MonsterVision99 A pretty good werewolf flick, one of the best from the 80's, not as good as American Werewolf in London (I don't think many werewolf films are) and on par with The Howling. Perhaps a little too predictable, and its not incredibly original either but manages to deliver us some great werewolf action, I really loved these scenes, they were suspenseful and the gore was fantastic (some of the attacks were funny and I don't know whether it was intentional or not but they were fun to watch nonetheless).I liked the kids in the film they did good, and I also loved Gary Busey in this, he's always a delight to watch.Roger Ebert liked this better than London and the Howling, and I like this one but I don't know what Roger found in this movie that made him rate this higher than those films. Anyway, Silver Bullet its an awesome movie, check it out if you haven't.

Sam Panico Silver Bullet may be based on King's Cycle of the Werewolf, but there are so many deviations and changes from the story, one could say that they're both stories about a werewolf in a small town and get away with it. It's probably best to experience both of them, as they cover some of the same story but differ in so many ways. Perhaps you can pretend that it's the werewolf version of Rashomon.Tarker's Mill, Maine. 1976. The Coslaw family is a mess, to be perfectly honest. Jane wants to get away. Marty (Corey Ham, The Lost Boys) fights with her and is dealing with being a paraplegic. And the parents, Nan and Bob, are always at odds.Things change once murder tears apart their town, starting with a railroad worker (James Gammon, the coach from Major League). Then, a depressed pregnant woman and Milt Sturmfuller are both killed and people start to worry. Once Billy Kinkaid is killed flying his kite (PS never fly a kite in a Stephen King story, witness Pet Semetary), the townspeople lose their minds.Despite Sheriff Joe Haller (Terry O'Quinn, The Stepfather!) and Reverend Lester Lowe (Big Ed Hurley from Twin Peaks) trying to calm everyone down, a mob goes into the woods to stop the killer. That said — the tables get turned and many of them die, including Owen the bartender (Laurence Tierney, a noted real life maniac who was in Reservoir Dogs and Film Threat's filmed version of the Tube Bar Red tapes).That Reverend isn't on the level though, as he dreams of a mass funeral where everyone turns into a wolf. He wakes up and begs God to stop the pain.The town may cancel the fireworks, but when Uncle Red (also another real life manic, Gary Busey) visits, he gives Marty a wheelchair/motorcycle he calls the "Silver Bullet" that can shoot rockets. The werewolf almost kills him later that evening, but he blasts it in the left eye. He soon realizes that the werewolf and the Reverend are the same person, so he begins mailing him anonymous notes saying that he should kill himself.Read more at bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/10/06/stephen-king-week-silver-bullet-1985/

classicsoncall That's Uncle Red, Gary Busey in my summary line after the first encounter with the werewolf minister. It's probably the coolest line that doesn't have anything to do with anything, but coming from Busey it sounds almost philosophical, doesn't it? Almost as good as "It's an ass-kicker" describing the souped up Silver Bullet, but that line said something about something, so there's a neat contrast in Stephen King's screenplay. Very good.Well I don't know about the special effects here, they seemed pretty tame even by Seventies standards. There were plenty enough cut- aways from the werewolf to suggest that the makeup wasn't all that great, but I guess if you're a young kid watching it would scare the bejeezus out of you. That's what these flicks go for anyway, so it probably works on that level. And say, what about the Silver Bullet itself - once Uncle Red did his little number on the thing, it didn't look like it would pass EPA regulations with all that smoke exhaust coming out the tailpipe. The one thing Stephen King did well here was head off at the pass all those critics who would have found fault with the silver bullet concept by putting in that scene of the old guy compensating for the weight of the bullet so it wouldn't tumble. You can tell he was a Lone Ranger fan as a kid. Overall, this King flick is about middle of the pack of the dozen and a half I've seen. The most memorable moment for me was winding down memory lane with that Rheingold Beer jingle early in the story - 'My beer is Rheingold, the dry beer, Think of Rheingold whenever you buy beer." Doing that from memory gives you an idea how far this Stephen King fan goes back.

utgard14 A werewolf terrorizes a small town, so a young boy (Corey Haim) in a motorized wheelchair teams up with his older sister (Megan Follows) and eccentric uncle (Gary Busey) to figure out who it is and put a stop to the killings. One of my favorite movies as a kid that still holds up nicely today. Stephen King, adapting his own novella Cycle of the Werewolf, wrote the screenplay. It's a character-driven horror story that works so well for that very reason. You really care about these people and are more invested in what happens to them than in many other horror movies where the monster/killer is given priority. Corey Haim does a great job, as does Gary Busey years before he went insane. But the real star of the movie to the lovestruck kid in me is Megan Follows, my most memorable childhood crush. Even if the rest of the movie wasn't great (it is), I would have watched it over and over just for her. The rest of the cast includes such fine actors as Everett McGill, Bill Smitrovich, Terry O'Quinn, and Lawrence Tierney. As I said, I loved the movie as a kid. As an adult, I still enjoy it a lot even though I recognize its flaws more now. It's low-key horror but it has likable characters, good dialogue, and some nice suspense. No, the werewolf doesn't match up to the stuff Rick Baker or Rob Bottin did a few years earlier, but it's not terrible for a guy in a suit. It's a great movie, in my opinion, that deserves inclusion in the discussion of 'best werewolf movies.'