neal2zod

Both Lost Boys sequels (The Tribe and The Thirst) seem to be pretty universally reviled, but they both have their charms. Where The Tribe took the (now standard) easy way out by simply doing a gender-swapped reboot of the first film, The Thirst is more ambitious and actually throws Corey Feldman's vampire hunter into an all new story, pitting him against Eurotrash raving vampires straight out of a Blade or Underworld movie.

This is basically the same formula as the DTV Tremors sequels, except Michael Gross' Burt Gummer is a character with more room for complexity and Gross always found new ways to make him interesting. Feldman, (whose poor man's Will Arnett Growly Voice honestly got pretty annoying in the last movie), gets to be front and center for the first time, and he fortunately tones it down and tries to actually act for once (He actually has one legit touching scene involving the fate of Haim's character, but there's no way that couldn't be emotional). He's not a classic character like Blade or even Jack Burton, but he's passable enough. The story, which manages to squeeze in modern plot devices like the internet, raves, reality TV, and Twilight into a coherent plot, is actually pretty clever and has a decent twist near the end. Plus extra kudos for definitively ending the Trilogy (while of course, keeping the door open for a sequel).

All in all, it's decent fun and worth a look for completionists (before the inevitable reboot happens.)

Maybe I just watch too many DTV sequels and my expectations are low, but I don't think this movie's that bad at all - it's short and fast-paced and coherent, which puts it above a lot of terrible horror sequels. The acting isn't too bad and they actually try for some character development. It delivers on the over-the-top gore from the first one and throws in some gratuitous nudity for good measure. It's not a perfect movie - the action is underwritten and the finale is anticlimactic, but there's interesting ideas here and the movie is surprisingly ahead of its time.

I really don't get why people complain this one is "too different" from the first one, when it's a textbook "legacy sequel", i.e. a soft reboot/remake which has the same exact plot as the first one with a character from the original (Feldman) showing up in a supporting role. (This was obviously years ahead of Creed or Tron Legacy). Also here, the main character gets a gender swap (from angsty teenage boy to angsty teenage girl), and another huge character from the original shows up for one shot at the very end to end us on a cliffhanger. So yes, this is totally "The Force Awakens" of The Lost Boys franchise. In fact, I'd argue if this movie never came out, and they were to theatrically remake The Lost Boys today with a big budget, it would probably end up very, very similar to this.

Not a must-see by any means, and nowhere as stylish or as fun as the original, but you can do much, much worse.