Matthew Reine
Corey Feldman has always been an interesting character to me. He was one of the biggest child and teen actors of the 1980s and one half of one of the most prolific celebrity duos in Hollywood history alongside Corey Haim. Feldman was at the forefront of a lot of your favorite 80s films but like a lot of young stars who hit fame really early in their lives, he eventually fell on hard times. While he currently isn’t nearly the star he was back then, he created some of the more memorable moments on the big screen in young cinema.
I was already well into my teens when I first heard the name Corey Feldman. Of course, I had seen a few of his films throughout my adolescence but I never put a name to the face. The first film that I watched associating with the name Corey Feldman was 1987’s The Lost Boys. My older brother was a huge fan of the flick and owned a VHS copy. He had hyped the film to me beforehand as a dark, chilling vampire tale. When I finally saw it, I was surprised to learn that it’s actually a really fun horror-comedy with a decent cast in Feldman, Haim, Kiefer Sutherland, Dianne Wiest, and Alex Winter. To this day, it’s still one of my favorite vampire films and probably my favorite of Feldman’s roles.
When I saw that Feldman had penned a memoir, I was reluctant to read it at first since I originally thought it would consist of him complaining 90% of the time about his fall from grace and telling tall tales that no one would believe. After reading a review of it though, I decided to check it out and was pleasantly surprised. Readers get a closer look at some of his film roles, his relationship to Corey Haim, the life of being a child actor, and being a close peer to the likes of Steven Spielberg and Michael Jackson. I have to admit, Coreyography, is actually a pretty good book.
Now let’s take an in-depth look at some of the more famous films that Feldman had the pleasure of taking part in in:
After starring in a few short-lived television series’ in the 1980’s, Feldman’s first major film role was portraying Tommy Jarvis, young prey for Jason Voorhees, in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, the fourth film in the series, in 1984.
Young Feldman was only 13-years-old at the time of filming this slasher and was a lot younger than the rest of the principal cast. Feldman had the privilege and responsibility of being the one who finally puts Jason down for good (or until Friday the 13th: Jason Lives two years later) at this feature’s conclusion. He would subsequently appear in the next film in the franchise, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, but only in the opening scene due to scheduling conflicts. It wasn’t long before Feldman would be identified as the new hit youngster in Hollywood.
The year 1984 was shaping to be the year of Feldman’s breakout. His next film was released the same year that Friday the 13th dropped.
Feldman befriended Steven Spielberg, Hollywood’s premiere movie director, in the early 80s. What you may not know is that Feldman actually filmed a role for Spielberg’s 1982 movie, E.T., but his part was ultimately removed from the final cut. Spielberg liked Feldman enough though to give him a role in his next film that he was producing. Eventually, Feldman got his big break with the role of Pete Fountaine in Gremlins, a horror comedy about a band of furry misfits who wreak havoc on a suburban town. Its dark humor and surprisingly violent nature caused a bit of controversy at the time since it was marketed as a kids film but it only added to its popularity.
The very next year, 1985, Feldman rode the momentum from Gremlins, scoring another major role in the kids’ adventure classic, The Goonies.
Feldman plays Mouth, the young wiseass who, along with his friends, race to hidden treasure and flee the clutches of a fugitive family on the outskirts of Oregon. All the characters were great and kids identified with them. They were also really drawn to the epic journey the characters took unsupervised along with the suspense of them narrowly escaping traps throughout the cave and getting the upper hand on the villains. A really fun, feel good flick both children and adults enjoyed and continue to praise to this day.
Along with Gremlins, Goonies became a staple of essential 80s cinema.
With the big time success of Gremlins and Goonies, Feldman wanted to really show off his acting chops with a little independent feature.
Stand by Me is the most dramatic film of Feldman’s 80s career and one of the most emotionally driven movies he’s ever filmed.
Seeking adventure in their lives, four troubled boys embark on a journey to find the dead body of a local kid in their small town. While on their trip, they run into various pitfalls but ultimately form a lifelong bond and a sense of fulfillment. There’s solid acting from Feldman and the late River Phoenix and a heart-stopping scene where the kids escape being mowed down by an oncoming train while walking along the tracks. I remember watching this film when I was really young and my naive self wondered why all these kids were cursing and threatening people with guns. I distinctly remember the pie-eating scene which bought a smile on my face growing up. It would be years until I saw the film again in full, where I appreciated it more and even almost brought tears to my eyes.
This also was only the third film directed by Rob Reiner who at the time was primarily known for the rock mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap. He would go on to direct such talked about films as Misery, A Few Good Men, and Ghosts of Mississippi.
Here we are back at The Lost Boys. Joel Schumacher directed this flick about a family who moves to California where the locals aren’t who they appear to be. The oldest child, Michael (played by Jason Patric) befriends a gang of vampires headed by Kiefer Sutherland then afterwards, develops their traits. This raises the suspicions of his younger brother, played by Corey Haim, and Feldman’s character of Sam Frog, one half of a resident vampire hunting duo.
It was a huge success at the box office grossing over $32 million, 4x its budget, solidifying both Feldman and Schumacher’s careers. This film also marked the on-screen debut of the Coreys and inked a close friendship between the two that would last until Haim’s untimely death in 2010. Feldman would reprise his role as Sam Frog in two sequels which would be released more than 20 years after the original. Both are pretty awful and shamelessly try to cash in its name value.
Feldman explains in his book the interesting career parallels him and Haim took as both auditioned for a lot of the same roles. Feldman tried out for the lead in Lucas while Haim tried to capture the role of Mouth in Goonies. Feldman initially was a bit jealous of Haim but when the two got to know each other, they realized they were inseparable. The fact that they shared the same name, were the same age, and had devilish good looks, it was easy for teens to take a liking to them. It wouldn’t be long before the rest of Hollywood caught on as well.
The two would go on to star in Dream a Little Dream and the teen classic, License to Drive.
Corey’s fame was able to translate into the early 90s procuring another hit role voicing Donatello in the 1990 live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. Though he was absent for the sequel, he would assume the bow-weilding reptile again in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.
After the early 1990s, Feldman’s career started to go south with several flops and well documented substance abuse problems. He would never achieve the level of fame he had years prior again.
In 2006, A&E aired a reality show titled The Two Coreys looking at the lives of both Feldman and Haim as adults.
It ran for two seasons before it was cancelled. I never watched this myself and I don’t normally enjoy watching reality television but I would have enjoyed the hell out of this one!
Are you awaiting a Corey Feldman comeback? Of course you are. I’m telling you, check out Coreyography and you’ll find yourself longing for a resurgence of Corey mania as well.
