Silver Bullet

While this might not be my favorite werewolf film—or even my favorite of those Stephen King films of this decade—I have always had an affinity for Silver Bullet. While my enjoyment for it never wavers, I have to admit that when I watch Silver Bullet a heavy heart exists because of Haim’s tragic end, the outcome of a life struggling with self-abuse through self-destructive means, and it just looms during the film to me. With films like Silver Bullet, Lucas, and The Lost Boys, we see Haim before the fame opened doors for his eventual demise. He’s a sympathetic character here because of his crippled fate, confined to a wheelchair because of his paralytic legs. Haim’s Marty has a kind heart and does not try to milk his condition, although because of his handicap, sister Jane is burdened by how his parents demand her to help look after him (to fetch him while off playing with friend, Brady, or help him when  he needs to move in and out of his chair) and give so much attention to the kid. Uncle Red, a heavy alcoholic failing in his third marriage, also dotes on Marty because he just cherishes the kid, especially in the making of a motorized, motorcycle-styled wheel chair that runs on fuel and can past actual vehicles on the road.

***½

The family is of consequence because Red, Marty, and Jane will be alone for a specific night when a werewolf, that has been leaving torn-apart, bloody corpses, locals of a town including a known drunk who worked near a train depot, a child, and a mob of citizens tired of their own being slaughtered, will visit them, a fight that could either stop the beast or give it more bodies to rip to shreds.

I think why Silver Bullet remains a pleasure to me are some key scenes that standout such as the whole town, gathered in church, turning into werewolves and descending upon the reverend while he holds a funeral service for members of the mob who went into the foggy woods near town to get retribution and put down the fiend. Another is the none-too-bright decision by Marty to shoot firecrackers away from home by his lonesome. The scene where the first female victim is savagely attacked in her bedroom not long after attempting to suicide herself with a bunch of pills has the claws of the werewolf dragging down heavy marks in the flesh of her back and leg. And one scene that really struck me as effective has a close-up of Haim’s face as he looks strongly and worriedly at his best friend who decides to stay at the park and fly his kite as if some feeling had came over him, perhaps a foreboding had struck him before leaving. Not long after Brady would be dead, yet another bloody body left after a werewolf made its way through the park.

Being confined to a wheelchair is an easy way to build suspense towards a character in a predicament when it comes to moving out of harm’s way if something vicious and violent were to present itself towards him. An unbeliever like Red who insists Marty refrain from his persistence that a werewolf is after him only reinforces this method of building tension as the terror-scenario culminates in a siege where the kids will have to defend themselves when their adult protector is rendered useless in a struggle that the werewolf wins easily.

The film can’t resist the afterschool special that wants to free itself from the trenches and interfere with the darker side of things, like when Marty is watching from his wheelchair as the peewee baseball team plays on the field, or how Jane tells the kid she hates him for her falling down because of Brady’s wise-ass garter snake trick on her, damaging her stocking (he drops a crinkled dollar bill on her night stand). But when the final thirty minutes focuses on the reverend’s awareness that the kids know he’s you-know-what, the film not only establishes him as a major threat, but the kids are his main target, with us seeing what he can do when it seems the sheriff has figured out his horrible secret. The sheriff’s nasty fate gives us an indication on what lies in wait for the kids unless they can come up with a plan to stop him.

I think the 80s horror movies like Silver Bullet and Lady in White, and the like, suffered from scores that seemed to alleviate some of the terror from key suspense scenes because they belong to moments where teams are at it in a chance to win the big game or a family is coming together during a crisis…they just don’t belong in a film that needs to continually, gradually amp up gulp-inducing fear that their beloved characters are potentially endangered by dark forces. That said, sometimes a scene, like when Everett McGill’s reverend (who seems to have lost any pathos that might have been supplied him as a man of the cloth trying to deal with a monster that won’t stay buried because of the full moon curse) chases after Marty with his car as the kid realizes his silver bullet machine might not can outrace the killer, can still function efficiently despite the score accompanying it.

The ending, interesting enough, is over relatively quickly. Red is hurled across the room, epically taking headers into a mirror and china cabinet, while the kids try to get the gun loaded with the silver bullet. Gary Busey’s reactions are priceless, as are his quips such as “Jumping Jesus Palomina”. He seriously looks freaked out, with the kids also conveying the same sort of “oh, crap” expressions that are understandable considering the fact that a werewolf breaks through the front door trying to get them. Taking a bullet in the only other eye it has after the firework rocket to the first eye when attempting to get Marty previously is implausible in itself, but the town just not caring any longer, even after the sheriff “goes missing” (even though it is well known he went to see the reverend) and multiple locals were annihilated in the mob hunt debacle is really rather a head scratcher.

What is a nice surprise is how well Busey and the kids work together on screen; their chemistry, accomplishing a family dynamic that is rather believable even though he’s often on the sauce, is probably one of the reasons I like it so much. The film is partial to having Jane, as an adult, narrating the film, particularly in regards to her brother, in remembrance and reminiscence, during the werewolf's crimes against her town. It kind of tells us that no harm will befall them, so in that regard maybe the narration is not called for. But, like Stand by Me, narratives to a past event (or specific time) in the life of a protagonist (or set of protagonists) were sometimes important for Stephen King. This film is the same way. Jane doesn't always butt in but it was important to those who made this film that she speaks a little about her brother; it lends a voice to how her brother could evoke differing emotions, both good and bad.

You get plenty of werewolves, that’s for sure. After already mentioning the reverend’s nightmare of his congregation turning into werewolves, you get plenty of him in the form of a lycanthrope, with the director showing eyes, a mouth open with its fangs ready to pierce, claws, its furry back and head, really not bringing it into full focus until the end (before then, such as when it takes a rocket to the eye). You get those prosthetic transformations, all the rage particularly just a few years prior to Silver Bullet. To me, a one-eyed werewolf is a cool sight, and his taking a firecracker rocket to the eye is especially a unique story development that gives its identity away if you find him in human form.