THE FILM THAT MADE ME: THE LOST BOYS BY NATASHA DUNCAN-DRAKE

The Lost Boys

I know, some people are going to say The Lost Boys isn't really a horror movie, but people explode and the vampires are nasty, so I think it is. It was also my gateway movie to all things vampire and horror.

Before this film came out I had maybe watched some Hammer horror through my fingers. I never did get to see Frank Langella's Dracula for years because the first time we tried to watch it we reached the part where Dracula comes down the wall head first and my sister screamed so much we had to turn it off.

It wasn't until I was 15 and The Lost Boys hit cinemas that my vampire obsession, and from there, other horror type obsessions started. My twin sister and I travelled to town on the train and walked to the cinema and when we came out I don't think we stopped talking about it for days.

This film has everything, teenage angst, humour, a love story and evil vampires. These days I'd be more likely to ship Michael and David, but back then I was so into the Michael and Star love story. This is the first movie I ever wrote fanfic for. Luckily for me there was no internet at the time so it is in a note book in a drawer and will never see the light of day, but I still wrote it. It inspired me to create.

Thanks to The Lost Boys the vampires got inside my head and never left. These vampires are not sparkly and they are not heartsick, they are vicious and unrepentant and glorious.

David: "You'll never grow old, Michael, and you'll never die. But you must feed!"

I also love Sam and the Frog Brothers as they provide the comic relief. Sam has to walk the line between sympathetic younger sibling and the outright humour that is the Frogs and his characterisation is spot on.

Sam: "Burn rubber does not mean warp speed!"

My sister and I have the soundtrack, the book (yes still) and it was the first VHS tape we tried to buy (and failed since it wasn't out for general release when we tried). This was even before we had a VCR, we were just lucky enough to borrow one every now and then. We needed to own that movie so badly.

It was the film I most wanted a sequel to for years, until we actually got one and it was so bad I fear to mention it's name (however, the third one is pretty good). I can still quote a good half of The Lost Boys even so many years later and we didn't have the internet to help us do that at the time. It's up there with Star Wars and The Princess Bride as most quotable movie. This film is a classic and I thank it so much for my obsession with the undead.

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Natasha Duncan-Drake is a British author with Wittegen Press (wittegenpress.com) and has been publishing genre fiction since 2011. Her work includes everything from horror to young adult fantasy and she has never met a genre she didn’t like. A prolific producer of short stories and novels alike, Natasha currently has over twenty five titles in her back catalogue with further releases always imminent. 

She is a big fan of science fiction, fantasy and horror in all their forms and is a big advocate of fanfiction as a great tool for writers to polish their skills in a welcoming and supportive community.

Website: http://www.wittegenpress.com/natashaduncandrake/
Blog - Tasha’s Thinkings: http://tashasthinkings.blogspot.co.uk/
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