Once upon a time, I was a huge Stephen King fan. Now? Not so much, but I couldn’t get enough of his work when I was in my teens and early twenties. I think it might have something to do with the energy (possibly helped along by the author’s substance abuse problems) I found in King’s early work. I know I noticed it when I somewhat recently reread IT, a feeling and pace I hadn’t seen in many of King’s more recent works. As it is, I didn’t read all of his books back then. I more or less missed the Dark Tower books, and somehow, despite a personal preference for werewolves as horror movie icons, I’d never read his novella where he actually used one, namely Cycle of the Werewolf.
But like many of King’s works, that last book was adapted into a movie, retitled Silver Bullet and with a script by King himself. Was it any good?
Overall, I don’t know that I would call Silver Bullet a particularly good or bad flick. There are parts of it that work very well, but the net result is a rather average movie. Young Corey Haim stars as Marty Coslaw, a wheelchair-bound boy living in a small town. There’s been a rash of mysterious and violent deaths around town most nights, and the sheriff (the always-welcome Terry O’Quinn) has issued a curfew but can’t find any clues of any kind. Marty suspects a monster of some kind is involved, concluding without any real proof that it’s a werewolf. When Marty’s best friend dies and the hunting party of local citizens that go searching the woods doesn’t have everyone come back alive, that certainly looks more and more likely.
Oh, and the werewolf does appear on screen before Marty comes to that conclusion, so that helps.
Regardless, Marty’s only allies are an older sister Jane (Megan Follows) who can do some investigating around town after Marty injures the beast with a firework, and his alcoholic Uncle Red (Gary Busey) who may or may not believe Marty depending on the scene, but he’ll at least humor the boy as much as possible. That’s just as well since not only is Marty right, but Jane found out who the werewolf is, and Marty did send the guy some letters threatening to expose him. That…will not end well.
So, like I said, this was neither particularly good or bad. The werewolf itself perhaps best explains that. There are shots where it looks pretty good. Yes, this is 1983, but this is after both An American Werewolf in London and The Howling came out, and those two are probably the gold standard for practical effects werewolves. When the werewolf is seen only in fleeting moments, or some of the close-ups on its prosthetic snout, it looks effective. In other shots, it looks like a guy in a bear suit jumping around. That said, a scene showing the werewolf returning to human form looked fantastic.
That, more than anything, explains how Silver Bullet turned out. There’s some good moments, like Gary Busey basically being Gary Busey at a time before he was known that much as that guy, an over-the-top line reading from Everett McGill, and steady performances from reliable characters actors like O’Quinn and Lawrence Tierney. It likewise has all the standard King hallmarks of horror in a small town. But at the same time, there didn’t seem to be too much special about the movie either. It never felt like a waste of time, but I don’t see anything here necessitating a revisit any time soon.
Grade: C+
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