Jovanka, Jody and I are getting our serious nerd on at ComiCon in San Diego this weekend, and between the panels, parties and geek purchases, I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to interview Corey Feldman. Warner Bros. is putting out a sequel to the classic mullet-infused ’80s bloodsucker tale, so they gave us a time slot to chat with Feldman, who reprises his role as vampire hunter Edward Frog (the original film’s star, Corey Haim, also makes an appearance, but wasn’t doing interviews), and the movie’s director, Paul J Pesce.

As much as I wanted to talk about The ‘burbs, The Goonies and Stand By Me, I stayed on topic. Like every actor who’s not Jeff Goldblum, Feldman is short; but otherwise he looks exactly the same. So, here you go, a short interview from ComiCon about Lost Boys: The Tribe.

Why a Lost Boys sequel now?
PJP: Because Warner Bros. decided to finally write a cheque. They unleashed their wallet for the Lost Boys sequel.

And why were you the right man for the job?
PJP: I’m not from the horror world, really. Like with the first film, they wanted an actor’s director.

And what have the Frog Brothers been up to for the last 20 years?
CF: Well, they both got jobs at Wal Mart, they’ve been peddling children’s books – just kidding. If you really want to know, read the DC comic, Lost Boys: The Tribe, which fills in the story. Basically, they’ve been living under a rock near a van down by the river, picking up the pieces.

PJP: They’ve been biding their time, waiting for something to happen. This is a classic call-to-adventure story, dammit!

And what’s changed in the world of the vampires?
CF: Well, there’s always more vampires in the world.

PJP: They breed like rabbits.

CF: They’re like cockroaches, there are more of ‘em.

I’ve heard the film is a lot gorier than the first one.
PJP: It is gorier. The first one had, like, green blood…with glitter in it.

CF: No, no, the blood was red. It wasn’t a very gory film, though.

PJP: But it did have, like, glitter in it, I think. Anyhow, The Tribe is very gory, there’s blood everywhere, and even spines pulled out.

How have you updated the story.
PJP: The first Lost Boys is one of my favourite movies ever. I really wanted to match the tone of the original in terms of a balance of humour and horror with this update. Audiences are more jaded now, but I didn’t want to make this just a gore show. In my notes to myself I had two very specific things in mind. One: I wanted to make the vampires a real pack of wild hyenas, get this in the ballpark of the modern horror fan’s world. I’ve upped the level of brutality. Two: I wanted to strike a balance between everyday reality with movie reality. If someone said, “Your brother is a Vampire,” you’d laugh in their face, it’s absurd. In the first Lost Boys when Sam Emerson finds out his brother’s a Vampire, he says, “You’re a vampire Michael! My own brother, a goddamn, shit-sucking vampire. Wait ‘til mom finds out,” which is a totally normal reaction for a fifteen-year-old. So I wanted a sense of collision between the realities, and keep the truthfulness of the first movie.

Outside of Lost Boys, what’s your favourite vampire movie?
CF: The George Hamilton movie, what’s it called… uh… Love at First Bite.

PJP: Aw, that movie’s terrible.
CF: I know it’s a bad movie but it’s also hilarious. I like the mix of horror and humour, of taking comedy and throwing it into the vampire world. Instead of biting women, [George Hamilton] is just kind of making out with them. I like the idea of doing something “scary” but under the pretense of humour.

PJP: Both humour and horror come out of truthfulness. It’s not a vampire movie, but it’s similar – my pick would be Ginger Snaps. The first Lost Boys was really a metaphor for drug use, and this is really about young girls coming of age, told through lycanthropy. It’s a really fantastic movie.

So then, if you had to actually fight vampires in real life, which Corey would be best suited for the task?
PJP: I’m not just saying this because he’s in the room, but definitely this Corey. The gets up early in the morning, he’s ready to go and he works hard. Plus, I’ve seen him firsthand be a really protective father, and as the father of a three-year-old myself, that means something.

CF: Yup, hands down it’s me, just like Edward Frog.