Throwback Thursday Asks: Just How Gay Was “Lost Boys”?

October 31, 2024
HANK ORSO

Back in 1987, The Lost Boys hit the screens, and young straight girls and gay boys were enthralled. Okay, sure, straight boys dug it to, but they didn't "get it." They weren't seeing what the rest of us were. And what we were seeing was openly-gay director Joel Schumacher's visual paean to the queer vampire inside all of us. How gay was The Lost Boys? Pretty friggin' gay, it turns out!

I mean...c'mon!

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The sexualization of the vampire character has been pretty blatant throughout time and pretty much through most of its depictions. As Alcy Leyva points out in their brief essay on the topic of the homoeroticism in this film, we can see back into Bram Stroker's novel Dracula hints of the queer sexuality embedded in the Dark Lord. Benjamin Harker's description of Dracula upon first meeting him is an examination of the manly physical features he finds drawn to.

The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth. These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin.

As we see in the novel, Dracula keeps Harker as a prisoner because he has particular talents he needs. Harker becomes his kept boy, a role he slowly succumbs to. It's interesting that the three "wives" Dracula employs Harker derides and is horrified by, but Dracula, though disturbing to him, holds some sense of wonder.

I mean...c'mon! (Pt. 2)

When Michael and his little brother Sam, new to Santa Carla, first encounter the "lost boys" it's at the amusement park on the boardwalk, during a concert you see in the clip above. The queerness of this sequence is undeniable. Let's start with the greased-up muscle dude waving his instrument around. Wrapped in chains! Okay, that's obvious. What's more subtle is the manner in which "David," the lead teen vampire played by Keiffer Sutherland, "cruises" Michael, played by Jason Patric (son of actor Jason Miller who played "Father Karras" in The Exorcist and brother of Joshua Miller, the youngest vampire in Near Dark.) David's sexual leer is honed in on Michael from the get-go, and like Dracula when he says of Harker "He is mine," David wants Michael.

Michael might have been staring at Jamie Gertz's gorgeous "Star," but Star was just David's bait to lure him in. The attraction really is with David and his gang of misfit outsiders. A biker gang! Much like Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones, this band of society outsiders frightens and tantalizes. They're dangerous, sure, but you're drawn into the danger. His lost boys, a clear dark side to Peter Pan's friends who despised girls. Except for Tinkerbell. A fairy. And those lost boys are all clad in leather, chains, and flowing 80s porn hair! The whole look and vibe of this is queer 80's rebellion chic, which no suburban gay kid seeing this at the time would have missed.

Vampire as an outsider is another trope that is so common that it's almost boring. But at the time, this film relished in that anti-hero status with glee. Michael is pressed to join them, be one of them, and give over to his true nature. The queer dog whistles are loud here because it's an outsider status we all knew so well. The boys are cooler than our parents, cooler than the kids at school, and cooler than our regular friends. Who wouldn't want to succumb to their wiles and allure?

After Michael is changed, we get this problematic scene that is super gay, and super...something else. Michael seems to stalk hunt his younger brother as he bathes in the tub singing along to the 60's song "Ain't Got No Home" by Clarence Frogman Henry. With the line "I ain't got a man" clearly being belted out by the young Haim, one has to wonder...why is he singing this song? And how would he know this song? Couple this with the line "Unchain me sister/Love is with your brother” from the movie's theme song "Cry Little Sister" and you can see that little is being left to the imagination!

If Michael gives into his primal and natural urges and joins the nest of gay vampires, what does it mean for our anti-hero when he rejects them to save his soul in the end? (Oh sorry...spoiler!) This is where the metaphor starts to turn ugly, and we have to wonder if we're to continue with it or not. If so, then like so many films before it, the queer characters must die and normal heteronormative society can continue safely. Which is a drag, but there's a small caveat at the very end. This small group led by David might be vanquished at the end, but Grampa's last line in the film might mean that there have always been (gays) vampires and there always will be (gays) vampires: