One Last Slow Clap - Remembering Corey Haim (1971-2010)

I’m not one to romanticize the life and times of actor Corey Haim, but I’d be lying if I wrote that his screen work didn’t have an effect on me. His not-entirely-unexpected death today, at the young age of 38, certainly summons feelings of sadness, as we lost someone who was obviously troubled and torn for most of his life. We also lost a once engaging young actor who showed more pep and snappy comedic timing than most of his peers during his reign as a superbly coifed, smirking teen heartthrob.

To accurately summarize Haim’s career is to consider three movies that made a deep impression during my formative years. Perhaps not imperial additions to the golden shelf of classic cinema, but a trio of appealing features that highlighted Haim’s quirky, squeaky gifts.

Lucas (1986)

I’m hoping the inevitable disinterest in 1980’s cinema won’t wipe away what “Lucas” has to offer viewers. Certainly dated in sight and sound, this heartfelt teen soap opera took a Hughesian lead of sincerity and created living, breathing characters the audience could identify with, especially with the bespectacled titular character. Embodying the everygeek with ideal unshowered social awkwardness, Haim captured a specific twinge of heartfelt longing, portraying a bullied runt in love with a beautiful girl who doesn’t return the same feelings. “Lucas” is one of the few movies to absolutely nail the chest-caving impact of the “I like you as a friend” pretty girl sucker punch, due mostly to Haim’s endearing, relatable performance, which lends the film a bitter realism few others in the genre were able to achieve.

The Lost Boys (1987)

This was Haim’s biggest hit and the film that catapulted him to stratospheric levels of fame, instantly vaulting him to the top of every teenage girl’s dream date list. There’s enough press on “The Lost Boys” already, but while the vampires hissed, the cinematography sizzled, and that shirtless dude with the saxophone wailed into the night, Haim’s pipsqueak performance carried the tricky comedic elements of the film superbly, stealing the picture away from all the fanged commotion. Haim also wins the “Most Tolerant of Joel Schumacher” award for his ability to successfully convey the burgeoning heterosexuality of a teen vampire hunter who rocks a sensual Rob Lowe poster in his bedroom. Now there’s talent. 

License to Drive (1988)

Here Haim reached a plateau of comfort as a teen idol, playing into the braces-and-crimped-hair hysteria with “License to Drive,” a film that juggled his amusing jittery qualities with his compulsion to playfully smirk. It’s a throwaway teen diversion with a genuinely tasteless sequence involving a drunk driver, but as a document of Haim’s bubbling confidence and thespian skill right before his swan dive into drugs and ego, it can’t be beat. It’s a sillyhearted picture that spotlights Haim’s physical comedy prowess, his ease at capturing itchy virginal anxiety, and his generous chemistry with partner-in-crime Corey Feldman. This would be Haim’s final bit of sparkle before a rough bout of puberty and chemical darkness sent his career into a tailspin.

Haim also shined in “Firstborn” (criminally, still not available on DVD) and the werewolf picture “Silver Bullet.” “Dream a Little Dream” is an oddly beloved movie I personally can’t stomach (unless we’re talkin’ Meredith Salenger), but I respect its place in the Haim museum.

The 1990s and recent dreck like the absurdly scripted reality show “The Two Coreys” were not kind to the legacy of Corey Haim. While it’s easy to fixate on the bleak spaces of his life, I prefer to reflect on his early spunk and lopsided charms, where a gawky, lispy, slack-jawed Canadian kid ruled Hollywood for a brief period of time. 

Comments

[Edward Havens]

The Lost Boys was filmed in my second home town of Santa Cruz, and many of my friends appear as extras throughout the film. That comic book store was a real store, Atlantis Fantasyworld, where my friends and I spent many a hour during our high school years. The store was destroyed during the 1989 earthquake, but still survives in another part of town to this day.

As for Haim, it's always sad to see someone who had some talent waste it all away on drugs and other things that are but a temporary salve for a much bigger problem. It would have been interesting to see what he would have become if he stayed with films like Firstborn and Lucas instead of License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream.