Quick Take
After “The Lost Boys” first transformed Santa Cruz into Santa Carla, fans from around the world still make the pilgrimage to the Beach Boardwalk and Atlantis Fantasyworld. The final installment of Lookout's series explores the movie's enduring cult following, the return of Frog Brother Jamison Newlander and why the annual beach screening has become a summer ritual.
Part 3 of our series exploring the enduring lure of “The Lost Boys,” from its roots in 1980s Santa Cruz to Broadway and back home again.
PART 1 | PART 2 | “LOST BOYS” WEEKEND EVENTS
Nearly four decades after vampires first roared across the screen in Joel Schumacher’s cult classic, hundreds of people still gather at the Boardwalk’s Main Beach each June to watch Santa Carla come alive again in the very place where much of the movie was filmed.
After tracing the film’s origins through 1980s Santa Cruz and following its unlikely journey all the way to Broadway, it’s time to bring The Boys home again.
And one fact is very clear: “The Lost Boys” is far bigger – and vastly more international – than most of us locals ever realized.
But why has this particular movie endured while so many other cult films slowly faded into nostalgia?
According to Kris Reyes, publicist for the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, part of the answer lies in a perfect collision of cast, setting and timing.
“So many actors in the film went on to have huge careers – Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Jason Patric, Dianne Wiest and The Two Coreys,” Reyes said. “Then you add in the Boardwalk, put it all together, and it becomes timeless.”
All year long, Reyes gets messages from fans planning their entire vacation around this one night on the sand.
“I get emails from people in Italy, Germany, England and all over the world asking when we’re showing the movie on the beach so they can plan their trip to Santa Cruz,” he said.
Unlike many nostalgia-fueled fandoms, “The Lost Boys” keeps finding fresh blood. Parents pass it down to their kids. Teenagers stumble onto it online. Some show up for the horror. Others come for the killer soundtrack, the jokes or just the vibe.
But almost everybody seems to find something personal inside it.
“It’s incredible, really,” Reyes said. “My colleagues and I are constantly stopped by people asking about the film. In the summer, it’s our biggest movie event. It’s truly the gift that keeps on giving.”
And nowhere does that connection feel stronger than in the film’s opening moments.
The Giant Dipper rises through aerial shots, instantly establishing Santa Carla’s eerie carnival atmosphere. The Looff Carousel then appears as Sutherland’s vampire gang first emerges onscreen. Soon, the famous motorcycle chase barrels down the Boardwalk colonnade and races onto Main Beach, with the amusement rides glowing in the background.
For one night, fans don’t just watch “The Lost Boys.” They become part of it.
People arrive hours early carrying blankets and beach chairs, settling into the sand beneath the rides while the smells of corn dogs and cotton candy drift through the evening air.
This year’s event takes place Friday. Special guest Jamison Newlander – forever known to audiences as Alan Frog (one half of the movie’s beloved vampire-hunting Frog Brothers duo) – will be present to sign autographs from 5 to 8 p.m. on the Boardwalk, before the 9 p.m. screening.
Long before vampire hunters became television staples through franchises like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “The Vampire Diaries,” there were the Frog Brothers. Played by Newlander and Corey Feldman, the Frog Brothers introduced a completely different kind of monster-fighter: kids armed not with superpowers but with comic books, confidence, and total conviction.
One of the reasons the Frog Brothers became so iconic, Newlander believes, is that they made outsiders feel like heroes. The pair brought a completely different energy into the movie’s world of leather-clad vampires and dangerous teenage seduction. As the Frog Brothers, they were awkward, funny and utterly sincere.
But Newlander insists none of the comedy was intentional.
“Joel Schumacher told us to play the characters very seriously, almost like little Rambo action heroes, so we were trying to be as tough as possible,” Newlander remembered. “I was so naïve back then, I actually thought the Frog Brothers were the central heroes of the story. Then Brooke McCarter, one of the vampires, said to me, ‘You guys are really funny comic relief.’ Suddenly I realized … ‘Oh. I guess we are.’”
That sincerity turned out to be exactly what audiences connected with, helping the film reach multiple generations at once.
“The vampires appealed to the older teenage crowd,” Newlander explained. “The Frog Brothers connected more with younger kids who had that ‘Goonies’, comic-book nerd energy. They realized they could be cool too, and we became their mascots.”
And maybe that outsider energy is part of why “The Lost Boys” continues to endure while other cult films drift in and out of fashion. You can even see traces of its influence in hit shows like “Stranger Things,” where horror, humor, friendship and outsider identity collide inside a distinctly nostalgic world.
“Joel wasn’t trying to make a classic vampire movie,” Newlander said. “He had a vision and we all followed it.” That vision, Newlander believes, elevated the movie beyond camp.
Yes, there were sexy vampires and motorcycles. But Schumacher grounded the fantasy with emotional sincerity and family connections that felt real.
Those family connections developed offscreen as well.
The cast stayed at the Holiday Inn on Ocean Street — now Hotel Paradox. Newlander was a mere 16 years old when he suddenly found himself pulled into the orbit of Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. This became the first of nine films starring “The Two Coreys,” who, by the late 1980s, had become the defining teen stars of the MTV era. They reached a level of fame and fan obsession few young actors have ever matched.
“I wanted to be at their level,” Newlander reflected. “I was very serious about acting and Feldman already had this huge pop-culture energy. I think that’s why Joel paired us together as the Frog Brothers – we played well off each other.” Newlander and The Two Coreys became close friends that summer. “We were just hanging out, riding bikes to the beach and making this crazy vampire movie. It was the best summer of my life.”
And then there is the eternal question of Frog Brother hierarchy.
“Feldman had more lines than me,” Newlander laughed. “During one of the final scenes, in the background he exclaims, ‘I’m the head Frog here!’ After they cut, I went to Schumacher and asked, ‘Are you keeping that line? Is he really the lead Frog?’”
“We were kids,” Newlander continued. “We didn’t realize we were making something people would still care about 40 years later. But I love seeing the fans at conventions and signings. It’s very special.”
A few miles from the Boardwalk, another piece of “Lost Boys” history continues to operate almost like a shrine for fans making the trek to Santa Cruz.
Before superhero movies dominated Hollywood, Joe Ferrara was running Atlantis Fantasyworld, the comic shop that appears prominently in the film as the place where Haim’s character, Sam, first encounters the Frog Brothers.
In the film, the store appears to be located on the Boardwalk, but back in 1986, the original shop stood farther down Pacific Avenue, before the Loma Prieta earthquake reshaped downtown.
At the time, Ferrara co-owned the store with artist James Aschbacher, whose large, colorful murals would later become fixtures throughout Santa Cruz County. Sharp-eyed fans can still spot both Ferrara and Aschbacher in the background of one comic shop scene, casually playing pinball while the action unfolds around them.
Ferrara also helped correct one of the movie’s comic-book references.
“When Sam walks into the store and says he’s looking for ‘Batman #14,’ that wasn’t the original line,” Ferrara recalled with a smile. “Originally it was something like, ‘I’m looking for Batman Volume 2, Number 7.’”
There was just one problem.
“There was no such thing as Volume 2, Number 7 back then!” Ferrara laughed. “I walked over to Joel Schumacher and told him, ‘If you want a laugh, you’ll get one. But if you’re trying to establish that Sam actually knows comic books, you blew it.’”
According to Ferrara, Schumacher immediately stopped production. Crew members scrambled to find a landline phone to contact the writers in Los Angeles and rewrite the line.
“It took over an hour,” Ferrara remembers fondly, “But technically, I wrote a line in ‘The Lost Boys.’”
Nearly four decades later, Atlantis Fantasyworld remains a top spot for fans visiting Santa Cruz.
Inside the store hangs a large world map, covered in pins, marking where visitors have traveled from to see the shop featured in the movie.
“People come in every single day asking about ‘The Lost Boys,’” Ferrara said. “They come from as far as South Africa. We are kind of ground zero for ‘Lost Boys’ stuff.”
The store has become something of a headquarters for ‘Lost Boys’ fandom, stocked with comics, posters, magnets, pins, stickers, cups, playing cards, and even the famous comic book “Vampires Everywhere!” that was created especially for the film.
Ferrara believes part of the film’s enduring legacy is surprisingly simple.
“It’s funny. It doesn’t take itself too seriously,” he said. “It’s entertaining. Not too gory. Great cast. You care about the characters. It all works.”
But the film’s deeper legacy is its unusual power to unite generations.
“What makes it iconic is that it’s multigenerational,” Ferrara said. “Usually, if parents love something, the kids don’t. But whole families share this movie together. It’s like when people stood in line for ‘Star Wars.’ Parents love it. Kids love it. ‘The Lost Boys’ has that same kind of energy – it brings people together.”
On Friday, as darkness settles over Main Beach, the giant screen flickers to life, and the first notes of “Cry Little Sister” echo across the sand, you can expect the crowd to erupt into cheers before the opening credits even finish rolling. Parents will quote lines alongside teenagers seeing the movie for the first time. Strangers will laugh together like old friends – creating a ritual that now spans generations of fans.
For a few hours, the years seem to collapse.
The Santa Cruz of 1986 – punk kids, comic shops, Boardwalk lights and motorcycles disappearing into the fog – quietly rises back to the surface again, and Santa Carla lives on.
“If you’ve never watched ‘The Lost Boys’ on the beach at the Boardwalk, it’s kind of magical,” said Kris Reyes. “Make a day of it. Come early, get some Boardwalk food and just have a good time.”
And this year, the celebration stretches far beyond the beach itself.
On Saturday, Atlantis Fantasyworld will host a full day of “Lost Boys” festivities, including an in-store signing with Newlander, followed by a special dinner and panel discussion with Newlander and owner Ferrara at Pono Hawaiian Grill nearby. Fans might even be treated to the unlikely sight of Ferrara and Newlander performing “People Are Strange” together.
From there, the adventure is yours.
Start with the movie on the beach. Meet a Frog Brother. Grab a self-guided filming locations map and explore the spots that became Santa Carla.
Then wander downtown to the Blue Lagoon for vampire-themed cocktails, blood-bag drinks and a little late-night Santa Carla mischief.
Honestly, that sounds like a pretty perfect Santa Cruz summer weekend.
Forty years later, people still come searching for Santa Carla.
Not because they believe in vampires.
But because they remember what it felt like to be young, a little lost, and convinced there might be magic hiding somewhere beneath the Boardwalk lights.
And every summer in Santa Cruz, for one strange and wonderful weekend, they find it again.
IF YOU GO: LOST BOYS WEEKEND EVENTS
Friday, June 12
5-8 p.m. Jamison Newlander (Alan Frog from “The Lost Boys”) signing autographs at The Walk at the Boardwalk (next to Marini’s). Free event.
9 p.m. “The Lost Boys” screening on Main Beach. Free event.
10 p.m.- 2 a.m. Lost Boys Theme Night at the Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave. No cover.
Saturday, June 13
1-5 p.m. Jamison Newlander (Alan Frog from “The Lost Boys”) in-store signing at Atlantis Fantasyworld, 1020 Cedar St., Santa Cruz.
6-8 p.m. Jamison Newlander & Joe Ferrara: Dinner, panel discussion and singing at Pono Hawaiian Grill, 120 Union St., Santa Cruz. Advanced tickets at Atlantis Fantasyworld. $25 includes dinner, exclusive “Lost Boys” print and panel discussion.
10 p.m.-2 a.m. Lost Boys Theme Night at the Blue Lagoon, with an appearance by Jamison Newlander. 923 Pacific Ave. No cover.
Sunday, June 14
9 p.m. -2 a.m. Lost Boys Theme Night collides with the weekly Goth Night at the Blue Lagoon. 923 Pacific Ave. No cover.
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