The Lost Boys

Released; 1987

Location; Santa Cruz, California, USA

A classic of the 1980’s the Lost Boys starred Keifer Sutherland, Cory Haim, Cory Feldman, Jason Patric and Dianne Wiest who were all familliar faces in 80’s cinema.

The film finds Lucy Emmerson played by Dianne Wiest and her two sons moving back to live with her father in the west coast town of Santa Carla, ominously dubbed “the murder capitol of the world”.

Shortly after their arrival the boys,  Michael Emerson (Jason Patric) and Sam Emmerson (Corey Haim) discover that they is more to the town than their appears.

Filmed in the real town of Santa Cruz the film makers were asked to change the name of the town in the film to Santa Carla to avoid the real town being associated with the “murder capitol of the world” claim and any negative effect on the holiday business.

This was my second visit to Santa Cruz, the first being an afternoon on the beach boardwalk in 2010 but at that point I didnt have time to hunt for locations. This time around I had two nights in the Casablanca inn overlooking the pier and boardwalk so I had time to not only visit the boardwalk scenes I also tracked down Grandpas house at the Pogonip clubhouse and the video shop on the pier.

Later on our California road trip we visited the Warner Brothers studio in Burbank  CA. where we did the amazing VIP tour and low and behold in the prop department they had the bejeweled bottle from the film on display.

I hope you enjoy the videos and picture sets below and if you have any connection to the film please get in touch and let me know. 

Then and now gallery

Click each picture for a larger image.