Spook Out! Day 29 ~ Silver Bullet (1985)

IMDb Says...

"In a small town, brutal killings start to plague the close knit community. Marty Coslaw, a paraplegic boy, is convinced the murders are the doings of a werewolf."

I Say...
Yes. And he's not wrong!

Horror Type...
Werewolves

Main Players...

Corey Haim as Marty Coslaw (Sweet Lil Bro)

Megan Follows as Jane Coslaw (Brave Big Sis)

Gary Busey as Uncle Red (Best Uncle in the Friggin World)

I liked...

• the work done by Haim (RIP), Follows, and Busey--all three were fabulous, and also,
• the relationships: Janie and Marty (which echoes Uncle Red and their mom's relationship), and Uncle Red's relationship to the kids--their chemistry was especially excellent, and I found them really believable as a close family
• how Uncle Red encourages Marty to take risks and be as active and rascally as he can (the apple doesn't fall far from the uncle)
• the hints as to the werewolf's true identity (and then how the identity is revealed) (and then someone's immediate reaction to that revelation--that face=priceless!)
• the tense scene in the bar between a forming vigilante mob, the town's sheriff, and a grieving father
• the practical effects of the werewolf's change--sure, they're a little cheesy but comparable, IMO, to the big change scene in the iconic An American Werewolf in London (I liked the change scenes but, as some others have noted, the "finished werewolf"--as it were--resembles a bear more than he does a wolf, alas.)
• a crazy scene in which nearly the entire town wolfs out
• that Janie, and later Uncle Red, takes logical steps to either prove or disprove Marty's claims
• how this isn't really a horror comedy but does have some hilarious bits here and there

The Meh...

• Though the three leads are well written and acted, some of the victims are decidedly not
• How/why the werewolf attacks start isn't ever explained, which can work for something set in a big city, but not in a small town environment
• Y'all got only one silver bullet made to defeat a werewolf? C'mon! Dudes, go to a thrift shop, get some silverware, have your smelter work on those, and fill up those chambers in that revolver! (Do I have to think of everything, here? Sheesh!)
• The resolution of the main story problem is excellent, BUT the very ending voice-over bit is weirdly abrupt and anticlimactic...
• The soundtrack is le major suck.

Would I recommend it...?

You bet! Silver Bullet is one of my fave horror movies, and a perfect little Halloween treat. The nostalgia factor's strong for me here--this scared the stuffin out of me when I was a kid and, tbh, the jump scares still get to me decades later, no matter how many times I see it (the werewolf breaks into two houses to get to his prey, wtf?!). The scares, coupled with some bloody violence and gore, ain't for the very sensitive, though they're probably not rough enough for fans of hardcore horror. But they're enough to chill me! 😎

 

Miscellany...

This movie's based on the Stephen King novella Cycle of the Werewolf (which I look forward to reading!).

Ratings...

My Grade: A- (though I admit to having a love for Silver Bullet that boosts the score up from a B+)

Rotten Tomatoes Scores: Tomatometer=45%, Audience Score=56%

Details, Schmeetails...

I Watched Silver Bullet on Amazon (the Rotten Tomatoes page linked above provides links to other streaming platforms)

Check it out on IMDb

Learn more about it on Wikipedia (Contains Spoilers)

This concludes Day 29 of

Thanks for reading and come back tomorrow...

IF YOU DARE