#1 & #2 Stand By Me and The Lost Boys

HERE WE GO!!!!! Let's start this off right with a Corey and Kiefer Double Feature!

#1 Stand by Me: This is the story of four friends finding adventure and danger in their own back yard. They bond, they fight, the fend off dogs and leaches and Kiefer Sutherland and his gang of 'dime store hoods'. It's all in the attempt to find the body of a missing kid. It's also a film that has inspired countless other coming of age stories in the last 30 years. Almost every movie about kids that has been made since Stand by Me owes the flick something. It has countless awesome moments (that I won't spoil here) and fabulous performances from all involved (River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell in the lead; Kiefer and John Cusack playing polar opposites; narrator Richard Dreyfuss slinging the yarn; and that guy with the mutant in his belly from Total Recall as mean ol' dad). The film's simple story coupled with the complications of childhood and growing up make it the memorable tale that it is.

Now, I know what you're saying: "Hey SB, this isn't a horror movie! Even by the loosest of standards! How are you starting off your marathon with this?!"

I understand. My argument goes thusly: 1. It's Stephen King, which makes it eligible in my book, especially because I'm coupling this year's marathon with my King Blog. 2. It's still August, and the middle of summer, which means that I'm not quite ready for movies about a dark and stormy nights. The setting of 'that one all or nothing summer' is really nice to watch in August. 3. It's my blog, I'll watch what I want! : ) 4. We coupled it with...

#2 The Lost Boys: After watching Stand by Me, we had to get down to the real horror movie that featured Kiefer and Feldman. Strangely, these two actors were in two films together within a couple of years of each other and they have, like, zero screen time together. Anyway, if you haven't seen Lost Boys, please do. It is one of the essential horror films of the 80s (possibly even THE horror film of the 80s, which was a big decade for horror), and a rare case of Joel Shoemaker directing a good movie. SAX PLAYER FOREVER.