The 1980s may have been the decade of Slasher’s film, but fans of vampires and werewolves also had a lot to appreciate-classical creatures had their biggest moment since the gold films of the 1930s and 40s of universal monster films. Although blood suckers have almost raised him in terms of quality and variety, there was a very good high school action around, notably “An American Werewolf In London” by John Landis and “The Howling” by Joe Dante. Elsewhere, you had Michael J. Fox Slam-Dunking Slam in “Teen Wolf”; Neil Jordan’s dark view of the small red cap in “The Company of Wolves”; And the wolf man again teaming up with his former universal friends in “The Monster Squad”. A little lost in the mixture was “Silver Bulte”, a frightening and underestimated story of Stephen King’s pen.
The author of the Maine was almost everywhere in the mid -80s. King was walking novels, wrote scenarios, made films (“Maximum overdrive”) and appearing in front of the camera in wacky cameos and more important roles in films like “Creepshow”. He had even become such a success that he even produced books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman to see how he would manage without all the fame. 1983 was undoubtedly the Stephen King summit with the release of three cinematographic adaptations: “Cujo”, “The Dead Zone” and “Christine”; And the publication of three books: “Christine” (John Carpenter was a fast worker), “Pet Sematary” and “Cycle of the Wearwolf”.
The latter is a thin illustrated volume that started as an idea for a calendar. The gadget was that every month would offer an image drawn by the comic artist Bernie Wrightson (“Swamp Thing”) and a small King vignette. The author was not satisfied with the size of individual tales and decided to extend it into a new one including Wrightson’s drawings. “Cycle of the Werewolf” was not particularly successful, but King was so hot at that time that he could have sold the rights to the film for his grocery list. He adapted the scenario itself and “Silver Bullet” was the result, Dan Attias making the jump of the realization of “Miami Vice” on television to direct his only feature film to date. However, this could have been very different; Attias replaced Don Coscarelli, the man who brought us the franchise “Phantasm” and “The Beastmaster”. His experience may have helped, but take a look at what we have in place – a film that now broadcasts for free on platforms based on ads such as Pluto TV and Hoopla.
What is Silver Bulte?
“Silver Bullet” takes place in the fictitious city of Tarker’s Mill, a typically Kingian rural sailor in Maine. Following an unnecessary voiceover of Jane Coslaw (Megan follows) explaining that the story takes place in the mid-1970s, the film dates back directly to the wolf action while a drunk rail worker is attacked in the light of a full moon and a pregnant woman is also saved by the creature. Having prepared the scene, Jane disappears for a large part of the film and our concentration goes to her younger brother Marty (Corey Haim), an 11 -year -old paraplegic player who likes bombing in his engine wheelchair. He also loves his uncle Red (Gary Busey), an irresponsible alcoholic who is the only adult who treats Marty as a normal child.
More unresolved murders send the city dwellers to a frenzy, and anger reaches the boiling point after Marty’s best friend is torn. Local sheriff Joe Haller (Terry O’quinn) is struggling to maintain control while local men are formed in search of “private justice”, heading at night to lynch the killer. The vigilants undergo a predictable bloody spell and Marty begins to believe that a wolf is responsible, confirmed when he narrowly escapes a skirmish with the creature. The ingenious child manages to shoot one of his eyes with fireworks and suspicion is reverend Lowe (Everett McGill), the local preacher who underwent a similar eye injury.
“Silver Bullet” puts a horror turn on the classic adventure of children in the 80s where adults do not believe in children and it is up to our young heroes to solve the mystery. The large twist here is that the BMX and the usual helicopters are moved to a frankly incredible mode of transport when the red uncle improves marty to a wheelchair / swollen armchair hybrid nicknamed the Silver Bulte. These are fairly stupid things, but the film is maintained anchored by the casting, in particular with the winning dynamic between Marty and Uncle Red. Haim offers the same brand of adorable player whom he would once again chase the vampires a few years later in “The Lost Boys”, and Busey is out of the charts as an artisanal wave. The actor is always a greater than life presence and he apparently appreciated most of his lines. Fortunately, King and Attias went with his improvisation, and it gives the character a really lived and chaotic quality.
Silver Bulte comes across a crucial detail
“Silver Bulte” does not savor bloody violence from the start when we get decapitation, mauling and an impact in the first 25 minutes. But while the killings are entertaining, the film falls with regard to the creature. This is perhaps the main difference between vampire and wolf films; You do not need much more than a guy with fangs and scary makeup to have a scary story, but any film focusing on the life of lycanthropy and dies on its transformation scenes. Unfortunately, the blows of money in “Silver Bullet” are not as good as their equivalents in “An American Werewolf in London” and “The Hurling”, and this failure must be attributed to Stephen King.
The author would have liked to alleviate the design of the creature in something simpler, a strange choice which represents a serious waste of the talents of the sorcerer SFX Carlo Rambaldi. Rambaldi had three Oscars to his credit before registering for “Silver Bullet”, prices to crawl for “King Kong”, “Alien” and “and the extraterrestrial”. Unfortunately, the restrictions imposed on him meant that his monster ended up looking more like a bear with perforated eyes than a supernatural metamorph. To worsen things, Dan Attias clearly did not have much feeling of suspense or dread, so we have a few scary moments but no real fear when we rush from one scene to another.
That said, “Silver Bulte” compensates for its disappointing creature effects and its lack of tension with wacky moments “only in the 80s”. The film has an energy B-MOVIE happily HOKEY, and you have unlikely shows such as Corey HAIM on the car in its HOT ROD wheelchair bike and a werewolf crushing a baseball bat. This is the only example that I remember in the history of horror where a lycanthrope uses sports equipment as a weapon of choice, and how it happens is probably the reason why Roger Ebert confused it with a parody of Stephen King. Overall, “Cycle of the Wearwolf” is one of the smallest entries in Stephen King’s bibliography, and “Silver Bulte” is fun but just as light. This is not up there with the really great wolf films of the decade, but it is really worth consulting fans of horror of the 80s, and you can do it for free on platforms based on ads such as Pluto TV and Hoopla.
