Jon Solo Sebastian 10/22/2025:

“One Thing About Living In Santa Carla I Never Could Stomach…All The Damn Vampires.”

If you’ve never seen The Lost Boys, I highly recommend watching it. It’s one of the many classic films to come out of the 80’s, and it’s truly a gem that holds up well to this day. This is one of my favorite movies, and it played a huge role in my love for vampires and horror, so it only makes sense for me to talk about one of the most popular vampires in pop culture—David Powers. David is played by the remarkable actor Kiefer Sutherland who dominates every scene his character is in. I believe this was the intention of the director, but yes, every scene David is in, you feel his vampiric presence, and you know he commands the scene. I believe the credit to that mostly goes to the actor because he truly embraced the role after initially not feeling good about playing the character.

Who is David?

When you first watch the film, you’d assume he is the main antagonist, but that isn’t the case. He has someone he answers to, but he is the leader of his motorcycle gang of vampires, and is the main focus/problem for the protagonists to overcome and defeat. David didn’t need to be flashy or loud. He was effortlessly cool and ice cold, and had his gang wrapped around his finger. He is calm and straightforward, though he did enjoy messing with the film’s co-protagonist, Michael. He takes on a role that is similar to other vampire stories in that he uses seduction and peer pressure to initiate Michael into the gang—and to become a vampire. He never forces Michael to do anything. He manipulates him by challenging him, which started with a motorcycle race that almost ended with Michael riding off a cliff. The story between David and Michael is almost like two alphas seeing who the bigger alpha is. No doubt about it, it’s David. He has Michael eating out of his hand.

Not much is known about his back story other than he might have been around before the Hudson Hotel caved in due to an earthquake in 1906. According to lostboys.fandom.com, there was an early draft in the script that depicts a mural of Max, the Master Vampire in the film, as the original owner of the hotel. So this could track when you consider the gang of vampires lair is a cave called Hudson’s Bluff, and that the gang of vampires could be the lost boys of the collapsed hotel. I’m just speculating based of this speculation, but it sounds like it could tie up some loose ends; if you consider them loose ends.

Sometimes, I wonder if David would be such an iconic character if he had been played by someone else. This isn’t a knock on other actors, or even the writing, but imagine for a moment, Tom Cruise playing the role, or Keanu Reeves; I don’t feel like David would be as iconic and inspirational as he is. Kiefer Sutherland and his portrayal of David made vampires cool.

“Now you know what we are, now you know what you are. You’ll never grow old, Michael, and you’ll never die. But you must feed!”

Fun Facts

David’s black clothing, black coat, punk rock persona, and bleached hair inspired the creation of Spike in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series.

He was supposed to return in a sequel. This would explain why his body remained intact after Michael impaled him with the deer antler. They left the door open for him to return in a sequel where he would be the main antagonist, but that never happened.

The characters are all likeable, and relatable in some ways. And I can’t not mention The Frog Brothers—they work at the comic book shop, and immediately confront Corey Haim’s character to warn him about the vampires. They fight for truth, justice, and the American way, and they help Sam and Michael defeat David and the rest of the vampires.