Silver Bullet (film)

Silver Bullet
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Daniel Attias
Produced by	Dino De Laurentiis
Written by	Stephen King
Narrated by	Tovah Feldshuh
Starring	Corey Haim Gary Busey Megan Follows Everett McGill Robin Groves
Music by	Jay Chattaway
Cinematography	Armando Nannuzzi
Editing by	Daniel Loewenthal
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	October 11, 1985 (1985-10-11)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$7,000,000
Box office	$12,361,563 (USA)

Silver Bullet is a 1985 horror film based on the Stephen King novella Cycle of the Werewolf. It stars Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Megan Follows, Corey Haim, Terry O'Quinn, Lawrence Tierney, Bill Smitrovich, Kent Broadhurst, David Hart, and James Gammon. The film is directed by Dan Attias and produced by Dino De Laurentiis.

Plot

Jane Coslaw (Follows), the narrator of the film, is the oldest sister in a dysfunctional family of four. Her narration centers on her strained relationship with her younger, paraplegic brother Marty (Haim) and their parents. Their rocky relationship changes after a series of murders in their small rural town of Tarker's Mills, Maine.

First, a railroad worker, Arnie Westrum (Gammon), is killed by a werewolf. The county coroner believes that Arnie passed out on the railroad tracks and was run over by a train. Soon after, a local woman, Stella Randolph (Wendy Walker), prepares to commit suicide because she is unmarried and pregnant. Before she can act, she is murdered, and although it is offscreen her mother was also murdered. This murder goes unsolved and the townsfolk become worried. The next victim, Milt Sturmfuller (James A. Baffico), whose daughter is Marty's girlfriend, hears a racket in his shed. Believing teenagers are making mischief, Sturmfuller plans to scare them off with a shotgun. Instead, he encounters the werewolf and is killed. His family leaves town. Next to die is teenager Brady Kincaid (Joe Wright), Marty's best friend, who stayed out too late one night while flying a kite.

After Brady's death, citizens led by local gun shop owner Andy Fairton (Smitrovich) form a vigilante justice group. Although local Sheriff Joe Haller (O'Quinn) and his lone deputy (Hart) attempt to stop the citizens, the officers relent after being berated by Brady's father (Broadhurst). In the middle of the melee, Baptist Reverend Lester Lowe (McGill) attempts to prevent the townsfolk from causing further bloodshed. After the vigilantes go out hunting for the killer, several are attacked and killed, including Owen Knopfler (Tierney). The survivors later deny seeing anything unusual. After the vigilantes are attacked, Reverend Lowe dreams that he is presiding over a mass funeral when his congregation -- including the dead bodies in the caskets -- begins to transform into werewolves before his eyes. He awakes and asks God to "let it end."

When Jane and Marty's parents go out of town, they leave alcoholic Uncle Red (Busey) in charge. Uncle Red builds a wheelchair/motorcycle for his nephew's birthday, which he nicknames the "Silver Bullet". Marty uses that vehicle to go out in the middle of the night to a small bridge where he lights fireworks. Marty is confronted by the werewolf and barely escapes with his life by launching a rocket into the left eye of the creature.

Marty enlists Jane's help to look for someone with a newly injured or missing left eye. The search is conducted under the cover of the church's bottle drive, so as not to arouse suspicion. When Jane turns her bottles in, she discovers that Reverend Lowe is missing his left eye. A cat and mouse chase ensues between the Reverend and the siblings. Lowe, who has more or less gone insane, uses Judeo-Christian logic to rationalize the murders he has committed: he cites Randolph's murder during her suicide attempt as his effort to save her soul; Westrum was a severe alcoholic; he implies that Sturmfuller was abusing his wife and possibly his daughter (this is made explicit in the novel); and the vigilantes intended to murder someone in cold blood. Lowe's logic cannot explain Brady's murder, however.

The siblings manage to convince Red that Lowe is behind the murders. Uncle Red then persuades Sheriff Haller to investigate. That night, Haller, skeptical but desperate to find a killer, is shocked to discover evidence that at least some of Marty's story may be true. Haller finds Lowe, who has locked himself in his garage, but before Haller can arrest him, Lowe transforms and kills Haller.

Red, Marty, and Jane have a final showdown with the werewolf. Marty shoots the werewolf in the right eye with a silver bullet, killing him. Afterwards, the bond between Marty and Jane is strengthened.

Cast

• Gary Busey as Uncle Red
• Everett McGill as Reverend Lester Lowe/Werewolf
• Corey Haim as Marty Coslaw
• Megan Follows as Jane Coslaw
• Terry O'Quinn as Sheriff Joe Haller
• Robin Groves as Nan Coslaw, Marty's mother
• Leon Russom as Bob Coslaw, Marty's father
• Bill Smitrovich as Andy Fairton
• Lawrence Tierney as Owen Knopfler
• Kent Broadhurst as Herb Kincaid, Brady's father
• James Gammon as Arnie Westrum
• Wendy Walker as Stella Randolph
• James A. Baffico as Milt Sturmfuller
• Joe Wright as Brady Kincaid, Marty's best friend.
• David Hart as Pete Maxwell, deputy Sheriff

Production

Filming began in October, 1984 and took about two-and-a-half months to complete, finishing shortly before Christmas. In the novella the werewolf was said to snarl in nearly human words and the werewolf was supposed to speak in the original screenplay, although this was eliminated after a rewrite. Gary Busey felt a certain kinship with the Uncle Red character and was allowed to ad lib all of his lines in certain takes of each scene in which he appeared. Although he read the lines as scripted in most of the takes, Stephen King and Daniel Attias liked the ad lib scenes better and decided to include most of Busey's ad lib scenes in the final cut of the film.

King asked that the werewolf be ambiguous, plain, and hard to see, in contrast to the hulking monsters seen in other werewolf films and books in the early-to-mid-1980s, with the end result being a creature which looked more like a bear than anything else and did not really have any identifying characteristics. After seeing Carlo Rambaldi's design, per King's request, producer Dino de Laurentiis was very unhappy and demanded a change, which both King and Rambaldi refused. Eventually pre-production fell behind schedule and director Don Coscarelli opted to start filming the non-werewolf scenes without knowing what would happen with the werewolf suit. After completing the non-werewolf scenes and not having any clear picture about what would happen with the film Coscarelli resigned as director and was replaced with Attias. When pressured to either cancel the film or accept the design de Laurentiis relented and allowed filming to continue with Rambaldi's werewolf suit. A modern dance actor was hired to perform the stunts inside the suit but de Laurentiis was also unhappy with his performance and demanded a change. As a result Everett McGill, who played Revered Lester Lowe in human form, wound up acting out most of the scenes in the werewolf suit and was credited with a dual role.

In the novella there was a character named Alfie Knopfler who owned the only diner in the town. In the film the Knopfler character was changed to the owner of the town's only bar as more action took place in the bar than in the diner and the character was deemed too important to cut or diminish. His first name was changed to Owen and the name of the bar was Owen's Bar. This was done in reference to King's son Owen.

Themes

The main theme of the film is the duality of man. Many characters are seen as pillars of the community but are revealed to have reprehensible characteristics. Andy Fairton is a gun shop owner and leader but also an alcoholic who disdains authority and clumsily leads the vigilantes into a massacre before eventually denying the existence of the werewolf. Haller is well liked and a community leader but knuckles under to the mob justice of the vigilantes when pressured. Revered Lester Lowe is also seen as a great community leader but is also the werewolf. This theme was also present throughout the novel. In addition, Lowe's curse and the duality of man theme was likely taken from the werewolf priest folk tale.

Another theme is imperfection. The primary protagonist is an 11-year-old boy who uses a wheelchair. Busey plays a drunken womanizer who seems to have given up on having any kind of a life. Lowe makes efforts to prevent himself from killing someone frequently, by hiding in secluded areas in the woods on three occasions, in Sturmfuller's shed once, and by locking himself in his garage once, but fails in every effort.

It is vital to overcome the weakness of self that is eminent in the hearts and lives of all people, or to plainly suffer the consequences is the main theme of this film. A handicapped little boy is the only character that is able to harness his personal weakness as a strength. He wields this strength so well, he is viewed as a threat by the main antagonist. Other characters are unable to move past their weakness, which inevitably leads to their demise. The beast in the story isn't the werewolf, but the weakness that embodies itself deep in ones heart.

Setting

The film, like many other King works (and the novella on which the film is based), is set in a small fictional town in Maine. Filmed in 1985 and set in 1976, the film makes no reference to its New England setting. No type of New England slang is used in the film.

None of the characters speak in any kind of a New England accent. Perhaps the only reference to the Maine setting is the inclusion of the Maine State Police in the film's plot. The film begins in spring and ends on Halloween - spanning a typical baseball season - although the Boston Red Sox are never mentioned nor is any Red Sox apparel seen. The film also doesn't include music which was popular in the area at the time. None of the surrounding towns, counties, or highways are mentioned.

Release

The film was released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures in October 1985. It grossed $10,490,791 at the box office.

The film was released on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment in 2002.

The film was not heavily anticipated when it was released and received mixed reviews, garnering a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, saying that the film "is either the worst movie ever made from a Stephen King story, or the funniest." Ebert admitted that he thought that the film was a parody of the novella and of King's work in general but said that he enjoyed the film. Felix Vasquez Jr. of Film Threat called Silver Bullet "a great horror film."

The film had its equal amount of retractors however. James Kendrick of Q Network Film Desk said that the film "feels episodic and slight, little more than a slasher film in which the slasher is a lycanthrope." Scott Weinberg of DVDTalk.com called the film "[a] horror flick for young fans who aren't quite prepared for the really scary stuff."

External links

• Silver Bullet at the Internet Movie Database