The Golden Oldies! (Silver Bullet (DVD))

Member Name: richy77

Product:	Silver Bullet (DVD)
Date:	26/10/01 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good storyline, Funny lines

Disadvantages: Maybe too short, Abrupt ending

Fans of Stephen King will remember this film as one of his best movie conversions. Stephen King books are excellent but sometimes the movies can be poor.

Silver Bullet is based on Stephen King's novel "Cycle of the Werewolf". The film is set in a small peaceful American town called Tarker’s Mills. In this town everyone knows each other and not much happens from day to day. That is until a mutilated body is found. At first the town think it was a suicide but they soon realise that something more sinister is happening in the town. A pattern soon emerges as a member of the town is killed every month.

The film concentrates on the Coslaw family. The main character is Marty (Corey Haim) who is a crippled young boy who travels everywhere on a motor driven wheelchair (The Silver Bullet). Marty has an older sister called Jane. The two tease each other but deep down they get one well. After the death of Marty’s friend the young lad decides to investigate who is behind the sudden flurry of murders. After a run in with the killer Marty realises that all is not what it seems. Marty realises that the killer is in fact a werewolf. The young boy decides to tell his Uncle Red (Gary Busey). Uncle Red is not your average uncle. He is an alcoholic womaniser but he cares greatly for Marty. Busey’s character is strange one to call as he can be out of control one minute but completely sensible the next. I suppose that’s what drinking does to you! Unfortunately for Marty is uncle doesn’t believe his revelations but he finds support in his sister. Jane agrees to help her brother search for the werewolf who is thought to live a normal life during the day and terrorise the locals during the night.

Bearing in mind that Silver Bullet was actually made over fifteen years ago I quite enjoyed it. When watching this film you have to bear in mind that the films is old and the technology and costumes are not up to the standards o
f today. For example the first time I saw the werewolf I nearly burst out laughing. It basically looked like a guy dressed up in an apes suit. Thinking about it, it probably was! What makes Silver Bullet a reasonable film is the storyline. Fans of Stephen King will know that lots of his books are made into feature films. Not all of these are worth watching. Lots of Stephen King novels get turned into TV series and the over time get pieced together into a film. Well Silver Bullet looks like it was made as a straight out film. It is well paces so that it doesn’t get boring. In fact it probably could have been a little longer. I think in the first twenty minutes I counted about 4-5 murders, which is good going for any film!

If I were going to criticise any aspect of this movie it would have to be the abrupt ending. The hero’s spend all their time worrying about the werewolf coming to get them and when it does happen the beast dies within a matter of minutes. I am a great fan of movies have spectacular last battles but in this case it was over before it started. Some of the scenes looked like they could be very intense and scary but seemed to end too soon. As for why this film has an 18 rating I will never know. I realise that the topic require a fairly high rating but there is nothing in this film, which should make it over a 15 rating.

Overall a good nights entertainment.

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