Lost Boys: The Tribe Review
It was a nice little vampire flick, but it wasn’t much of a sequel. The only thing that strongly ties it to the first one is Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman). If it wasn’t for Frog, The Lost Boys: The Tribe would have been its own separate movie. It was a good attempt and a worthwhile effort, but Lost Boys caliber it isn’t.
The plot holds very few surprises. Former surfer Chris Emerson (Tad Hilgenbrink) and his sister, Nicole Emerson (Autumn Reeser), move to the costal vampire infested town of Luna Bay, California, and end up bumping elbows with some patrons of the undead. Even though there’s no new ground being broken here, the characters are fun to watch. Chris Emerson is somewhat unstable and overprotective of his younger starved-for-excitement sister. As for the vampires, how often to you get to see undead surfers? Not very often. Other than the surfing element adding a little spice to the characters there’s no noticeable charisma from any of the vampires. The most interesting vampire dies in the first five minutes of the film. However, I must say that vampire is played by horror icon Tom Savini, and therefore holding a candle in the quake of that wind is pretty difficult. The most interesting character is Edgar Frog who hunts vampires and shapes surf boards.
I was under the impression that Edgar Frog grew from the comic nerd that he was in the first movie to a professional hunter of the denizens of the dark. I thought Feldmen was going to be “Edgar Frog: Butt-Kicker Extraordinaire.” But Frog’s part came up lacking. If you’re looking to see an uncanny display of bad-assery you won’t find it here. Feldman is only in the movie every so often to help Chris Emerson combat his vampire problem. As the viewer (particularly if you’ve seen the first movie) you spend the first part of the movie eagerly awaiting the arrival of the most interesting character only to be let down by an actor trying way too hard to be tough. When we first get the chance to discover the new Frog, we see him trying to communicate through an unconvincing growl and half sneer. I understand it’s intended to be comedic, spoofing traditional hunter stereotypes, but it’s more irritating than it is funny. Had Feldman played Frog more organically as a comic nerd grown to be a vampire hunter, and minimized the tough guy act to a few initial lines as a means of quickly establishing dominance it would have been more satisfying. The Frog character does soften as the movie progresses and thus the movie becomes for fun, but it’s to little too late.
It’s filled with funny situations and snappy one-liners that are easily quotable. Humor and horror are successfully juggled to create a feel similar to its predecessor’s. There’s a blend of dark humor and youthful pranks. In a few scenes we get to see how far vampires can take a joke, such as slitting another vampire’s stomach to let his intestines spill out. I think if most people were immortal this prank would gain popularity quickly.
The most interesting part of the film is the surprise cameo by Corey Haim during the credits appearing as Sam Emerson from the first Lost Boys film. In my opinion, the second movie should have been about the events of Haim’s cameo, but maybe we’ll get a third movie to better show these events.
The Verdict: It’s funny, it’s charming, it’s scary, and it’s worth a rent. You might want to buy it for collecting purposes if you’re a fan of the first Lost Boys movie. Watch it with some friends, and have a laugh. It’s a pretty good time.
Tags: Autumn Reeser, comedy, Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Edgar Frog, Horror, Movie, Sam Emerson, Tad Hilgenbrink, Undead, Vampires