leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (10/24/85)
SILVER BULLET
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A generally well-made horror film that
does not quite satisfy the way some of its recent
competition--notably FRIGHT NIGHT--does. Plastic effects and
a werewolf that would have been pretty scary in 1980.
Dino Di Laurentiis-produced films have had a bad name since KING KONG.
DUNE and RED SONJA have not helped that reputation. A few of his films have
been well-done in spite of the much-feared name. CONAN THE BARBARIAN was a
good film and certainly RAGTIME was. And I think that Stephen King has no
reason to complain about either THE DEAD ZONE or FIRESTARTER, two very
nicely mounted productions of King novels. Di Laurentiis has returned to
his formerly profitable fields, producing SILVER BULLET, an adaptation of
King's recent book CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF.
SILVER BULLET is at once the worst of Di Laurentiis's three King films
and a better adaptation than King deserved. One reason that it was better
is that King wrote the script himself and was able to add enough to make a
story worthy of a film. The book was a paperback costing nearly $9, yet the
story was too short to make a film by itself. It is little more than twelve
vignettes that form a story of a werewolf who attacks once a month for a
year. As a sort of an odd reversal, the film gives King a chance to flesh
out some characters who were not very well developed in the book.
SILVER BULLET deals with a series of werewolf attacks in a small town.
The main character is a boy in a wheelchair--not the most likely werewolf-
hunter, but that is part of what makes the story. Unfortunately, King's
fleshing out of his story added some nonsense for the younger crowd also.
One piece is a special wheel-chair crossed with a motorcycle so that it can
outrace a car. It is a rather childish idea that Spielberg would love, but
which saps the film of some needed credibility.
The Amazing Transforming Werewolf is the creation of Carlo Rambaldi.
The effects were inspired (to say the least) by Rob Bottin's werewolves in
THE HOWLING. The effects seem a little more plastic than Bottin's and the
resulting creature is not nearly as formidable. The werewolf from THE
HOWLING still wins hands down as the one I judge most likely to be picking
pieces of me out of its teeth after at catches me in a dark alley. The
werewolf in SILVER BULLET is formidable, but not really in the same class.
As a werewolf film, SILVER BULLET is only slightly sub-formidable. It
tells its story with some likable characters, but it is no classic. It's a
"see once and throw away" film. Rate it +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. My
recommendation: see the film; don't buy the book.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper