Movie review: ‘Silver Bullet’

FloridaGator80

Well, I’m doing a review of a horror movie just after Halloween season, which, I guess, is somewhat appropriate. I’m reviewing “Silver Bullet,” a werewolf-themed flick from a Stephen King story (big surprise from that author, right?). I’ve only done one review of a movie about a werewolf – and he was in London – and now here’s “Silver Bullet” from 1985 with Gary Busey, Corey Haim and Megan Follows duking it out with a lycanthrope that’s doing a variety of unpleasantness on an assortment of folks in a small town. Enjoy your horror!

‘Silver Bullet’
(1985; 95 minutes; rated R; directed by Daniel Attias and starring Gary Busey, Corey Haim, Megan Follows and Everett McGill)

HE NEEDED A SILVER BULLET AND A SILVER BULLET

“Silver Bullet” is a tale about a werewolf’s activity in a small, rural town and is a surprisingly good horror flick despite the TV-like production and kind of gamy special effects – from an opening scene of decapitation to blood, gore and violence. From best-selling novelist Stephen King, the story is mostly well-told and the screenplay was written by the legendary horror author.

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Actually, the gore and violence aren’t as visually awful as you might believe in “Silver Bullet,” despite the words decapitation, ripped flesh and blood. “Silver Bullet” was made before CGI and so you get less-realistic gore than you’d get if the film was “rebooted” today.

However, for the time the amount of bloodshed and mayhem (take a skyrocket into an eye) was pushing what few limits were left on horror films. Of course, the genre would dissolve into much messier and grisly accurate gore as the special effects and one-upmanship in horror took hold into the 1990s.

Unlike the classic “An American Werewolf in London” (click here to read my review), in which you get mostly a view from the character who is the werewolf, “Silver Bullet” is told by those who find out about the lycanthrope and then have to deal with it when it finds out they know its identity in society.

Further, like the high school-aged hero in the vampire flick “Fright Night” from the same year of release, the protagonist in “Silver Bullet” is a boy who gets his sister and is uncle involved. He is paraplegic in a wheelchair and so needs assistance. The uncle builds him a new, faster wheelchair called “Silver Bullet” and it allows him to escape the werewolf in one scene.

The sister is the narrator of the film and she’s the one who does the legwork to uncover the identity of the werewolf and the uncle provides the adult side of things (having a real silver bullet made, as just one example), but it is the boy who becomes the point of the spear against the werewolf.

So, let me take a look at the top of the cast:

  • An Oscar and Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Busey is the headliner as “Uncle Red,” but it is the youngsters who get the most screen time. Busey does an OK job in conveying his hard-drinking, fun “uncle” character. Still, another actor could have fallen flat in the role, but he staying a solid course. Busey was nominated for “The Buddy Holly Story” (click here to read my review) and was in “Lethal Weapon” with Mel Gibson; in “Under Siege” (click here to read my review) with Steven Segal; and was in the original “Point Break” (click here for my review) with Keanu Reeves. He also did the campy “Sharknado” franchise, while notching more than 180 acting credits since his first in 1967 in an uncredited role as “Hippie with Loudspeaker” in the movie “The Love-Ins.”
  • Corey Haim plays “Marty Coslaw,” who is the main character in this story. He does his usual good job of conveying his character and I’m not sure if any other actor of his age at the time could have done any better. Because of the physical limitations of being in a wheelchair, Haim uses expressions more than in his usual flicks. He doesn’t always pull them off well, but he gives them a go. Haim was closely affiliated with Corey Feldman in “youth” films and I truly enjoyed him in the comedy “License to Drive” (click here to read my review) and he was in the classic vampire flick “The Lost Boys” (click here to read my review) as one who saw the creature(s) and had to battle them. Haim died young at 38 of pneumonia in 2010 and had reportedly a victim of abuse by elders during his early career.
  • Megan Follows plays “Jane Coslaw,” who is Haim’s sister, the film’s narrator and a reluctant hunter of a werewolf! Follows does an excellent job conveying her character coming into the story hating how she has to play second to Haim in the family, but ultimately being 100% into the hunt. Follows makes more of her character than anyone else in the film. She has had a career mostly in television, with 101 acting credits into the fall of 2024, including the “Anne of Green Gables” franchise on TV.

Here it comes … THE SPOILER ALERT! ***

  • Everett McGill plays “the Rev. Lester Lowe” and he’s … well, the werewolf! McGill manages to get found out because he leaves some “souvenirs” from his kills in his garage … were folks go to drop off donated bottles as well as the injury from a skyrocket to his eye. McGill doesn’t do a very good job with his character: He comes off to edgy as a minister, but has the threatening look down pat. I cannot name a name, but another actor could have done a better job. McGill has been on the critically acclaimed “Twin Peaks” on TV and is best remembered as the blustering fool “Maj. Malcolm Powers” in “Heartbreak Ridge” with Clint Eastwood. He was also in “My Fellow Americans” (click here to read my review) as well as being the bad guy in “Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.” His last acting credit was in 2017.

… and here it goes … SPOILER ALERT ENDS ***

I don’t see any member of the supporting cast worthy of individual attention, although most fill out the movie in a competent manner. Still, managed to elevate is or her character to the point you remember them once the credits roll.

As I noted, the production is more television-ish than movie-ish, but with a lot more blood and gore. The depiction of the transformation of the werewolf both to the creature and then back again, is nowhere near as excellent as in “An American Werewolf in London,” but, then again, that one won an Oscar for makeup.

A two-time Primetime Emmy nominee and winner and nominee from the Directors Guild of America, director Daniel Attias does a modest job with this one and the biggest accomplishment is not have pushed out horror crap (and that’s a big plus in the genre of horror films). Attias’ nominations for two Emmys were for HBO’s “Entourage” series and “Silver Bullet” was his first credit as a director and is the only film that he has directed. Since then, Attias has worked exclusively in television.

Overall, if you enjoy the traditional horror of werewolves and vampires, then you’ll enjoy “Silver Bullet.” It isn’t great horror filmmaking, but it does have tense, scary moments beyond gore and, while you’ve seen it all before, it is executed well enough to earn a passing grade.

“Silver Bullet” was the 75th ranked film of 1985 with $12.3 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. The No. 1 film was “Back to the Future” at $190.5 million and you also had three sequels in the Top 10 with “Rambo: First Blood Part II,” “Rocky IV” and “Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment.” Here are the films from 1985 that I’ve reviewed for my blog:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Busey’s full name is William Gary Busey; and Haim’s middle name was Ian, while McGill’s is Charles (and he was born in Miami Beach and, despite some misconception, is NOT related to actor Bruce “Animal House” McGill.
  • Busey reportedly ad-libbed many lines in the film (with Stephen King’s approval).
  • Jennifer Connely was set to play “Jane,” but she wound up on a different project that was filmed in Italy.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “Complete construction of the werewolf costume took three months. After finalization of the shape and design, using three-dimensional clay heads, the entire costume was made of foam and polyurethane and was covered with actual bear hair. The head of the costume was mechanically operated by six people from a distance of up to thirty feet away.”
  • The story in King’s book takes place over a year’s time, but the film is compressed to only a few months. The film was the 10th adaptation of a story by King.
  • Filming began in October 1984 and finished just before the Christmas holiday season.
  • Don Coscarelli of “Phantasm” fame (click here to read my review) was set to direct “Silver Bullet,” but he left the project over creative differences with uncredited executive producer Dino de Laurentis, whose wife was the producer of the film.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Tarker’s Mills, where the action takes place, is a fictional town within the Stephen King It borders locations of other King’s works also adapted to film, such as Chester’s Mill (Under the Dome (2013)), Derry (It (1990)) and Castle Rock (Needful Things (1993), Cujo (1983) and Pet Sematary (1989)), among others.”

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