Film Review: Silver Bullet (1985)

photo courtesy of top10films.co.uk

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Silver Bullet (1985), directed by Daniel Attias; starring Gary Busey, Corey Haim, Robin Follows, and Everett McGill; based on a story by Stephen King.

Silver Bullet is a B-List movie about a werewolf who’s taken up residence in a small Middle American town called Tarker’s Mills. The story is told through the eyes of Jane and Marty, two younger teen-age siblings who live in Tarker’s Mill. Marty is paralyzed in both legs and tootles around town in a motorized wheelchair he calls “Silver Bullet.” Later, his Uncle Red (Busey) builds a second version of Silver Bullet for him that looks like a souped-up motorcycle (this is the first meaning of the film's title).

Except for his paralysis, Marty is a typical 13-year-old boy, who likes to prank his sister and cut up with his friend, Brady. Jane, for her part, resents the attention that Marty gets from their parents and doesn’t like being pranked.

After a series of brutal murders tear the town apart, residents assume it’s a crazed serial killer on the loose. Then Brady gets killed, and the enraged townspeople go hunting for the killer in the woods, which doesn’t end up very well for some of the hunters.

After the town’s Fourth of July fireworks display is cancelled because of the murders, Marty sneaks out one night and powers Silver Bullet 2.0 to a bridge over the river. He sets off his own private stash of rockets and sparklers over the river. Then he meets the werewolf, and fights it off by firing his last rocket and hitting the fiercesome furwad in the eye.

The next day, inspiration hits Marty, and he enlists the aid of Jane, who goes door-to-door in the town, ostensibly to collect bottles and cans for a charity drive. In reality, she's looking for someone with a missing eye. To this film's credit, when the identity of the werewolf is finally revealed, the script doesn't telegraph it too obviously beforehand.

Once the werewolf is revealed, the two siblings enlist the aid of goofy Uncle Red to defeat it. In preparation for confronting the beast, they melt down the religious medals both kids wear, and have a silver bullet made for killing the werewolf (the second meaning of the film's title.)

80s Nostalgia

Silver Bullet is obviously aimed at middle-schoolers and teen-agers. There's plenty of killings and gore, but overall, this film has the tone of a light-hearted, "boy's adventure" type of story. The werewolf transformation scenes are decent, especially for the era.

For those who may be interested in 80s nostalgia, there's plenty of it here. Feathered hair, poodle perms, bright pastel clothes, girls in long shorts and boys in short shorts. Not to mention the presence of Corey Haim, uber-child-star of the 80s.

The main negatives are that the light-hearted tone takes away from some of the scares, and Gary Busey is incredibly annoying as wacky Uncle Red (partially the script's fault.)

All in all, however, this film is not perfect but it is fairly entertaining -- and it doesn't pretend to be anything else.

If Silver Bullet were remade today, the tone would be much darker; the kids would be snarkier (and they certainly wouldn't be wearing religious medals); the parents would be more selfish and self-centered. Uncle Red would be a ketamine addict instead of just an occasional drunk. Most of the actors would look less cheerful, less "normal," and less healthy. Progress!