Silver Bullet is one of the less frequently discussed Stephen King adaptations. It’s also one of my favorite stories from him.   In 1983, Stephen King released a novella illustrated by Bernie Wrightson called Cycle of the Werewolf.  It was a different format from King, combining short stories revolving around a small town dealing with werewolf preying on its residents in monthly attacks. King’s short stories tend to make for better movies than his novels. Where does Silver Bullet fall on that scale?

• Directed By: Daniel Attias
• Written By: Stephen King
• Starring: Gary Busey. Everett McGill. Corey Haim

King Genre Standards

King is best when he’s focused on normal, small-town people dealing with an unimaginable horror. His early works rely on a few tropes. They usually take place in a town that only exists in idyllic, americana-fueled nightmares. You’ll usually see versions of the same characters: the town drunk or loudmouth, the bullies, and the hero kids.  Many of these early books are about how kids must save themselves. The adults can’t see or can’t understand the dangers until it’s almost too late. 

Some of these tropes are present here, at least the light versions of them.  The kids are once again the focus. Specifically, Jane and Marty. This sibling duo has a few challenges even before a werewolf starts snacking on their town.  Jane resents her brother since she’s forced to cater to his needs. Marty is a paraplegic, and as this is set in the late ‘70s, the world isn’t as accommodating to him. His parents are overly attentive to him at the cost of Jane’s needs.  The relationship between the struggling siblings is the core of the movie.  Their struggles are mirrored through the relationship between their mother and Uncle Red.  

The Protagonist

Having a disabled protagonist is another one of King’s tropes.  While he doesn’t always handle it in the most modern fashion, at the time his writing was fairly inclusive.  Several characters in the Stand, Dark Tower and IT have disabilities.  

Uncle Red is the one trusted adult. He achieves this state by mostly behaving like a child. Red drinks, uses gratuitous profanity in front of Marty, and builds him inappropriately fast motorcycle-wheelchair hybrids. He also listens to Marty, treating him like an equal when no one else does. Red’s support of Marty goes pretty far, at least until Marty and Jane tell him that a werewolf is killing the townspeople. That’s about where he checks out. He is an adult after all. It’s only after Jane and Marty do the legwork that they’re able to convince him that there is a threat after all.  Even after they manage to do this he doesn’t accomplish much other than getting their parents out of town and getting the silver bullet.  In the end it’s Marty that fires the fatal shot.

Like most King stories there is an element of the unseen horror lurking under the façade of Americana.  Something you least expect is rotten and the adults are unable or unwilling to help. While I’m not going to spoil specifics here, the reveal of the werewolf’s identity is right on target for this theme.

How About the Werewolf?

Okay, it doesn’t look great, but it does a lot of damage. Silver Bullet makes some smart choices with its kills.  The wolf stays mostly off-screen until the end. It stalks its prey, one holiday after another, racking up an impressive body count. While watching an abusive dad get impaled was impressive, Silver Bullet is at its best when the body of Marty’s best friend Brady is discovered.  After showing us what the werewolf does to his adult victims, the movie opts to show us… nothing. We get the sheriff holding a bloody kite, and the distraught father’s reaction. Those two things together deliver more impact about what happened to poor Brady than any amount of body parts would.

The werewolf doesn’t have much motivation for who he kills, other than the poor Stella Randolph, and the useless vigilante group trying to hunt him down. I’m not sure how much motive he needs, other than it’s a full moon and he’s a werewolf. To be honest, if he hadn’t brought up his reasons for killing Stella, I wouldn’t have questioned the others. His monologue regarding Stella, though, was pretty amazing in its delivery.

The transformation isn’t great, and the final reveal at the end when the wolf confronts the main trio is a bit of a letdown. It’s not the worst werewolf I’ve seen this year, (yes, I’m still mad about Blumhouse Wolf Man) but it’s close. 

The Cast

Silver Bullet was one of Corey Haim’s first roles, and he was well suited for it. Marty is in turn bratty, caring, impulsive, and most importantly, believable. Megan Follows balances him well as the parentified big sister, Jane.  Gary Busey added his particular brand of crazy too as Uncle Red.  Terry O’Quinn also shows up as the sheriff in an early role for him.  He gets one of my top five favorite lines, when he not so politely expresses his disapproval of a fellow police officer. I think it’s the only F-word in the movie.  I’d quote the line, but it’s not all that impressive on its own, it’s all in his delivery.

Silver Bullet is a good example of how a charming cast can pull a fair-to-middling movie up a level.  The interactions between Red and Marty feel genuine and heartwarming, as does the bickering between the siblings. It’s classic King, and it’s done well here.

Silver Bullet VS Cycle of The Werewolf

Some changes were made in translating the novella to a screenplay. Some kills were omitted and characters changed. Stella gets a bit better treatment in the movie. Not much better, but it’s a slight improvement from killed by werewolf due to desperate loneliness. 

The biggest change is to the werewolf. His role is trimmed, which makes sense for a couple of reasons. The structure of the movie flows better if it focuses on the kids trying to figure out who the killer is.  At the same time, you lose the element of the killer not knowing that he is in fact the werewolf, and the trauma that comes with that revelation.  It’s a great part of the book, and increases the tension, especially after Marty starts sending him anonymous letters. In the latter part of the book, the two sides are hunting each other down as the calendar ticks towards the next full moon.  

But a book is not a movie.  Had Silver Bullet included this element, it would have padded the run time and taken the focus off the kids.  The movie needed a clear theme, and they made a smart choice in that regard.  It makes sense since King did the screenplay.

Filmed in NC

Yes, this is another movie filmed in my home state, and in one of the towns also used for I Know What You Did Last Summer. Wandering around the locations where Marty and Jane played, and werewolves hunted, does make me a bit more predisposed think fondly of a movie.  It also makes me sad that NC ended their tax credit program for film in 2014.  Historic towns like Burgaw are in danger of only been seen through the movies they were used as settings for. The state needs to do something to bring money back to the area, why not more film incentives?

Final Thoughts

Silver Bullet will probably never make anyone’s top ten Stephen King adaptation list. It’s got traces of the King standards without delving too deeply into them. It’s also not particularly scary thanks to some shaky character design (looking at you, wolf). Cutting the most horrifying storyline from the book, discovering that you are the one eating your neighbors, doesn’t help either. But it is fun and charming, thanks to talented child actors and King’s talent for small town nostalgia. If you’re not doing anything else on a lazy Sunday, it’s worth a watch.  Although, I’d probably just get the book with the Bernie Wrightson illustrations. 

Silver Bullet is available on Pluto TV.