Songs on Screen: Strange Awakenings with “I Still Believe” from “The Lost Boys”

Songs On Screen: All week HitFix will be featuring tributes by writers to their favorite musical moments from TV and film. Check out all the entries in the series here. 

I saw this movie about ten thousand times when I was a teenager. Maybe more. “Lost Boys” is a classic for we of a certain age. It”s vampire movie where comic books and witty banter play a sizable role, which sounds like all movies now but was an aberration in 1987. This movie has it all. Chinese Food. Cranky Grandpas. Music by INXS. Long before the dulcet tones of Kiefer Sutherland”s velvety voice made us swoon with “Who are you working for!” he regaled us with, “They”re only noodles, Michael.”  

The time I had this movie committed to memory has passed, but I will never forget when the Emerson brothers, new arrivals to the sleepy coastal town of Santa Carla, found themselves at an impromptu beach concert. Out stepped Tim Capello AKA “The Sexy Sax Man From Lost Boys” and all of our lives were changed. His rippling muscles, oily flop sweat, and sensual gyrations have been forever etched into my frontal lobe. It”s hard to pin down exactly how I felt watching this moment of unbridled masculine passion. I was excited. I was scared. I had so many questions. Where did this man come from? Why did he matter? Is this what California beaches are like? (I had never been to California.)

At 14, my teenage puberty was hitting me from all directions. I was a boy in transition. On the one hand, I was just like Corey Haim”s Sam, a happy-go-lucky spaz who enjoyed comic books and the promise of adventure. On the other hand, I, like, Jason Patric”s Michael, was going through big changes. I may not have turned into a vampire but something was happening. During those heady weeks of watching “Lost Boys” over and over again, I could feel my lizard brain beginning to take hold. I would soon lose my naturally cheery disposition and become something darker, a little more brooding, a little more moody, okay, a lot more of both of those things. Within a short amount of time, I”d soon be the kind of man who would leer moodily at Jami Gertz”s Star and follow her into the unknown.

It was all so intimate and carnal and a little bit weird. Just like the Sexy Man From “Lost Boys” himself.

Jonathan L. Davis is a screenwriter living in Los Angeles with his wife, child, and two dogs. If you think there are too many vampires in Santa Carla, contact him at @Jonathanldavis.

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