioned).  Yea.

Our heroes- a brother and sister- move into town with some lady.  Her only role is to 'comedically' think that they're doing/selling drugs.  Moving on...

To the film's credit, they thrown in a nice reference to the Shirtless Saxophone Player, who had become a meme by then.  It's nice and random.

Corey Feldman returns as his Frog character.  It is kind of odd that he regresses back to a bad-ass after learning that monsters are a lot scarier in person during the last film's climax.

If you think that's odd though, don't read the tie-in comics.  They basically make him and his brother into Blade.  Double yea.

Our hero's sister falls in love with the leader of the new Vampire Gang (who was explained to be an early victim of Keifer's character- which means he should have turned back to normal at the end of the first film).

He reminds me a lot of 'Harpo' from Twilight, although that's a complete coincidence.  They don't mock Twilight until the next film...

Apparently Vampires all die differently, essentially saying that 'The Rule is that the Rule is Not Consistent.'  This girl turns into a statue when impaled, even though this has never happened before (or since) and this exact manner of killing is what Kiefer's character apparently survived.

After some filler and nudity, our hero joins forces with Feldman to kick some Vampire ass.

Oh and he's also a Vampire now.  Is that important to note?

 The pair split up and take down most of the Vampires.  Our hero's sister finally turns on the lead Vampire and helps defeat him.  He burns up, since, again, no Vampires die in the same way.  Inconsistency is consistent!

The pair go home and get a 'don't do drugs' lecture from their Landlord, all while covered in blood.  Funny?

In the official Post Credits Ending, Feldman faces off with a vampiric Haim (which goes nowhere due to Haim being 'too busy' and later dying in 2010).  In alternate Endings, he warns him of his brother's return, since he's now a Vampire, except for the other Ending where he's not.  The End(ings).

Have I done the 'This bites' joke recently?  In all seriousness, this is a lot of rehash with very little to add.  The original film has a great soundtrack, great atmosphere and feels like a unique take on Vampires.  They seek thrills, corrupt the youth and just generally act like immortal teenagers.  Here- it's pretty much the same thing.  It's more 'extreme' here as they taunt the Cops while on Motorcycles in that one scene.  They don't build up to a bigger twist like the original, so I guess that's...good.  I mean, it does make it feel different.  ON the other hand, it makes it feel like a regression.  You took away the more interesting Plot Point, but left everything else.  The upsides are the mostly-decent F/X shots, even if the idea behind them is silly.  Seriously, how is it a rule that all Vampires die differently?  Explain how a lack of consistency happens consistently!  Help me, Douglas Adams!  Anyhow, the film is just a newer, edgier version of a better film.  Watch that film first.  If you MUST watch the newer one, it's alright, but nothing more.  It does feature this hilarious continuity gaffe in which Vampires have reflections though...

Next up, we'll take a break before tackling Lost Boys 3.  In its place, an Asylum 'riff' on a bomb of a film that stars Adrian Paul (sadly).  Stay tuned...