Silver Bullet review.
It’s time for another Full Moon Feature. This month we’ll tackle Stephen King’s Silver Bullet. A surprisingly saccharine werewolf movie that, at times, may be too good natured for its own good.
Classic reviews will contain spoilers.
Silver Bullet
Directed by Don Attias
Written by Stephen King
Starring Corey Haim, Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Megan Follows and Terry O’Quinn
Silver Bullet Review
The concept of a Stephen King werewolf story is enough to get any horror fan’s foot in the door. Based on his 1983 novel Cycle of the Werewolf, Silver Bullet hit screens in time for Halloween in 1985. King himself penned the screenplay. Many of King’s best traits are on display. Young, likable leads. A small town in peril. Drunks everywhere. For whatever reason, however, Silver Bullet struggles to strike a consistent chord. Actually…it’s for a few reasons.
Right off the bat the movie makes an odd choice. It positions our main character Marty’s (Corey Haim) sister Jane (Megan Follows) as the narrator of the story. The movie itself mostly takes place from Marty’s point of view…so this is a dizzying decision. Perhaps it’s done to avoid losing the stakes of Marty being in danger. If he’s commenting from the future…we always know that he’s safe. Jane is in danger plenty herself…so that theory is flawed.
Moreover, Silver Bullet doesn’t need a narrator. There’s nothing gained from the brief interludes of introspection. Nothing that can’t be seen on screen already anyway. The story of a troubled relationship between siblings and the horrible full moon activity that repaired it doesn’t benefit much, if at all, from it being explained a few times in narration. Long stretches occur where there is no narration. Much of the movie happens without Jane’s character present. It’s more distracting than anything.
What Silver Bullet does have a lot of is fantastic performances. Haim and Follows are extremely likable. Gary Busey turns in one of his most engaging performances as their troubled uncle who eventually comes to believe their tale of a werewolf loose in town. That werewolf is played by an also terrific Everett McGill. Terry O’Quinn has a memorable role as the town sheriff to boot.
Haim’s Marty is a wheelchair bound kid who is the first to discover that a werewolf is loose in town. Haim couldn’t be better in the role. He’s so genuine and easy to root for. Busey is perfectly cast as the uncle who loves him but has a hard time believing his stories. For as troubled as Busey’s character is said to be…his biggest conflicts are with his sister over how to best look out for Marty. It’s odd that they make his character trait “troubled” when what we see is a loving uncle who has a lot of love for, and faith in, Marty.
McGill’s cursed preacher may be the most interesting piece of the cast. As a Reverend hiding a monstrous secret he has to play things coy until the movie reveals his identity. Once it does…he becomes an effortlessly menacing presence. Most of the story takes place with the werewolf in his human form…something that could be disappointing if McGill wasn’t so captivating in the role. He’s honestly more interesting hunting down Marty in human form.
That’s true, at least in part, because the gore and wolf effects in Silver Bullet are a bit cheesy. Aside from a mass transformation scene in a dream sequence…there isn’t a lot that works. A decapitated head flies across the screen early in the proceedings…and it’s more comical than anything. There is a fantastic reverse transformation after the Reverend’s wolf form is killed. It’s the only movie I can remember where the transformation back to human form was better than the more traditional one. That fake group transformation scene as the damned Reverend watches his congregation turn is pretty fantastic though.
The first half of Silver Bullet spends a lot of time with the people in town. Strangely the movie just kind of abandons them after a certain point. It does become a more personal story…but it’s odd to spend as much time as we do with characters who we just stop caring about completely. It’s the strike against Silver Bullet in a nutshell. There’s a strange lack of focus.
From odd narration perspective to strange character traits to dropping the entire town from the story…Silver Bullet is kind of a mess. It doesn’t pick a direction for a long time…and when it finally sticks to one it races to its conclusion. That’s not to say this is a bad movie…it’s a very easy and mostly enjoyable watch. It’s just obvious that it could have been so much more with some tighter ideas.
There isn’t as much werewolf fun as you’d like in a werewolf movie…but the human aspect of the wolf is interesting enough to mostly make up for it. McGill might feel like he’s in a different, darker movie than the rest of the main cast…but that’s the aspect of Silver Bullet that works best. If the rest of the movie could match his tone while Marty and Jane maintained their demeanor…this would be a classic. Even with subpar effects and a lack of wolf action.
Scare Value
A lot of Silver Bullet is fun. Some of it feels at odds with the werewolf subject matter, however. You’re not going to have a bad time watching it…but you might wish it had taken a different tone. The actors are giving you incredibly likable performances. It would be more interesting juxtaposed by a darker backdrop. Stephen King wrote the screenplay for this one…which is interesting because he leans hard into a light atmosphere as opposed to the good people caught in hell feeling of his work at the time.
3/5
Silver Bullet Links
Streaming on HBO Max
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu
Rent/Buy on VOD from Amazon
Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon
Silver Bullet Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of Silver Bullet, check out another Full Moon Feature: Viking Wolf or The Beast Must Die
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