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Post by Popeye Doyle on Jun 24, 2020 3:59:50 GMT
What’s the verdict on this one? Gary Busey gets a great role as the alcoholic uncle who makes Corey Haim one sweet ride, the Silver Bullet. Everett McGill is also appropriately intense as the local preacher. Less successful is the actual werewolf, which doesn’t look that great (this is a few years after Howling, American Werewolf in London).
6/10
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Post by movielover on Jun 24, 2020 4:03:50 GMT
7/10 - Fun, enjoyable little movie.
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Post by darkreviewer2013 on Jun 24, 2020 5:17:22 GMT
It's my favourite werewolf movie alongside An American Werewolf in London. The narrative voice at the beginning and end, coupled with the 80s vibe, evoke in me a very nostaligic feeling. I really liked the story, semi-rural setting and the appearance of the werewolf. It looked much more like your stereotypical werewolf than the beast in the aforementioned film (although now quite on a par with what we see in The Howling). And Gary Busey was great. I'm definitely a fan.
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Post by moviemouth on Jun 24, 2020 5:34:01 GMT
It is a movie with good story elements in place, but doesn't do much interesting, entertaining or thrilling with. The cast is good, but the directing and writing is mediocre. The movie isn't scary or even creepy for the most part. Most of it just comes off as silly. It has a better story than the Howling, but The Howling is definitely scarier. Joe Dante is a more talented director and it shows. Unfortunately he had an even worse story than Silver Bullet to work with.
5.5/10
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Post by moviemouth on Jun 24, 2020 5:38:53 GMT
It's my favourite werewolf movie alongside An American Werewolf in London. The narrative voice at the beginning and end, coupled with the 80s vibe, evoke in me a very nostaligic feeling. I really liked the story, semi-rural setting and the appearance of the werewolf. It looked much more like your stereotypical werewolf than the beast in the aforementioned film (although now quite on a par with what we see in The Howling). And Gary Busey was great. I'm definitely a fan. Nothing in Silver Bullet comes even remotely close to the creepiness of the transformation scene in The Howling, which itself doesn't even come close to the transformation scene in An American Werewolf in London, which is one of the 10 greatest scenes in horror movie history imo.
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Post by darkreviewer2013 on Jun 24, 2020 5:43:09 GMT
It's my favourite werewolf movie alongside An American Werewolf in London. The narrative voice at the beginning and end, coupled with the 80s vibe, evoke in me a very nostaligic feeling. I really liked the story, semi-rural setting and the appearance of the werewolf. It looked much more like your stereotypical werewolf than the beast in the aforementioned film (although now quite on a par with what we see in The Howling). And Gary Busey was great. I'm definitely a fan. Nothing in Silver Bullet comes even remotely close to the transformation in The Howling. One of the most visually terrifying scenes ever put on film imo. Oh, I agree. The transformation scene is wonderful. Brilliantly done by the guy who, I believe, went on to outdo himself the following year in John Carpenter's The Thing. The movie as a whole disappointed me though due to the messy narrative and sloppy direction.
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Post by moviemouth on Jun 24, 2020 5:45:47 GMT
Nothing in Silver Bullet comes even remotely close to the transformation in The Howling. One of the most visually terrifying scenes ever put on film imo. Oh, I agree. The transformation scene is wonderful. Brilliantly done by the guy who, I believe, went on to outdo himself the following year in John Carpenter's The Thing. The movie as a whole disappointed me though due to the messy narrative and sloppy direction. I dislike the movie as a whole and for the same reasons. I think Silver Bullet suffers from many of the same problems though. I generally don't like werewolf movies. I like An American Werewolf in London and The Wolf Man (1941) and that is about it.
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Post by darkreviewer2013 on Jun 24, 2020 5:53:32 GMT
Oh, I agree. The transformation scene is wonderful. Brilliantly done by the guy who, I believe, went on to outdo himself the following year in John Carpenter's The Thing. The movie as a whole disappointed me though due to the messy narrative and sloppy direction. I dislike the movie as a whole and for the same reasons. I think Silver Bullet suffers from many of the same problems though. I generally don't like werewolf movies. I like An American Werewolf in London and The Wolf Man (1941) and that is about it. I'm of a similar mindset. There are only a few werewolf movies I actually like. Silver Bullet (1985) An American Werewolf in London (1981) The Wolf Man (1941) The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) You could maybe add Dog Soldiers (2002) to that, but that's essentially an Evil Dead movie with werewolves taking the place of demons.
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Post by The Herald Erjen on Jun 24, 2020 6:00:32 GMT
3/10
Silly movie.
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Post by moviemouth on Jun 24, 2020 6:00:40 GMT
I dislike the movie as a whole and for the same reasons. I think Silver Bullet suffers from many of the same problems though. I generally don't like werewolf movies. I like An American Werewolf in London and The Wolf Man (1941) and that is about it. I'm of a similar mindset. There are only a few werewolf movies I actually like. Silver Bullet (1985) An American Werewolf in London (1981) The Wolf Man (1941) The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) You could maybe add Dog Soldiers (2002) to that, but that's essentially it an Evil Dead movie with werewolves taking the place of demons. I forgot about Dog Soldiers. I like that movie, but you do raise a good point with the Evil Dead comparison. I think it is different enough to where I wouldn't go as far as to say it is essentially the same movie but with werewolves though.
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Post by wmcclain on Jun 24, 2020 11:22:52 GMT
Silver Bullet (1985), directed by Daniel Attias. Without warning, residents of a peaceful little town are being murdered in a savage fashion. The kid in the motorized wheelchair figures it out first: werewolf. How to convince the others? Soon they know the identity of the cursed being. Now what to do? This seems like a "date" horror film, something like Carpenter's The Fog (1980): a few scary moments but not terribly gruesome. The director -- on his first job -- said he did not care for horror films and tried to put in more humor and human interest, hoping for a PG13 rating. Producer Dino De Laurentiis and writer Stephen King had other ideas and it is in fact "R". The werewolf effects are rudimentary and we mostly get glimpses. For some reason effective wolf-beast-man creatures are hard to present. Carlo Rambaldi is credited as "werewolf suit creator"; he had no time or budget. The young people are very good. Corey Haim is just excellent as a happy kid in a wheelchair without a trace of self-pity. He gets one quiet moment watching the other kids playing baseball and we understand that it's not all good times. Megan Follows is very natural as his over-burdened big sister. Love in the large, but much irritation day by day. Then we have Gary Busey as Uncle Red, a big kid himself. He has his own disability -- booze -- and the parallel he draws between the brother/sister and he and his own sister (the mom) eventually comes home to him. The director wanted Busey for the role, but says he was high maintenance, requiring more time than both kids put together. Great ensemble of loved character actors: Terry O'Quinn and Bill Smitrovich (who would both be in the Millennium TV series a decade later), and James Gammon as the first victim. I mostly know Everett McGill from Twin Peaks, but also remember him from Dune (1984) and Heartbreak Ridge (1986). I recall a pair of TV critics finding this really vile for putting a wheelchair kid in peril. Not Siskel and Ebert; must have been the other guys. Available on Blu-ray on an all-region import from Umbrella in Australia. Quality is just fair. Several extras and two commentary tracks: a conversation with the director and another with the composer.
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Post by James on Jun 25, 2020 1:49:43 GMT
7.5/10. I found it to be enjoyable. I remember the cast being good, especially Busey.
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Jun 25, 2020 15:43:48 GMT
It's better than most of the Steven King adaptations from that era but that isn't saying much. It's ok and has some good points like the cast and some of the atmosphere stuff. However, it is not in my top 5 werewolf movies by a long shot.
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Post by Raimo47 on Jun 25, 2020 18:38:24 GMT
9/10
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Post by quagsjonny on Jun 26, 2020 2:35:41 GMT
I think this is underrated. An older brother had the book, that's a graphic novel.... Gary Busy doing his own stunts makes me cringe at CGI. Fury Road 2. Do it Mr Miller.
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Post by Hurdy Gurdy Man on Nov 13, 2020 15:47:55 GMT
I feel that it is one of the more under-seen and under-appreciated adaptations of a Stephen King work.
The acting quality is solid all around. I especially love the relationship between the brother and the sister. It is believably acidic without being unbearable and when the time comes for them to bond, they show that well too.
The look of this film is very striking. That kind of sun-lit small town summer look which used to be in many 80s films. That kind of look doesn't exist anymore. Nowadays all films look too dark. Even harsh sunlight in them looks like twilight sometimes. Maybe it is because of the digital cameras or post production process. I don't know, I am not that knowledgeable about technology. I am just commenting on what I see.
One thing that could have been better, though, is the design and look of the werewolf. Coming after such groundbreaking monster looks in AAWiL and Howling, they could have pulled this one off a lot better. Especially when you have giants like Carlo Rambaldi and Rob Bottin among the crew.
I just remembered... I had managed to save an old thread of mine on old FG from 2016. My writeup from that thread as below:
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Post by drystyx on Nov 13, 2020 16:11:45 GMT
A very good film. I call it the best of the werewolf movies. It has a lot of inspiration. The unlikely hero uncle is a great idea that is almost never used. Hollywood seems to favor the married man and father to be the voice of reason, and in real life, this is never so. No woman ever married a "Ward Cleaver". That makes this very refreshing.
The characters are great. I found it very easy to predict who the werewolf was, but that didn't take away from the inspiration of the story. The characters were great. The "hunt" scene was superb.
8/10.
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Nov 14, 2020 1:15:56 GMT
5/10 Its fine but never really could get into it fully.
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Post by novastar6 on Apr 16, 2021 18:09:08 GMT
I liked it. I'm confused though because I thought the sister narrating mentions that her brother died, but I just got through watching it and I didn't hear anything about it.
And maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't seen a lot of werewolf movies...but this is the first one I know of where the werewolf actually remembers in human form, what happened in wolf form, the reverend KNOWS who put his eye out.
Oh also, the way Gary Busey talks, and moves, etc., does this remind anybody of Beetlejuice? Not Michael Keaton, the 90s cartoon, I was watching him when he unleashed the new Silver Bullet, and it just hit me, he's like Beetlejuice.
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