The Lost Boys – Bitch Flicks

6 Gender-Swapped Films We’d Love To See: Male to Female Casts

From the gender-neutral, Alien-fighting Ellen Ripley, to the deadpan Vulcan Mr. Spock, to whiny Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (yes, that Luke), the genders of some of our best-loved characters have actually been swapping around for decades behind the scenes. The difference with ‘Ghostbusters’ is that – as a remake – the swap was public knowledge, thus inviting the barrage of misogynistic grumbling that flooded the internet.

This guest post written by the Fanny Pack Team originally appeared at Fanny Pack. It is cross-posted with permission.

By now, you’ve probably noticed that the all-female Ghostbusters reboot/sequel (uh, requel? seqboot?) has been out for a little while now, and judging by its healthy box office performance and mainly positive critical reception, has hopefully forced overgrown fanboys everywhere to eat their premature YouTube dislikes and Twitter rants about “ruined childhoods.”

Although there is chatter of the film as the flagship for a whole new “trend” for gender-swapped remakes in Hollywood right now, there’s actually nothing new about this treatment at all. From the gender-neutral, Alien-fighting Ellen Ripley, to the deadpan Vulcan Mr. Spock, to whiny Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (yes, that Luke), the genders of some of our best-loved characters have actually been swapping around for decades behind the scenes. The difference with Ghostbusters is that – as a remake – the swap was public knowledge, thus inviting the barrage of misogynistic grumbling that flooded the internet. It seems that we’re far more open to gender-swapping when we’re unaware of it, which highlights just how much gender alone can dictate a film’s narrative sometimes.

Inspired by Hollywood’s new appetite for gender-swapping remakes, one of our writers, Chelsey Lang, recently wrote a ‘reverse-Ghostbusters’ list featuring her picks for female-led movies remade with male casts, testing if they would still make sense or be rendered absurd to our stereotype-addled brains. We enjoyed Chelsey’s article so much that we decided to expand on her list across a two-part series featuring both female-to-male, and male-to-female remakes. So, without further ado, here are our top picks for male-to-female gender-swapped films.

Which ones would you shell out some cash for at the box office?

1. The Lost Girls

Written by Hannah Collins

Before there was Edward Cullen, Spike, Angel, or even Being Human’s Mitchell, vampires were mainly styled by pop culture as ruffle-shirted, older men with a gentlemanly turn of phrase and a penchant for dwelling in Eastern European castles or stately homes. That was before 1987 rolled up with it’s bleached mullets and Duran Duran-brand of hyper-masculinity to give the aging undead that sexy teenage make-over they didn’t know they needed. I’m talking about cult-classic, The Lost Boys.

To those unfamiliar, yes – the title is a direct reference to J.M Barrie’s “lost boys” from Peter Pan, and merging this parable about the pros and cons of eternal youth with vampire mythology (along with the come-hither-fanged smirk of a then unknown Keifer Sutherland) turned out to be pretty effective at revitalizing both for the modern day. The result is a punk-inflected fairy tale of male youth in revolt – alluring to teen audiences but suitably shocking to all those grown-ups who just don’t get it, man.

But while main character – the mostly human, Michael (Jason Patric) – feels threatened by David (Keifer Sutherland) and his undead gang, he doesn’t feel so threatened by the only female member, Star (Jami Gertz). This is consistantly the plight of the lesser-spotted female vampire: an object of submissive sexuality compared to the sexual dominance that her male counterparts exude. Moreover, Star’s regaining of her humanity by the end of the film paints her more as a victim to be “saved” from the vampire curse, rather than revel in it as the male gang members are allowed to do. (They’ve got at least another ten years to “party hard, Wayne” before Buffy stakes the shit out of the whole nest, after all.)

This is why The Lost Boys is so ripe for a gender-swapped remake, and it needs to happen soon before the vague afterbuzz of Twilight and The Vampire Diaries has fully settled. I want to see a dangerous, morality-ridden teenage girl gang – fanged and fierce – skulking the Santa Carla Boardwalk at night with a token brown-eyed boy member (he could still be called ‘Star’) to reel in the new, unsuspecting human protagonist (let’s call her ‘Micheala’). Less Bella and Edward and more, uh, Beau and Edythe, I guess.

We’ll need some relatively less famous, young faces keeping in line with the original casting, so let’s have Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story, The Bling Ring) as our fiesty, vamp-busting heroine ‘Micheala,’ Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf) as our eye-candy ‘Star,’ and Zoe Kravitz (Mad Max: Fury Road, Dope) as our badass leader of the pack, ‘Darcy.’

2. Arsonist’s Daughter

Written by Amy Squire

I would love to see a new film about female writers that doesn’t center on the “woman fights against society’s expectations to become a writer” trope. Instead, it would be refreshing to see the fact that they’re writers taken for granted. Wonder Boys was based on Michael Chabon’s novel of the same name about a writer unable to finish his latest novel as his personal life unravels. In the 2000 original, a middle-aged literary professor (Michael Douglas) gets caught up in a weekend’s misadventure in the company of his troublesome editor Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.) and young protege James Leer (Toby Maguire). Their capers involve the theft of a piece of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia, a dead dog, and Crabtree’s roving eye for any man he meets.

This all may sound foolish, but a witty script, showing off the imagination and dark side to these characters, elevates the film above the average comedy. This calls for an accomplished cast. In my reimagining, Jodie Foster plays the dry, weed-smoking genius Professor Tripp who wrote her award-winning novel seven years ago and is hounded by her editor, family, and students to produce the long-awaited follow up. After her husband walks out, her misbehaving editor turns up to chase progress. Crabtree would be the most difficult to cast but perhaps Maggie Gyllenhaal could strike the right balance of intelligence and mischief. Mia Wasikowska has the perfect combination of naivety and brilliance to play the seemingly-innocent but prodigal student Leer.

Something of a cult classic, the thought of remaking Wonder Boys seems sacrilege, but who wouldn’t want to see this dream team’s comedy of errors? We need more female-driven comedies, especially ones that don’t find humor in a woman chasing a man. There is a sub-plot based on Tripp’s love-life, but it’s more of a resolution of an existing relationship, than a romantic love story. The fact that the original film went under the radar at the box office could spell success for a reboot. Since the original title wouldn’t work and Wonder Girls sounds patronizing, I would suggest a new title; Arsonist’s Daughter, the name of Tripp’s eponymous debut.

3. Ant-Woman

Written by Robert Wood

It’s guaranteed to be far from the worthiest choice on the list, but in terms of the immediate good a gender-swap would do, I honestly think Ant-Man deserves a mention. The 2015 movie about Paul Rudd’s shrinking superhero was good enough in terms of a modern movie, but was a great, missed opportunity for Marvel’s first female-led film.

I should probably start my case by snuffing out the ever-present fanboy protest – I know and love as much about Marvel superheroes as the next three people combined, and there’s no reason there can’t be an Ant-Woman. Hank Pym has gone by many pseudonyms, ‘Ant-Man’ included, and has shared them with men, women, people of color, alien imposters, and robots. There are even female characters with the same abilities – Stature/Cassie Lang, who was in the movie (without her powers), and The Wasp/Janet van Dyne, who was in the movie (kind of, in flashback, in CGI). The latter is a founding member of the Avengers who has done everything Ant-Man has done “but backwards and in heels” (he also took her name when she was dead for a bit – precedent!)

That’s why Ant-Man could have a female lead, but why should it get one? First of all, because that choice would add something new and interesting to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Paul Rudd’s “charming fuck-up” portrayal of Scott Lang is fine, but doesn’t bring anything that Chris Pratt, Robert Downey Jr., and Tom Holland don’t have covered. Let a woman add something different to the role – in fact, let a Marvel woman be a fuck-up!

It was announced that Brie Larson will play Captain Marvel, and of course Scarlett Johansson is already a badass Black Widow. Hell, even Ant-Man hinted that Evangeline Lilly will at some point sprout wings as a tough-as-nails Wasp. At least one (probably two) of them will get their own movie soon and enter the Marvel ensemble cast, but there’s not a fuck-up in the bunch. By “fuck-up,” I don’t mean the klutzy-yet-professional woman from a crap rom-com; I mean someone who isn’t immediately good at this, who has made bad decisions they want to atone for, and who can at least deliver their quip allotment in a way that a) we don’t already have and b) includes far more of the audience in the vicarious feeling of agency and ability.

Currently, Marvel superheroes show men (and boys) that you can go from slob/jerk/weakling to hero – that perhaps that’s even how you get to being a hero. That’s a nice message, contextualizing moral behavior as a struggle rather than a quality you automatically possess. Women (and girls), on the other hand, get pre-made badasses who may, in an unguarded moment, reference the appalling tragedy that made them the way they are. Large-scale social change begins with mainstream pop culture and especially with children’s entertainment. If you want more women professionals in business, sports, and STEM in 2036, make more girls in 2016 feel like they could be superheroes.

Who should get the lead role? My first choice would be Fresh Off the Boat’s Constance Wu, a comedic actress who I think could easily pull off the “Oh, God, this now?” that makes Ant-Man fun. Rashida Jones would knock if out of the park as well.

4. The Pursuit of Happyness

Written by Hannah Shoesmith

Will Smith’s portrayal of Christopher Gardener, a Black single father who tackles poverty and homelessness to become a broker, is an honest depiction of the hard struggle it is to be successful. It is a refreshing side of Hollywood where true stories are not whitewashed, where the plight of the Black man trying to succeed in America isn’t devalued or glossed over.

But what if The Pursuit of Happyness had a female lead? What if it were the story of a Black single mother trying to make it as a broker? It is not a new concept that roles written for men have ended up being played on our screens by women. Think Angelina Jolie’s hard-edged character in Salt or Jodie Foster in Flight Plan. The success of this film is down to the honesty of the story. Unlike other biopics, very little was changed from the lived experience of Chris Gardener. Changing the lead from male to female however would expose a deeper, more brutal struggle.

The eventual success of Smith’s character was a hard graft, but what if that character had to also overcome sexism? The dangers a person faces while homeless are tough, but as a woman issues of rape and prostitution are an added danger. There are very little blockbusters that address the stories of Black women within the workplace, or in poverty. It can be perceived by movie big-wigs that there isn’t an audience for these types of films but a single mother’s struggle is probably one of the most relatable stories.

But who would be the perfect leading lady? Even amongst actors of color, there is still hegemony within Hollywood about who gets the roles. Just look at the controversy surrounding Zoe Saldana being cast as Nina Simone. Films such as these are the perfect opportunity to showcase the acting skills of some rising Black female stars. Orange Is The New Black’s Uzo Aduba would be an exceptional lead actress, and we already know she has the ability to captivate an audience and channel emotions.

5. Her(cules)

Written by Alyssa Skinner

Growing up watching Disney film after Disney film where the girl was a beautiful princess (whether from the beginning or not) was so …YAWN. She was always beautiful and soft and sweet and feminine and rescued by Prince Charming. Ugh.

And then there was Mulan. Now, that was my shiz.

Mulan allowed me to see that I did not have to beautiful; I did not have to wait for Prince Charming; I did not have to follow traditional rules; I did not have to be soft, feminine and sweet to be liked or to be successful. I could save the entire country, all on my fucking own. Nowadays, there are a few more strong female leads in Disney productions with recent films like Brave and Frozen, but back in the 1990s, Mulan was the only tale able to set this precedent for me. Perhaps this explains my intense love for the epic. While the current and future female-featured Disney stories (Moana <3) should absolutely continue, how about we remake an oldie but a goodie?

Her(cules): half god, half mortal, full female lead character. Voiced by the sweet and badass, Zendaya, Her(cules) is young and naive but fiercely strong and she doesn’t know her true potential, yet. As an outcast teenage girl, Her(cules) has all the struggles of trying to find her identity and her place in the world. When she finds out she is adopted and goes looking for answers, she learns that she is a descendant from the gods and must become a “true hero” to regain her godliness. To become this hero, she sets out to find a trainer. This prickly motivator and sidekick, Phil(omena), played by the hilarious Amy Schumer, will teach her and guide her.

Through her journeying, Her(cules) stumbles upon and ends up saving Mega from a Centaur. Mega, voiced by Jesse Williams, has the smart-aleck, sarcastic, hair-flipping appeal of a true bad boy. A romance is sparked. Hades, played by Chelsea Peretti, uses this love affair to manipulate Her(cules) out of her powers for 24 hours and in tandem, reveals that Mega actually works for her. In the end, Her(cules) saves her God parents, AND saves Mega’s soul from the undead river of souls by sacrificing herself for him. Her selfless sacrifice restores her godliness which she ultimately chooses to give up to stay with Mega as mortals and live happily ever after and all that jazz.

How often does the female lead character get to save the male love interest via a physical feat? BOOM. A female role model that every little girl can look up to and see that are not waiting for a boy or a crown and a glass slipper. They can dress up as with a Grecian cape and sword for Halloween and know that should they choose, they too can be a true god-like hero.

6. Harriet Potter

Written by Maeve Kelly

Now if there’s one thing that’s hitting the headlines recently, it’s Harry Potter and the ‘Alternative Universe’ Concepts. That is thanks entirely to The Cursed Child, the latest Harry Potter book/film/play/controversy, which presents (amongst other things) multiple alternate realities to the Harry Potter world. Some have pointed out that the play barely passes the Bechdel Test– leaving me (consummate Harry Potter obsessive) to wonder about the level of female interaction in all of these books-come-films.

The Harry Potter series has been applauded in the past for it’s depiction of strong female characters — key of which is, of course, Hermione Granger. Considered the “smartest witch of her age,” Hermione is one of the array of women characters (Ginny, Luna, Molly, Bellatrix, Tonks, Fleur, McGonagall) who prove themselves to have agency, complexities, and flaws throughout the series. J.K. Rowling herself has spoken about the importance of not “marginalizing” women characters, especially within action sequences. So why, then, did Rowling simply not go the whole hog and make Harry a girl?

Quora have previously discussed the concept of a female Harry Potter (suggesting the name ‘Holly Potter’ due to the number of floral names amongst the women in his family), focusing mainly on her relationships with the other characters. Would a romance blossom between her and Ron? Would she be rivals with or friends with Hermione, an equally powerful but arguably less important witch? What would the media pressure that Harry suffers throughout the series do to a young woman? From my perspective, it would be fascinating to see the golden trio re-written with two or even three woman characters at it’s center. This would be instead of Hermione attempting to act as a one-woman-inclusion-machine, representing women, muggleborns, and (more recently) Black people.

The concept of target audiences only buying into what is familiar to them is probably a key reason that Harry was not originally written as a girl. Rowling published under the initials J.K. instead of her first name, Joanne, amongst fears that young boys would not read a book written by a woman. Nevertheless, now that the Harry Potter brand has gained universal fame, it has already proved possible to retrospectively increase diversity in the series (gay Dumbledore and Black Hermione being key examples). Therefore, I think the time is ripe to see Harriet/Holly take to our screens, alongside her platonic best friends, Ron and Hermione. I’d love the next generation to see an angry, neglected, scarred young girl journey through grief, friendship, and loss to become the powerful symbol of the ultimate triumph of good which Harry was for my generation.

Casting young children would be difficult as they are spotted at a young age and grow with the filming, but we could start off by casting Quvenzhané Wallis as either Harriet or Hermione, and work from there.

See also at Bitch Flicks:

A Fragile Masculinity: Gender-Swapping Male Characters
Top 10 Supheroes Who are Better as Superheroines
Top 10 Superheroines Who Deserve Their Own Movies
Top 10 Superheroine Movies that Need a Reboot
Top 10 Villainesses Who Deserve Their Own Movies

Fanny Pack was created to raise awareness surrounding gender inequality and the simple fact that it still exists today. Fanny Pack consists of a team of writers that deliver valuable content to the wider discussion, whilst inspiring more people to read and write.

Kathryn Bigelow’s ‘Near Dark’: Busting Stereotypes and Drawing Blood

Both brutally violent and shockingly sexy, ‘Near Dark’s influence can be felt nearly thirty years later on a new crop of unusual vampire dramas that simultaneously embrace and reject the conventions of the genre. … Yet among all these films about outsiders, ‘Near Dark’ will always have a special place in my heart for being the one to show me that as a filmmaker, I was not alone in the world after all.

This guest post written by Lee Jutton appears as part of our theme week on Women Directors.

There were many reasons why I felt like an outsider while studying film and television production at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Some were related to class; I felt as though everyone around me had more money (and fewer student loans). Some were related to my lack of practical production experience; prior to film school, I had never operated a camera apart from a few silly movies starring action figures. Some reasons, I am willing to admit, were inside my own introverted, antisocial head. However, it was my taste in film that really made me feel as though I did not belong at a school with “arts” in its name. I like action movies packed with stylish fight sequences, zombie movies so gory that every frame is splattered with brains, and science-fiction movies crammed with special effects. As a writer and director, I aspired to be Peter Jackson, Edgar Wright, Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie and Robert Rodriguez all rolled into one frenetic package, which makes you feel a bit awkward when everyone around you worships at the art-house altars of David Lynch and Terrence Malick. It’s also a bit awkward when you realize that all of the directors you look up to are men.

When I was in my final year at NYU, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director. This was already a big deal, but it was all the more important to me because she had won it for directing The Hurt Locker, a tense, literally explosive drama about a troubled bomb diffuser in Iraq. Here was a woman making films that were dark, disturbing, visually compelling and packed with action — all things I aspired to include in my own work — and getting recognized for it by the Hollywood establishment. Delving deep into Bigelow’s wide-ranging oeuvre, which includes Soviet submarine thriller K-19: The Widowmaker and Keanu classic Point Break, inspired and reassured me while I was struggling to pinpoint my own identity, both as a filmmaker and a woman.

My favorite Kathryn Bigelow film, and the one I feel the most kinship with as a filmmaker, is her second feature, Near Dark. Released in 1987 at the height of a bloodsucker boom led by The Lost Boys, it manages to stand out from the pack thanks to its improbable but incredible combination of the vampire genre with that of the Western to create one weird, pulpy masterpiece. Before watching Near Dark, I primarily expected to encounter vampires in eerie, overcast Eastern European locales filled with fog and ancient history; to encounter them smashing across the broad, sunburnt plains of Texas in a battered motorhome was shocking and refreshing. Near Dark’s vampires are never referred to as such, nor do they have the chivalrous manners and old-fashioned elegance of many of their forefathers. Rather, they’re a marauding band of leather-coated drifters who wouldn’t be out of place in the world of Mad Max, coated liberally with blood, sweat and dirt. Both brutally violent and shockingly sexy, Near Dark’s influence can be felt nearly thirty years later on a new crop of unusual vampire dramas that simultaneously embrace and reject the conventions of the genre.

Near Dark opens with a close-up of a bloodsucking creature, but not the one that you expect — it’s a mosquito, hovering on the arm of farm boy Caleb Colton (an achingly young Adrian Pasdar) until he smacks it away. Driving into town to meet some friends, he spies an innocent-looking blonde pixie of a girl emerging from a shop while licking a vanilla ice cream cone. What follows is an all-American meet-cute laden with vampire innuendo that poor Caleb just cannot comprehend.

“Can I have a bite?” Caleb drawls, oozing earnest Southern charm.
“A bite?”
“Yeah. I’m just dying for a cone.”
“Dying?”

The girl, Mae (Jenny Wright), is not just any pretty girl. She’s a honey trap, luring unsuspecting victims into the clutches of her nomadic vampire family. Caleb behaves as though Mae is the prey, the object to be pursued and hopefully won; little does he know, it is entirely the other way around. When he tries to impress her with a lasso, she grabs hold of the rope herself and reels him in, shocking him with her strength. “I haven’t met any girls like you,” Caleb says, attempting to flatter her. “No,” Mae replies in a tense voice, “You sure haven’t.”

The instant, almost animal attraction between Caleb and Mae is obvious, and they share a long, romantic night driving around the Texas plains before Mae begins to panic that she won’t be home before sunrise. Caleb assumes she’s only afraid her daddy will punish her for being out all night, and coyly asks for a kiss before she goes. What he gets is far more than he bargained for — a passionate, hungry kiss, sure, but one that culminates in a nasty bite on the neck and the sight of his bright red blood dripping down Mae’s white chin as she hops down from his truck.

Soon it is morning, and Caleb finds himself staggering across the fields towards his father’s farm, weakened by the harsh rays of the rising sun, with telltale smoke sizzling up from his slowly roasting skin. Before he can make it to safety, he is scooped up by Mae and her gang in their motorhome. They’re ready to suck him dry — that is, until Mae mentions to the others that she did a bit more than just reveal her true nature to him. By biting him, he has become her responsibility –and potentially, her mate. Furious, the rest of the vampires reluctantly agree that Caleb can stay alive a little bit longer and be given the chance to learn to live like one of them. In other words, to live by the cover of darkness, luring (usually via hitchhiking) and killing innocent people without hesitation in order to survive.

“What do we do now?” Caleb, dumbfounded by his new immortal status, asks Mae.
“Anything we want, until the end of time,” she replies.

During Caleb and Mae’s first meeting, Caleb oozes confidence and plays at dominance, the way most boys do when trying to win over a girl. However, once he becomes a vampire, the reversal of stereotypical gender roles is striking. Caleb becomes entirely dependent on Mae. It is only her attraction to him that keeps the rest of her family from killing him on the spot, and it is only her willingness to kill for him and allow him to drink her own blood that keeps him alive in the days that follow. Caleb needs Mae, and because of this, their intimacy grows in new and bizarre ways. In one particularly passionate scene, Mae bites open her own wrist and clutches Caleb’s desperate, hungry head to her while he feeds, until he almost kills her in his fervor.

Despite his obvious need to consume blood, Caleb cannot bring himself to take a life, whereas the other vampires seem not only to kill to live, but also to live to kill. They’ve survived so long by any means necessary that they don’t hesitate to wipe out the entire clientele of a rundown roadside bar for both food and fun (a scene of creative carnage that rivals the equally deadly tavern scene in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds). The gang includes Jesse (Lance Henriksen), the charismatic leader who fought for the south in the Civil War; Jesse’s mate, Diamondback (Jenette Goldstein), whose big blonde hair and skintight ensembles can’t help but remind you of another iconic Eighties femme fatale, the android Pris in Blade Runner; Homer (Joshua Miller), who was turned as a boy and perpetually struggles with having an ancient brain trapped inside a child’s body; and the particularly vicious Severen (a delightfully unhinged Bill Paxton), who introduces himself to Caleb by informing him, “I’m gonna separate your head from your shoulders. Hope you don’t mind none.” They all speak in a bizarre, stylized version of Southern dialect that drips in menace and the occasional old-fashioned turn of phrase that comes from having lived long enough to take credit for starting the Great Chicago Fire. But Mae, the youngest of the vampires, is different. She kills to keep herself alive, but she seems to take a lot less sick joy in it than the others, and the more time she spends with Caleb, the more their heartless behavior seems to turn her off. By being with Caleb, she is reminded of what it was to be human — after all, she was one herself not so long ago.

Near Dark doesn’t have much in the way of plot; Caleb is dragged around Texas by the vampires, the timer on his existence counting down faster and faster, while his father and little sister search for him. The pulsating beat of the awesomely Eighties electronic score by Tangerine Dream adds to the urgency. It all culminates in an explosive finale with numerous characters meeting horrific ends via spontaneous combustion under the cloudless blue Texas sky — beautiful, and without mercy. There’s a happy ending that some might think a cop-out, as it goes against traditional vampire lore. Yet, rejecting traditional and expected vampire tropes is one of the things that makes Near Dark such a memorable film. Nothing about it is expected. It breaks all of the rules and makes up its own along the way. This Southern-fried story of young love, lust and lost innocence has as much in common with Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show than any Dracula movie.

Today, Near Dark’s legacy lives on in films like A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, from another promising woman director, Ana Lily Amirpour. In a film described as “the first Iranian vampire Western,” Amirpour brings vampires to another unfamiliar locale — this time, a dead-end Iranian town called Bad City. Here, a nameless bloodsucking girl (Sheila Vand) prowls the dark, empty streets in a chador, using her deceptively delicate and feminine appearance to lure and attack men who abuse women. Like Mae, she is much stronger than she initially appears. Independent film icon Jim Jarmusch also recently experimented in the vampire genre with Only Lovers Left Alive, which stars Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as an ancient, moody, bohemian couple holed up in rundown Detroit. While less of a direct descendant of Near Dark than A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, ones feels that this sexy, slow-moving story could not have been told without its more frantically passionate predecessor. Here, the horror aspects of the traditional vampire story take a backseat as the film explores how love can be powerful enough to survive enough dark moments to fill multiple lifetimes. The loneliness inherent in being immortal seems to be the one constant among all vampire films, even the most untraditional ones — and yes, even Twilight. Yet among all these films about outsiders, Near Dark will always have a special place in my heart for being the one to show me that as a filmmaker, I was not alone in the world after all.

Lee Jutton has directed short films starring a killer toaster, a killer Christmas tree, and a not-killer leopard. She previously reviewed new DVD and theatrical releases as a staff writer for Just Press Play. You can follow her on Medium for more film reviews and on Twitter for an excessive amount of opinions on German soccer.

Movie Soundtracks: The Roundup

Check out all of the posts for our Movie Soundtracks Theme Week here.

Take Away This Lonely Man: (500) Days of Summer And Musical Storytelling by Victoria Edel

We hear the song one more time in a moment that mimics the first, after Tom’s illusion is shattered. Instead of listing what he loves about Summer, Tom lists the things he hates about her, concluding with “It’s Like The Wind,” and yelling, “I hate this song!” The romantic illusions are finally cracked. This isn’t the movie he thought it was.

Creating the Mythology of Beatrix Kiddo Through Music by Rhianna Shaheen

Tarantino’s vast knowledge of music is clear from the very beginning with Reservoir Dogs. However, it isn’t until the Kill Bill series when his soundtracks begin to drift away from pop and instead embrace more orchestral sounds like that of Ennio Morricone. Viewers need no knowledge of the genre to instantly recognize that spaghetti western feel. It’s that famous mix of Spanish guitar, orchestra, whistles, cracking whips, trumpet, flute and sometimes chorus that recalls images of Clint Eastwood clad in a green poncho and cowboy hat as the iconic Man with No Name.

Running Away With The Runaways: Sex, Rock ‘n Roll, and the Female Experience by Angelina Rodriguez

The music throughout the film deals with the lost and rebellious feelings during coming of age for young women. The movie tells the story of these two individuals and how their lives were affected by fame, but underneath that is the coming of age experience for young girls realizing their power and sexuality within a culture that seeks to suppress them.

The Siren Song of Cartoon Catgirls by Robert V. Aldrich

As evocative as the scene of the Puma Sisters doing their thing might be, and as culturally-charged a time as the release of Dominion Tank Police might have been, much of the success of this scene is owed to the music. “Hey Boy,” by Riko Ejima, is a haunting song that, while seemingly chaste in that it seems to be singing about dancing, captures something deep, deep in the soul.

Love It or Hate It, Emotions Served Raw in the Music of Les Misérables by Katherine Murray

Ugly singing; ugly make-up. ‘Les Misérables’ is deservedly known as the film that tried too hard to bum us out, and Anne Hathaway is known as the actress who tries too hard to be liked. But, isn’t it nice, sometimes, when somebody makes an effort?

The Sounds of Change and Confusion in The Graduate by Caroline Madden

Mike Nichol’s The Graduate has one of the most popular soundtracks of all-time. The songs reveal the dynamics of a character, theme, and a moment without the use of dialogue or a backstory, but simply through the lyrics of a Simon and Garfunkel song.

Love Jones: The Soundtrack of the Neo-Soul Generation by Inda Lauryn

Love Jones does more than captures a moment in time in the late 90s. It creates the point when neo-soul established itself as the music of all of us with artistic inclinations, those of us leaving fantasies of teenage love affairs behind for a more realistic image of making a relationship work. And, yes, for some of us it brought about a sexual awakening that helped us accept that sex could exist outside a relationship if it’s truly wanted that way.

Whale Rider: Women and Children First by Ren Jender

Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance, one of the few successful women musicians who made the transition to film composer (she won a Golden Globe for her work on Gladiator), wrote and performed the music for 2002’s Whale Rider–and she didn’t have to date writer-director Niki Caro to do so. Gerrard might seem an unlikely choice: when I briefly worked in a women’s sex shop in the 90s, the store owner told me not to play Dead Can Dance on the sound system because they scared away customers. But Gerrard’s score for Rider does what the best movie music is supposed to do: reinforcing the drama of the film without calling unnecessary attention to itself.

What’s in a Soundtrack? The Sweet Sounds of Romeo + Juliet by Leigh Kolb

Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet is a tale told by the older generation. Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet is one told by “unfaded” youth. When Des’ree was singing “Kissing You” as Romeo and Juliet kiss (and oh, how they kiss), she is singing with deep longing and pain. When Glen Weston sings “What is a Youth?” he sings at Romeo and Juliet, about how youth–and female virginity–fades.

The Soundtrack for That Thing You Do! Withstands the Test of Time by Lisa Anderson

That Thing You Do! with its sly humor, strong performances and ultimately heartwarming romance makes for satisfying viewing. It’s a meditation on the tension between art and commerce that manages to acknowledge what can be good about temporary fame. It’s also a squeaky-clean antidote to sordid, drug-filled “Behind-the Music”-type stories both fictional and real.

Watch Me Shine: Legally Blonde and My Path to Girl Power by Kathryn Diaz

My attachment wasn’t about Elle Woods or embracing hallmarks of traditional femininity that get belittled by western mainstream society (that would come later). I was all about lyrics like, “That’s not the way/ Nice girls behave/ Oh yeah I know/ You told me/ It’s not your choice/ I have a voice/ I guess you just don’t hear me.” It spoke to me on a spiritual level.

Girls Just Wanna … Take Control of Their Own Lives by Shay Revolver

I’m a lot older now and I still squeal with excitement when Girls Just Want to Have Fun comes on. When it showed up on Netflix my daughter and I watched the movie over a dozen times. We would take “supreme silly” dance breaks whenever the music would play and when the Netflix purge occurred we found a DVD copy (OK we got two in case one got scratched or lost) of our very own on Amazon so that we could continue this tradition at will.

Death by Stereo: Innocence Lost in The Lost Boys by Bethany Ainsworth-Coles

The Lost Boys is a classic 1980s vampire flick directed by Joel Schumacher. It is as famous for its soundtrack as it is for its content. The entire film in fact is exemplified in its main theme–“Cry Little Sister,” by G Tom Mac–from the typical horror themed sections to its classic 80s rock moments down to its choral moments. These sections sum up the film almost perfectly.

Death by Stereo: Innocence Lost in ‘The Lost Boys’

‘The Lost Boys’ is a classic 1980s vampire flick directed by Joel Schumacher. It is as famous for its soundtrack as it is for its content. The entire film in fact is exemplified in its main theme–“Cry Little Sister,” by G Tom Mac–from the typical horror themed sections to its classic 80s rock moments down to its choral moments. These sections sum up the film almost perfectly.

This guest post by Bethany Ainsworth-Coles appears as part of our theme week on Movie Soundtracks.

Spoilers Ahead

The film itself seems pretty simple; Lucy (and her two sons Michael [Jason Patric] and Sam [Corey Haim] move to Santa Carla to live with Lucy’s dad in Santa Carla. However, Michael falls in with a bad crowd and is seduced into being a vampire by David (Keifer Sutherland), the pack’s leader. There is of course more to it than this (a pair of vampire hunters, a small child, and a generic love interest), but that’s the main gist.

“Cry Little Sister” links to this film perfectly, the way only the best movie themes do. I’m organizing this article in three subtitled sections, which employ quotes from “Cry Little Sister” in relation to parts in the film.

“Love Is With Your Brother”–Homoeroticism and Forgotten Women

In an article about The Lost Boys it would be a travesty to dare forget the amounts of male bonding and homoerotic tension. The vampires and their culture in particular is shown in this light with the androgynous (and gorgeous) David, the supposed leader of the gang as they steal and kill people to feed. He also seduces Michael into drinking the blood, thus beginning his transformation into a vampire. This is an interesting twist on the female seductress trope as seen in most vampire movies. This twist is best summed up Jeff Allard in his review: “Typically (especially today in our Twilight world), either Michael or David would’ve been written as a girl but in The Lost Boys you’ve got a male bringing another male into the fold.”

This is certainly true if we look at typical vampire stories–e.g. Edward turns Bella in Twilight, Dracula turns Lucy Westernra in Dracula, etc. The victim is often the woman and is seen as weak and inferior; by subverting this, Schumacher includes not only an equal playing field but also huge amounts of sexual tension. Especially as in most vampire novels, films etc. the transformation into vampire is often treated incredibly sexually. While this isn’t the first time a man has turned a man into vampire (Anne Rice’s Interview With a Vampire, which is also homoerotic) it is a very interesting occurrence that should not be avoided. David even takes him to his first feed on human blood.

The women throughout this are mainly forgotten and depicted in two major roles: the sister or the mother. All the boys share a bond shown throughout the film. Through the vampires themselves, who are the “sons” of Max (Edward Hermann), to the actual brothers of The Frogs (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) and of course are main brothers Sam and Michael. Most of the story revolves around Michael’s betrayal of Sam from trying to attack him when the first gets too great. Sam chooses to help him and save him from the Frogs’ vampire killing obsession. This is shown equally in the song “Cry Little Sister” with “love is with your brother,” which repeated several times throughout the song, reinforcing its importance in the piece.

“The Masquerade, Strangers Will Come”–Broken Families

Whilst brotherhood may be a strong point in the film, families themselves are not shown to be as sturdy. Lucy has had a messy divorce, which is the reason she and her boys have moved to Santa Carla. They themselves despite their non-functional new lives get along well and cracks only appear when Lucy dates Max and Michael becomes half vampire. However, this family is not the most interesting of the families. It’s not even the Frog family, who we only see very briefly as a whole unit.

It has to be Max and the boys. Max is the head vampire but has lost control of his boys and is longing to find them a mother, a role he thinks Lucy would be just perfect for. He does genuinely love his boys though, especially when as he walks into the house the final time he sees David’s body.

However, this twisted family image also encapsulates the portrayal of women. During this film, both Star and Lucy take on maternal roles. Lucy, of course, is already a mother, and Star looks after Laddy (the child half vampire). They are both shown to be manipulated by the vampires into becoming family members and helping the group.

“Thou Shall Not Fall”–Innocence Lost

“Cry Little Sister” features a large section of choral vocals repeating religious-type phrases sung by what sounds like children. These are used to great effect during the final scene, where David is impaled and killed by Michael. During this section, once he is impaled, his face slowly regresses back to a child and how he was before he was turned into a vampire thus showing him as an innocent young boy rather than a dead monster. David’s death accompanied by “Cry Little Sister’s” faded choral section singing “thou shall not die” gives the audience just a glimpse of who he was before Max transformed him, probably like Michael against his will. The audience is presented with the horrible truth that David and all the vampires were just missing children shunned by their leader. In death for both David and Marko (Alex Winter, who is the first to be killed and youngest of the boys) they are taken back to being lost children.

“Cry Little Sister” is the perfect song for a fantastic horror movie. Whilst the movie certainly isn’t flawless, it really is an excellent take on the vampire genre (plus who in their right mind doesn’t like teen vampire with cool hair, leather jackets and motorbikes who lives in an abandoned hotel?). They are living the twisted teenage dream and the soundtrack portrays that perfectly.

Recommended reading: Boomer Beefcake and Bonding’s analysis of subtext in The Lost Boys

Bethany Ainsworth-Coles is a young writer from England who enjoys overanalyzing things and watching films. She tweets over at https://twitter.com/wierdbuthatsok.