Silver Bullet
The early to mid 80s horror movie scene saw a sudden and large increase in the subgenre of werewolf films, spurred no doubt by John Landisâ Masterpiece An American Werewolf In London and the not so great Joe Dante flick The Howling (which nonetheless was also a huge moneymaker). At the same time people were starting to witness the emergence of horror movies based on the works of Stephen King which was punctuated in many peopleâs eyes by the success of Stanley Kubrickâs The Shining (a story based off a King book that was made even better through Kubrickâs adaptation). It wasnât long before a King written horror story that also served as a werewolf tale would come to fruition both in literary terms and cinematic as well in this 1985 release based upon Kingâs novella Cycle Of The Werewolf and directed by one shot wonder Daniel Attias who spent the rest of his career directing episodes of TV shows. King would also write the screenplay for this film, never a good idea given his known weakness for writing movie dialogue, a situation that only became more apparent when star Gary Busey quickly chucked the script in the trash and started completely adlibbing his role on the spot (as Gary Busey is prone to do) which panicked director Attias so much that he went directly to King himself and reportedly received his blessing to allow Busey to just do whatever he wanted which was perfectly fine with Busey as it enabled him to give another one of his patented scenery chewing performances enhanced greatly by the fact that he was getting to play an alcoholic here. On a sadder note, the film also co starred the late and ill fated Corey Haim, who befriended Buseyâs own son Jake during filming and actually turns in arguably the best and most likable performance of his career (or at least one where he wasnât always mugging for the camera) as a crippled kid in a wheelchair doted on by his parents and resented by his sister (the beautiful Megan Follows) and for whom his only real friend in the world who doesnât seem to notice nor treat him as if heâs disabled is his Uncle Red (Busey), a notorious drunk who has already blown his way through three failed marriages and spends most of his time around his sister and her family getting shitfaced and telling crazy stories, a trait that his sister (Haimâs mom) doesnât appreciate but which makes him beloved by his nephew Haim, sharing with him a bond so strong that Busey has made something for him that other paraplegic kids donât have: a special customized wheelchair equipped with a gas powered engine (called The Silver Bullet) that allows Haim to rocket down the road at top speed and be the envy of all the other wheelchair bound kids if there were any other ones around in this small town (supposedly set in Kingâs usual homebase of Maine but actually filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina which quickly becomes obvious with all of the Southern accents on display). Now despite much of the idyllic environment that we see, we soon become aware that thereâs a bit of a problem when the town drunk (a cameoing James Gammon) is killed in the opening scene via beheading and then things escalate from there when a heavyset pregnant woman dumped by her boyfriend finds herself torn up followed by another drunken redneck whose death interrupts his viewing enjoyment of southern fried NWA wrestling(!). After a young boy becomes the next victim, we finally get an organized redneck vigilante posse led by local bar owner Lawrence Tierney wielding a baseball bat named âPeacemakerâ even as the town sheriff (Terry OâQuinn) and town preacher (Everett McGill) try to head them off. This sequence, where the posse winds up becoming trapped in a thick fog and start getting picked off by the beast one by one, is both the most impressive and yet the most poorly done part of the film as the atmosphere and creepiness level (nobody would want to be caught in a deathtrap situation such as this) is damn near amazing but the filming of it as far as keeping track of which characters either live or die through this is not so well done (since none of these characters is ever seen again regardless of whether we literally see them get killed or not which begs the question of how many of them actually met their maker or got away) even as this werewolf becomes the first one in screen history to beat victims to death with the aforementioned baseball bat. This is probably something that can be chalked up to the inexperience of director Attias, a last minute replacement for cult horror legend Don (Phantasm) Coscarelli who had a major falling out during preproduction with producer Dino DeLaurentis. Once Haim and his sister decide to snoop into the murders themselves, they discover that the culprit is none other than McGillâs town preacher, whom it turns out is not only well aware of his crimes, but is really a tortured soul trying to make the best of his wretched existence as a monster, literally having convinced himself that the werewolf murders are actually him carrying out the will of God for various reasons ranging from punishment to salvation. The only reason to even mention the reveal of McGillâs town preacher as the werewolf (about halfway through the movie) is it then allows him to switch over to doing a fine job as the movieâs primary villain (even in human form although McGill did wear Carlo Rambaldiâs werewolf suit on set) even as at that point in his career McGill was definitely young, handsome and charismatic enough to have taken on leading heroic roles before he got older and made bad guys his exclusive domain (except for Twin Peaks). But once the preacher knows that these kids know his secret, he vows to hunt them down in order to protect himself, leading Haim and his sister to call upon their crazy, drunken uncle to help them even as Busey seems fascinatingly straddled on that line between wanting to believe them since he has that special connection with them that their parents donât have and trying to remember that he is supposed to be a responsible grown adult which means that he needs to tell them not to let their imaginations run so wild. Despite the family movie overtones here of having Busey being the wild and crazy uncle whom nonetheless is so trusted by his niece and nephew that they would impart him with their secrets moreso than their parents, the film thankfully does not skimp in the gore department, allowing the doomed characters to meet their bloody demises in such a way that guarantees an R rating before allowing McGillâs werewolf preacher to switch from having massive self loathing to becoming the creepiest character in the film who (as a human) attempts to murder a kid in a wheelchair, thankfully allowing him to serve as both a human and monster protagonist even as the film rewrites known werewolf lore a little bit as does Kingâs original novella, which states that the preacher became a werewolf not because he was bitten by one, but rather because years ago he picked a flower that turned out to be wolfsbane which in turn infected him with the curse. None of that backstory is in the movie, although it is noted that apparently McGill can transform at will anytime although the more full that the moon is at the time of transformation, the more powerful he would be. This leads to the kids deciding that the only way to stop the threat is through the use of a silver bullet as they give their silver lockets to Busey who dutifully approaches an âold world weapons expertâ to fashion them into a bullet that will get the job done. That takes us to the finale, which turns out to be pretty perfect since the trio wait up all night for the monster to attack, only for Busey to decide that this whole thing is simply ridiculous right before the attack itself, abrupt in how it begins and ending just as abruptly (save for Busey taking several headers through the furniture and a mirror at the hands of the beast, all of which were real since Busey did his own stunts here) and seeming just right for this sort of material. Reportedly De Laurentis was extremely unsatisfied with the look of the monster which carries a more humanoid appearance (walking on two legs instead of four) but really it looks just fine considering how McGill was willing to play the dual role in the monster suit and not just hand it off to the FX guys to make it work. Overall, while not the greatest King movie or werewolf flick, an enjoyable slice of 80s fun worth watchingâŚ
8/10