October 9th - Silver Bullet

 Don't have a lot left to say about this one. It was my daughter's first time seeing it, though. So that was cool. And she was into it. My daughter's always wanting to know spoilers, immediately asking me who will live through it, and who will die. I can't help but laugh, but I always tell her to wait and see. Ultimately, though, she goes online to look up spoilers. This was the AMC cut, shown sometime Saturday morning. The profanity is gone, but, surprisingly to me, the gore remained intact. The brutal mauling of the pregnant local with the man telling her he wasn't the father contemplating suicide, the sheriff pummeled with the bat taken from the bar owner he killed in the foggy woods, and the flying severed head, not to mention, the eye violence. Even the foul, unpleasant father of the little girl Haim's Marty was smitten with dragged into the floor of his greenhouse shows sharp plankwood stabbing into the torso. But I continue to feel that Busey, along with Haim, mark the real reason I return to this every year. Like reviewers say on Letterboxd, Busey is basically portraying himself, ratcheted up in frequency most of the time but still so damned likeable despite some booze-induced blather that infuriates his sister. Haim really deserves credit for how credible he portrays a crippled boy, often pulling and positioning his legs while his parents often have to stay on his sister in assisting him. As I so often bring up, Haim's Silver Bullet running out of gas under the condemned bridge as Reverend Werewolf has seemingly trapped him is the scene that resonates with me. That and Brady with his kite in the park and Haim looking at him as the camera holds. It's that fateful decision one might make before he or she is killed, and Haim concerned about his friend is punched home by how the camera points that out.

Recently, someone brought up this film in September on the r/horror subreddit. I couldn't help but think of the old world craftsman, a master of weapons, and Busey needing a silver bullet made by him. Busey tries to blow it off as kiddie stuff, but the craftsman, who is impressed with his work, knows why it was made. The music during this scene is so effective...really dramatically on point.