The inspiration behind Corey Feldman’s ‘The Lost Boys’ character
Although being the man behind Batman Forever and Batman & Robin largely torpedoed his career, Joel Schumacher’s earlier cinema exploits were solid. Behind successful movies such as Falling Down and Flatliners, the most well-loved film in the late director’s filmography remains 1987’s The Lost Boys.
A true cult classic, this comedy horror tells the story of two boys (Jason Patric and Corey Haim) who move to a new town only to discover that it is home to a coven of vampires. An audience favourite since its release, the movie even spawned a couple of direct-to-DVD sequels in the 2000s.
Most of the cast didn’t return for either, but one constant presence throughout the trilogy is Corey Feldman as Edgar Frog. In the original film, Frog is a vampire-hunting, comic book-loving teenager hired by protagonist Michael Emerson (Patric) to save his brother from the titular vampire clan.
Coming off his successful roles in movies such as Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Gremlins, The Goonies, and Stand By Me, Feldman played the film’s most iconic character. Frog’s costume has become a Halloween favourite, and Joss Whedon credits Frog as an inspiration for his enormously popular TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So, what influences went into crafting this beloved character?
Schumacher told Feldman to watch the work of famous action stars, combine them and put his own twist on it, which was precisely what Feldman did. He mainly focused on the work of Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris. The influence of the former is particularly apparent in Edgar Frog’s costume, which includes a headband similar to the one Stallone wears in the Rambo movies.
Given how beloved the character has remained over the decades since the film’s release, Schumacher was really onto something here. This movie was a very important one for Feldman as it remains perhaps his most successful role, and it is also where he met Corey Haim. The pair, known as ‘The 2 Coreys’, became best friends and collaborated on many projects together before Haim’s tragic passing in 2010.
All this time later, Feldman speaks warmly of making the film. He did, however, remark that repeatedly being covered in the mixture of goo and glitter that the special effects team used to represent the innards of the exploding vampires was pretty gross. He wryly described the experience as quite traumatising.
