Last Saturday when I was watching “The Monster Squad”
(1987), I had so much fun with the work done by Stan Winston’s workshop and Jon
Gries’ unfortunate tragic unnamed werewolf/”desperate man”—LOCK ME
UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!—I just had to follow that up with Stephen King’s scripted “Silver
Bullet” (1985), a film I never intended on watching that evening. The 15
th
was such a wonderful Saturday for me. I wanted to just load up the day with 80s
favorites. I wrote a little bit about those experiences but not all. I didn’t
even mention “Silver Bullet”. After watching “The Wolf Man” Saturday night,
into early Sunday morning, I knew I needed to add something because my last few
weeks have featured werewolvery in abundance. I felt in “The Monster Squad” and
the gigantic crew with Carlo Rambaldi given name recognition among them (he
created the werewolf head for Everett McGill’s cursed reverend) in “Silver
Bullet” both homage “The Wolf Man” much more than perhaps the big hits in 1980.
Granted Paul Naschy and his El Hombre Lobo Spanish films always mimicked Chaney’s
tortured hero, but in the mid-to-latter part of the 80s, that look of the Wolf
Man returned to prominence with “The Monster Squad” (my love for this film was
reaffirmed mostly in part to the look of the film, which is impeccable, the
lighting effects such as the green emerald with its glow, visual effects
complete with portal to limbo, makeup of the creatures; the fan service, often
documented on films and television that do so today to appeal to a vocal horror
base, is very much direct by Director Dekker) and “Silver Bullet”. I really
like some of the music for “Silver Bullet”, too. Like when Sheriff Joe Haller
is saying the Lord’s Prayer while carrying the bloody kite, the emerging
werewolf as victims are about to be attacked, and, my favorite, when Uncle Red
goes to the “old craftsman” to get a silver bullet created from jewelry
provided by Marty and Jane. While I have my problems with developments just
dropped—vocally obstructive and unruly local citizen Andy Fairton stirs up
unrest when complaining about the police department of poor investigation,
quite confrontational and accusatory until his own posse goes into a foggy wood,
with only a few leaving alive and Sheriff Haller goes over to investigate
Reverend Lowe, never to return, and no one thinks to see if his body is on the
premises of the church—there is the harrowing chase of Marty in his Silver
Bullet motorized wheel chair by Lowe into an abandoned, non-functioning bridge,
the firework into werewolf eye, werewolf attack gore, McGill’s performance
which unveils another in a long line of tortured souls (he starts as a good man
having nightmares to a lost soul in scrubby beard and dark voice plotting to
kill teens) in this subgenre, and Busey’s struggling alcoholic with quite the
knack for quirky wisecracks all to sort of offset the glaring flaws. But I had
watched “The Goonies” with Corey Feldman, so “The Lost Boys” (1987) felt like a
nice companion to that, with “The Monster Squad” a fun followup as the theme of
a gaggle of teens and kids fighting against bad guys and participating in wild
adventure was a Saturday theme I just kept going. So with the Corey Feldman duo
of films, I just thought why not conclude that evening with “Silver Bullet”
with Haim? Plus, that viewing of “The Lost Boys” finally inspired me to pick up
a poster for the film…a long time coming. I’m looking right at it at this
moment as it hangs on my wall. I bet I’ll end up watching that one again in the
summer. But as far as “Silver Bullet” goes, it has been a mainstay in October
for several years now. It is not too long, has faces in its cast I thoroughly
enjoy, and enough werewolvery to satiate my interest in a furry beast with
menacing eyes and enough ferocity to rip apart “locals who sin”.
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