From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie Silver Bullet released in 1985.
Starring:
Gary Busey, Everett McGill, and Corey Haim.
Directed by:
Daniel Attias
Genre:
Horror
Rating:
R
Budget:
$7,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb Rating is currently:
6.4
The Synopsis is:
The small town of Tarker’s Mills has been stricken with a series of bizarre murders. However, it is a handicapped boy by the name of Marty who figure out that the murders are being committed by a werewolf and it’s up to him, his sister Jane, and his uncle Red to stop the beast.
*THE REST OF THE REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. *
Story:
Silver Bullet was adapted from the book or novelette, Cycle of the Werewolf released in 1983.
Before it was a book, comic book artist, Bernie Wrightson approached Stephen King to collaborate on a fantastic idea to make a calendar containing Bernie’s illustrations of a werewolf during the various full moons of each month, while featuring small vignettes from Stephen King.
What a great idea!
However, Stephen’s publishing company required that it be reversed, a novel with the illustrations as a smaller feature. Each chapter, a short story detailing a werewolf attacking a small town during the full moon each month.
Soon after, the book’s release, it became the focus of a film and the title was changed to Silver Bullet to signify two things.
Silver Bullet is the name of Marty’s various motorized wheelchairs and at the end of the film Marty and Jane give up their silver necklaces to make a single silver bullet to kill the werewolf.
Many people don’t realise this but Stephen King also wrote the screenplay with just a few areas where he gave actors permission to addlib. So much of what we hear of the dialogue and series of events were his ideas.
It doesn’t always work, but when you think of the story in the mode of being a visual novel, it’s most entertaining.
Originally, Don Coscarelli was scheduled to direct but left over creative differences with Dino De Laurentiis.
Dino went with Daniel Attias to direct and this film was his first (and only) feature film. However, Daniel is most known for his award winning work on TV shows like The Wire, The Sopranos, Entourage, The Americans, Homeland, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
If you’ve read the book, you will find that there are many differences from the film and the book to adjust to the platform, such as shortening the length of the story from a year to about five months and many of the characters are more exaggerated and deliberate as to their symbolic meanings and significance to the story.
There are several aspects to the story that are reminiscent to Jaws released in 1975, where we have a monster that is terrorizing a small down out of nowhere. There is a scene where the father of a murdered victim angrily faces the sheriff.
A group of vigilantes goes out to hunt the werewolf as was in Jaws to hunt the shark. And the main character’s name is Martin Brody in Jaws and Marty in this film… coincidence?
Pacing:
At 1 an hour and 35 minutes. It’s not too long, but somewhere in the middle of the film, it struggles to figure out if it is going to be a family film or a horror story. Much of it is disjointed and I believe this is where the film fails to thrill a wide audience.
Challenge:
Right in the beginning of the film there is a very brutal murder of a drunk railroad worker. There is a nice bit of transition when a bug is squished on the road and the train arrives to cover up the any evidence of foul play.
A series of grisly murders begin to crop up and the town and anyone who comes close to finding out who the killer is, becomes a victim.
So the big reveal in the story is that the bad guy in the film is the Reverend Lowe, who is a werewolf.
Let’s stop right there. I think that is completely brilliant. For me, this was the brilliance of his character, not using the typical feeding frenzy trope you’d expect from a werewolf movie.
The killings are not as random as they may seem upon first viewing. The killings are purging the town of it’s sinners. The reverend is actually releasing his human anger in this animal form to enact violence against the sinners.
As a human, the reverend has to be tolerant of the townspeople, yet internally his judgement of them and their sins may have been harboring some deep latent anger and animosity that they weren’t his ideal.
Being the werewolf gives him the power to do what he believes as God’s work.
Just look at his first group of victims, the drunk railroad worker, the “promiscuous” woman having a child out of wedlock and about to commit suicide, the mean spirited heavily drinking father, and the mischievous boy that stays out too late playing with his kite instead of going home when he should have.
In this film the werewolf never actually eat his victims, driving home that the wolf’s hunger is the actual taste for killing. It is really important to know that, and that is why I love this story so much.
So first the reverend as the wolf finds a motive for killing, his own personal rage about these individuals that he must be tolerant of.
The killings turn into a mode of protection from being caught, when he kills the sheriff. And then finally his killings turn to revenge, when he goes after Marty.
There are two scenes where the werewolf actually uses a baseball bat to kill his victims. Once during a vigilante hunt in the woods and when the sheriff comes to the reverend’s home to take him in.
Many people expressed their confusion about the matter. Why would a werewolf use a bat to kill? It seems like a pointless schlocky moment in the film but the significance is far deeper.
This werewolf is a metaphor for man’s inhumanity to each other. Intolerance and self righteousness.
The bat the wolf uses, it is called the peacemaker, in which he uses it specifically on the two people who have been the peacemakers in the town, the bar owner, who the bat originally belonged to, to keep his patrons from fighting one another and the sheriff.
The film doesn’t not give an origin for the Reverend becoming a werewolf, however, in the book it states that he has no idea about how he became a werewolf, but he suspects that it has something to do with some flowers he picked at a cemetery that turned black when he brought them to the church. He has been cursed ever since.
He has a pretty intense dream sequence that pretty much gives away the fact that he is the werewolf to the audience.
And I absolutely loved this scene because it lets you into his mind a bit, wondering why the reverend would have such dreams.
He is absolutely tortured by what he has become and even asks God to “please let it end.”
Through it all, he says multiple times to the town congregation that he is trying to give them some words of comfort. But he knows that there can be no comfort for himself and his victims.
The Reverend is a pretty intimidating character, complex, calculating and downright twisted. He is an excellent challenge in the film.
Empathy:
I had a great deal of empathy for the protagonists in this film.
Marty is a handicapped boy who is a pretty average boy otherwise, annoying his older sister, likes to play with kites, and thinks his dysfunctional uncle is the coolest thing since sliced bread.
Marty has a good heart. He may have some troubles getting along with his sister Jane, but he always tries to make it up to her. For example, when he is responsible for ripping her stockings, he musters up some money for her to buy new ones.
Marty is a pretty brave boy, but you kinda see how he feels when he watches some kids play softball while he sits in his motorized wheelchair. They don’t say if Marty has been paralyzed all of his life or some recent accident, but you know the longing to be a physically normal kid is there and you care about him a little bit more.
The murders really hit home when Marty’s friend Brady is killed by the werewolf. In the film Brady’s dad says that he was torn to pieces, but it’s not certain at this point who or what the authorities think is going on.
However, of all the things it could be, Marty is the first and only person to assume that the killer is a werewolf. Of course no one believes him and the film plays upon the classic tale of “the boy who cried wolf.”
Things really turn dangerous when Marty goes out into the woods one night to light firecrackers and meets the werewolf… as he should, because what else would you meet when you go out into the middle of the woods in a town where a werewolf has killed about 7 or more people in the last 2 months.
During his confrontation Marty shoots a special rocket launcher into the eye of the werewolf in order to get away. He tells his sister about his near death experience and this is where the film gets really good setting up this suspenseful montage of Jane looking for a man or woman with a missing eye.
When she discovers who it is Marty makes another bad move sending notes to the reverend telling him that he should kill himself.
In fact, later on when the reverend chases him down in broad daylight, he mentions that Marty should have just left him alone. And I think he’s right.
Marty should have left him alone and the tension is high, when the reverend confronts him.
Marty being handicapped really makes him vulnerable and creates a sense of danger only Stephen King can dream up. And his wheelchairs always seem to run out of gas at the worst times.
The relationship between Marty and Jane really shines as she is the first person to actually believe Marty’s story and she stands by him until the end.
Uncle Red is a little different. He is the cynical, heavily drinking uncle with a heart of gold. He loves his family and really has a soft spot for Marty. However, he has a way about himself as if he may fall apart any minute.
He only humors Marty and Jane because he feels sorry for Marty and he really never believes the story until he actually sees the werewolf.
There is also a parallel between Marty and Jane to Uncle Red and Marty’s mom.
Both of the women are the older sisters that are more practical than their fun loving younger brothers.
There is a scene where Red and his sister argue and he mentions that she is always telling him what to do and how he resents it. And it hints that she had to be responsible for Red as Jane is put to look after Marty most of the time.
You get a warm feeling inside after the battle at the end with the werewolf, Marty and Jane tell each other that they love each other as Uncle Red fondly looks on.
Technical:
The technical aspects are the weakest in the film.
It took 3 months to film, which is pretty fast and there are so many continuity errors and flubs, which is really unfortunate.
The special effects were both good and bad. It’s really interesting. There are some amazing closeup shots of the werewolf’s eyes that are very memorable. You can’t forget those scenes. They were really great.
The overall look of the werewolf really looked more like a bear which might be off putting, if you were expecting to see a wolfier looking monster.
The look was based on the actual drawings of the werewolf in the novelette and I personally thought it was a great choice to match the look. Those were great designs.
So in pre production the werewolf costume was modelled after a bear and even covered with actual bear hair.
I believe there was some discrepancy about the design of the werewolf. Producer, Dino de Laurentiis believed that the werewolf would be a little more limber and even hired an accomplished modern dancer to don the suit.
However, Stephen King refused the changes to keep the artistic vision.
With so many ways you could go with the look of the werewolf, compared to all of the movies that came out before and around the time of this film, I think that the choice fit the story.
Much like Jaws, we don’t really see the werewolf in all of his glory until the very end of the film and I just loved it. It looked big and scary.
Unfortunately, some of the other effects didn’t always look great. Here's an example of a transformation scene where one image looked pretty terrible and then it was followed up by this fantastic one, full of detail and realism.
Some of the gore effects were comically unrealistic, but decent for 1985. Special effects have enhanced greatly and studios have more money to make them look more realistic.
So, it’s awfully dated, but everything else in the scenes work well, such as the music, sound design, and suspense.
The music was really eerie and disturbing with lots of vibrating treble, rhythmic chimes and looming springs of magical foreboding.
There were a couple of fun little jump scares, if you like that sort of thing.
The cinematography was very good. There were quite a few scenes with awesome angles and great storytelling scapes.
So we come to the biggest problem with the technical aspect, concerning both the editing and the continuity. The film clearly states that it is 1976 but there are so many 1980 references or things that weren’t invented until after 1976.
When the townsmen are reading a newspaper, the date on the paper says 1980, which the filmmakers had to create for film, so someone got the dates wrong.
When Jane goes into Reverend Lowe's garage, among the large pile of empty soda containers are some Diet Coke cans. Diet Coke did not exist in 1976
you can see automobiles from the 1980s.
When Marty is in the tree with his kite, it is plainly seen that he has a calculator wristwatch which was not invented until 1977.
After Marty returns from shooting the werewolf in the eye and huddles against his bedroom wall, you can partially see a Reggie Jackson California Angels poster next to him, yet Jackson didn't join the Angels until 1982.
Cans of Slice Apple are on the picnic tables. Slice was not introduced as a soda until 1984.
Performances:
The performances were great by some, over done by others, and some of them are just terrible. And to be fair sometime actors have a hard time being convincing if the written dialogue is not organic.
Gary Busey as Uncle Red was great. He was born to play this kind of character and felt so intuned with it that he was allowed to adlib some of his own dialogue.
That is probably why he shines in the role.
In 1999, Gary Busey spoke about doing all of his own stunts in the film where he was thrown around the room. They used a catapult to launch him through the air and into various pieces of breakaway furniture. Talk about dedication and sacrifice, many of the cuts on Gary at the end of the film were real.
Everett McGill as the Reverend Lowe was impeccable. I simply loved him in the role. His voice really fit the soothing idea of the reverend and doubly worked well when he had to portray a more sinister version of the character.
Corey Haim as Marty Coslaw was adorable and really shows the magic behind his talent as a child actor. He’s believable, likable and I enjoyed his rapport with his co-stars.
Megan Follows was great as Jane Coslaw. She’s an excellent actress.
There were some complaints about actors over acting, but I didn’t mind it so much. I thought that aspect was entertaining.
But one special actor really stole the movie in his scenes with of all people Gary Busey, Conrad McLauren playing Mac the gunsmith. It was the perfect performance to bring a strange creepy vibe as the character hints that he knows that the silver bullet is to kill a werewolf.
Best:
There are so many memorable scenes for me but one of my favorites is the dream sequence. It actually took up to seventy extras with various levels of makeup and costume to pull that off.
My other favorite scene is when Reverend Lowe chases and confronts Marty. He says, “You’re gonna have a terrible accident Marty. You’re gonna fall in the river.”
It just cracks me up, and I suppose it is the actor’s voice and tone that really chills the scene. Leading up to that moment the reverend slowly walks toward Marty. The reverend has lost control of the animal urges and dares to commit murder in broad daylight without the guise of the werewolf. I loved that.
And last of all I love the connection between the siblings and the uncle.
The Ending:
The ending is a happy one and I’m totally fine with that after having nearly the whole town killed by the werewolf, I think a happy ending was in order.
Wish List:
I wish the town was smart enough to know that they were dealing with an animal of some sort. It seemed to still be a mystery as who the killer was as if it were a human killer. It would have been nice to have the sheriff do some investigative work trying to solve these crimes, like finding footprints near the train tracks, animal hairs in the victim’s room, examining the bodies of the victims and finding claw marks,
It seemed as if that part was missing from the story.
Since the story from the novelette really revolves around the calendar and the cycle of the full moon, I wish that it was more of a feature in the film. It would have expanded the silver bullet world for more than just a one off movie and gave the audience something to stew on after the film was over.
I also wish that the film was edited a little tighter to really highlight the awesome parts in the film.
Enjoyment:
When I decided to look into the reviews for this film I was shocked at how many of them ragged on this movie pretty badly.
And it makes sense because when the film was released in 1985 it was a bomb at the domestic box office with mixed reviews.
It was more successful internationally and mostly became a cult classic after appearing on television regularly.
And when I looked at the complaints about the movie I came to an important conclusion.
I think that for anyone who were introduced to the film through television got a different perspective of the movie because so much of the parts that were disjointed, extremely gory and brash were edited out for mass consumption.
In fact, the editor for the television version should be given a medal of some sort because, I think it made the film a lot better than the original.
The edited version allowed the audience to focus on the tender story about the family and their connection to each other… how this experience with the werewolf brings them together as a unit.
When this movie came out, it really didn’t know that it was in theaters, so when I saw it, it was through replays on late night TV movie shows.
I always remember loving it every time it played on TV and reciting the dialogue of the characters. It’s one of my favorite films even though it’s flawed. It has a great heart behind it.
I am so very glad to revisit one of my all time favorite films and cherish, what I feel is the brilliance of the story.
My Rating:
8.6
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it. This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
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