The (blood) Ties That Bind?

After yesterday’s post about death by horns, I may have become a teeny bit hyper focused on the whole thing (I’m blaming the meds I’m currently taking, although my brain can do that on its own just fine) and sort of ended up in a weird spiral-tangent-plot-hole.

Firstly!

There are at least two, possibly three, sets of horns used in the film.

Initially, when Michael is holding David back and there’s yammering about “blood in veins”, yadda yadda, there is a shot of a pair of horns on Grandpa’s work bench.

Those are not the horns David is impaled on.

Firstly, they are more flat then ridged with prominent growth rings. They are much wider and bow out at a different angle. The shot isn’t the best — between the red lights and the angle — but I would hazard they are not oryx horns. They’re kind of like kudu but very short? All I can say for certain is those aren’t the horns that killed David.

Then you get the second pair, which are indeed based on oryx, specifically the East African or gemsbok kind (I know this because there is a pair of these specific horns hanging on my living room wall.) They are the ones you see “impale” the fake body standing in for David.

After looking at the screen caps, not only is it BLATANTLY OBVIOUS that the left horn pierced his heart (LOOK AT IT) but there is always a weird gap between the points of impalement. Does not fit with the horns shown pre-impalment.

Then we come to what I suspect to be the third pair, the pair Sutherland is gripping while his character meets his end. Again, gemsbok, probably the same mold used for the ones on the dummy, but somehow flexible? And some how the points or tips, the very tops of these horns, are too close together in the wide shot of David’s corpse. Like… huh?

There should be much more space between those points. The setting shot shows the not-oryx horns at a different angle, but even then, they’re still attached to the skull cap of the antelope. He was rammed onto them, which would cause a shift in their direction, David falling back onto the work bench, but still they would not “close up” or fall together in such a fashion.

But here’s where we get into the MASSIVE PLOT HOLE  I fell into while documenting my findings.

AKA: Secondly!

David makes a very pointed statement that HIS blood is in Michael’s veins.

This has always struck me, since Max is the one that wanted Michael to join the Lost Boys, for purposes of “getting” Lucy. Yet, David asks for “his wine”, says “my blood”. So this got me thinking.

And then there’s the point where the Boys start dying. First Marko perishes, sending the other three into a frenzy, David chasing Sam and the Frogs into the tunnel. Granted, it is day light hours, but there’s nothing from Max. Sure, it would be weird, since he was ruled out as a vampire just hours before, but still.

Then Paul is melted in a bath tub and Dwayne is “death by stereo”‘d. (That’s an actual technical term I just totally made up.) Still, zip. Where’s Max? Having dinner with Lucy. Okay he’s distracted by his prey but when the Boys fly over the house and Thorn barks at the noise, nothing. Is this just controlled deception?

OR IS IT THE FACT THAT THE BOYS ARE NOT OF HIS BLOOD?

Max always speaks of “can’t control my Boys” or “boys need a mother” or what have you. He even says “David and my Boys misbehaved.” near the end of the film. So there is SOME KIND OF TIE there.

But there’s also this weird… can’t quite put my finger on it… not exactly-a-bond involved. We don’t know who turned David; we assume it was Max. Many have theorized that they were already vampires who turned up in Santa Carla but I never bought that. I just don’t.

We know Max was “the secret that David was protecting”, thanks to Star. We know Max ordered David to bring Michael into the Boys. But then there’s something else…

Star tells Michael that “it was what David wanted”, for her to make Michael her first kill and become a full vampire. We know she’s half; blood was drunk, and very likely it was David’s. But Max wanted Michael to be a vampire to entrap Lucy. NOT Star.

So here we have what’s a classic power play (HA HA HA) and a possible double cross!

It has always struck me that when Lucy and Max arrive at Grandpa’s, while Sam and the Frogs are trying to explain slash distract Lucy from the carnage and dead bodies in the house, Max willfully strides into the work room and has to look at David to identify him.

DUDE. DID YOU FORGET WHAT THE FUCK HE LOOKS LIKE? HOW?

I dunno, did he not recognize it was David because he suddenly looked so young after his supernatural tether snapped? I never understood that. I mean, in all honesty, David’s the only remaining…corpse?… left of the Boys. We don’t know what happened to Marko’s body, Paul became a corrosive soup, and Dwayne is in exploded pieces. (Again, this probably ties into those “David Lives!” fans, because his body was not desiccated or destroyed. Please, spare me. He’s a corpse.)

Okay, I get that it’s a PLOT TWIST, because Max has clearly been deceptive and able to fake out the humans under the “you gave me permission” rule, but still, after repeat viewings and knowing this, IT STILL BUGS ME THAT MAX SEEMINGLY DIDN’T KNOW WHO DAVID WAS.

And still, his alleged Boys are dropping like flies and no reaction! I know Max was supposed to be ridiculously old for a vampire, which would mean control over stuff and reactions and whatnot, but I don’t know how he wouldn’t be alarmed when his Boys are dying. They were his action plan into getting Lucy! And that plan is FAILING ALL OVER THE PLACE!

As a friend said, she thinks maybe he was just happy to be rid of the Boys.

(Or, snort, never send a Boy to do a woman’s job? I swear, things would have ended very differently, had I been in charge.)

This is theoretical. They were “wild kids” and clearly he was unable to control them. I think that’s partly how there were three Boys and David was leader. David wanted pals and just started turning dudes and was going to stage a coup down the road and take out Max. Maybe. Probably. Okay, it’s what I may have done.

But now you’re gonna say, “But Michael and Star explicitly noted that neither ‘felt different’ after David’s death!”

Okay, well, that may lend credence to my theory that Max begat David, and David technically begat Michael and Star. There is still a blood tie and clearly one strong enough to overrule David’s death as being the “end” of the humans’ nightmare.

I still don’t think Max begat Marko, Dwayne, or Paul into vampiredom. (I will stop using the word begat now.)

In conclusion, which I’m not sure really is a conclusion but more of an end point, this all just may be a giant plot hole with no answer. The movie novelization is no help what so ever, so I won’t even go get it to check. I guess I just wanted to postulate a theory to David’s motives and blood ties. That’s all.