Yet in some inexplicable way no one can still fathom, Warner Bros. made the worst of them all.

THE INVASION had the Biggest Budget, Biggest Stars, and was the Biggest Flop of all the Finney inspired movies.

But why?

WB wasn't making a sequel story on their own where they had to invent a "next chapter" that never existed. Moreover, the subgenre of aliens appearing human was popular enough that Science Fiction Horror movies from the original VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED to THE THING strode as giants into the respect of true cinema classics.

The problems with THE INVASION are obvious and, as always, it's a mystery how the studio suit "Experts" - who have the most to lose - always miss what the audience immediately understands.

Read our review of THE INVASION.

This wasn't meant to be canon, it was meant to be a satirical offshoot a la YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN or GALAXY QUEST.

They had a story pitch, now they needed a solid screenwriter, which they found in the esteemed talent of ALIEN co-writer, Dan O'Bannon (DARK STAR, DEAD & BURIED, HEAVY METAL, LIFEFORCE, INVADERS FROM MARS, TOTAL RECALL, SCREAMERS, HEMOGLOBIN).

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD just seemed to fit with the kind of unpredictable energy that O'Bannon exuded at that period.

The late 1970s and most of the 1980s were, in themselves, such a burst of unpredictable energy in the Horror cinema that the decade arguably spawned more horror franchises than any other decade since the end of World War II.

Why? Who knows? We're not here to talk about that. We're here to rave about THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD.

How can that be? What kind of incredibly talented magic was going on in the late 1970s and the 1980s?

You know, one of the saddest sights I see is when some middle-aged guy or gal wears a T-shirt that reads, in effect, "Livin' in the 50s" or "Livin' in the 80s".

How sad is that? To be living in the past, your forever lost youth?

Yet it has to be said: from Quentin Tarantino soundtracks to James Gunn soundtracks and so much more, we are watching movies with show stopping tunes played by folks in their 60s IF they are even still alive!

For better or worse, ALIEN, TERMINATOR, even TREMOR sequels are still coming out.

Freddy Kruger, Michael, and Jason Voorhees are still prominent and dominant among Horror fans.

So here we have the latest cutting edge cartoon show, RICK and MORTY, and episode after episode repeatedly references the time Rick Cronenberg'd his home planet.

What does it mean to have your planet Cronenberg'd? Read our review of David Cronenberg's THE FLY from 1986!

That movie was THE LOST BOYS.

It grew to such popularity that 21 years later, Warner Bros. released a crappy knock-off sequels that went direct to video. They licked their wounds as if they'd learned their lesson, and made a worse second sequel before giving up.

As for the original? Well if you still have only heard about it and never watched it, watch it tonight and see what the fuss is all about. Yes, it even surpasses BLADE, and that's no small feat!

Written by Jan Fischer, James Jeremias (the only produced feature they ever wrote), and Jeffrey Boam (THE DEAD ZONE, INNERSPACE, INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE, THE PHANTOM), Produced by Harvey Bernhard (THE OMEN, DAMIEN: OMEN II, THE FINAL CONFLICT, THE BEAST WITHIN, LADYHAWKE, THE GOONIES, OMEN IV: THE AWAKENING), and Directed by Joel Schumacher (FLATLINERS, FALLING DOWN, BATMAN FOREVER, 8MM, PHONE BOOTH, THE NUMBER 23, BLOOD CREEK), would eventually become the height of these people's contribution to cinema.

Read my review, THE LOST BOYS