Silver Bullet (film)
Encyclopedia
Silver Bullet is a 1985 horror film based on the Stephen King
novella Cycle of the Werewolf
. It stars Gary Busey
, Everett McGill
, Megan Follows
, Corey Haim
, Terry O'Quinn
, Lawrence Tierney
, Bill Smitrovich
, Kent Broadhurst
, David Hart
, and James Gammon
. The film is directed by Dan Attias
and produced by Dino De Laurentiis
.
of four. Her narration centers on her strained relationship with her younger, paraplegic brother Marty (Haim) and their parents. Their rocky relationship changes after a series of murders in their small rural town of Tarker's Mills, Maine
.
First, a railroad worker, Arnie Westrum (Gammon), is killed by a werewolf
. The county coroner
believes that Arnie passed out on the railroad tracks and was run over by a train. Soon after, a local woman, Stella Randolph (Wendy Walker), prepares to commit suicide because she is unmarried and pregnant. Before she can act, she is murdered, and although it is offscreen her mother was also murdered. This murder goes unsolved and the townsfolk become worried. The next victim, Milt Sturmfuller (James A. Baffico
), whose daughter is Marty's girlfriend, hears a racket in his shed. Believing teenagers are making mischief, Sturmfuller plans to scare them off with a shotgun. Instead, he encounters the werewolf and is killed. His family leaves town. Next to die is teenager Brady Kincaid
(Joe Wright
), Marty's best friend, who stayed out too late one night while flying a kite.
After Brady's death, citizens led by local gun shop owner Andy Fairton (Smitrovich) form a vigilante
justice group. Although local Sheriff
Joe Haller (O'Quinn) and his lone deputy (Hart) attempt to stop the citizens, the officers relent after being berated by Brady's father (Broadhurst). In the middle of the melee, Baptist
Reverend Lester Lowe (McGill) attempts to prevent the townsfolk from causing further bloodshed. After the vigilantes go out hunting for the killer, several are attacked and killed, including Owen Knopfler (Tierney). The survivors later deny seeing anything unusual. After the vigilantes are attacked, Reverend Lowe dreams that he is presiding over a mass funeral when his congregation -- including the dead bodies in the caskets -- begins to transform into werewolves before his eyes. He awakes and asks God to "let it end."
When Jane and Marty's parents go out of town, they leave alcoholic Uncle Red (Busey) in charge. Uncle Red builds a wheelchair/motorcycle for his nephew's birthday, which he nicknames the "Silver Bullet". Marty uses that vehicle to go out in the middle of the night to a small bridge where he lights fireworks. Marty is confronted by the werewolf and barely escapes with his life by launching a rocket into the left eye of the creature.
Marty enlists Jane's help to look for someone with a newly injured or missing left eye. The search is conducted under the cover of the church's bottle drive
, so as not to arouse suspicion. When Jane turns her bottles in, she discovers that Reverend Lowe is missing his left eye. A cat and mouse chase ensues between the Reverend and the siblings. Lowe, who has more or less gone insane, uses Judeo-Christian logic to rationalize the murders he has committed: he cites Randolph's murder during her suicide attempt as his effort to save her soul; Westrum was a severe alcoholic; he implies that Sturmfuller was abusing his wife and possibly his daughter (this is made explicit in the novel); and the vigilantes intended to murder someone in cold blood. Lowe's logic cannot explain Brady's murder, however.
The siblings manage to convince Red that Lowe is behind the murders. Uncle Red then persuades Sheriff Haller to investigate. That night, Haller, skeptical but desperate to find a killer, is shocked to discover evidence that at least some of Marty's story may be true. Haller finds Lowe, who has locked himself in his garage, but before Haller can arrest him, Lowe transforms and kills Haller.
Red, Marty, and Jane have a final showdown with the werewolf. Marty shoots the werewolf in the right eye with a silver bullet
, killing him. Afterwards, the bond between Marty and Jane is strengthened.
felt a certain kinship with the Uncle Red character and was allowed to ad lib all of his lines in certain takes of each scene in which he appeared. Although he read the lines as scripted in most of the takes, Stephen King
and Daniel Attias liked the ad lib scenes better and decided to include most of Busey's ad lib scenes in the final cut of the film.
King asked that the werewolf be ambiguous, plain, and hard to see, in contrast to the hulking monsters seen in other werewolf films and books in the early-to-mid-1980s, with the end result being a creature which looked more like a bear than anything else and did not really have any identifying characteristics. After seeing Carlo Rambaldi's
design, per King's request, producer Dino de Laurentiis
was very unhappy and demanded a change, which both King and Rambaldi refused. Eventually pre-production fell behind schedule and director Don Coscarelli
opted to start filming the non-werewolf scenes without knowing what would happen with the werewolf suit. After completing the non-werewolf scenes and not having any clear picture about what would happen with the film Coscarelli resigned as director and was replaced with Attias. When pressured to either cancel the film or accept the design de Laurentiis relented and allowed filming to continue with Rambaldi's werewolf suit. A modern dance actor was hired to perform the stunts inside the suit but de Laurentiis was also unhappy with his performance and demanded a change. As a result Everett McGill
, who played Revered Lester Lowe in human form, wound up acting out most of the scenes in the werewolf suit and was credited with a dual role.
In the novella there was a character named Alfie Knopfler who owned the only diner in the town. In the film the Knopfler character was changed to the owner of the town's only bar as more action took place in the bar than in the diner and the character was deemed too important to cut or diminish. His first name was changed to Owen and the name of the bar was Owen's Bar. This was done in reference to King's son Owen
.
Another theme is imperfection. The primary protagonist is an 11-year-old boy who uses a wheelchair. Busey plays a drunken womanizer who seems to have given up on having any kind of a life. Lowe makes efforts to prevent himself from killing someone frequently, by hiding in secluded areas in the woods on three occasions, in Sturmfuller's shed once, and by locking himself in his garage once, but fails in every effort.
. Filmed in 1985 and set in 1976, the film makes no reference to its New England
setting. No type of New England slang is used in the film.
None of the characters speak in any kind of a New England accent. Perhaps the only reference to the Maine setting is the inclusion of the Maine State Police
in the film's plot. The film begins in spring and ends on Halloween
- spanning a typical baseball season - although the Boston Red Sox
are never mentioned nor is any Red Sox apparel seen. The film also doesn't include music which was popular in the area at the time. None of the surrounding towns, counties, or highways are mentioned.
by Paramount Pictures
in October 1985. It grossed $10,490,791 at the box office.
The film was released on DVD
by Paramount Home Entertainment
in 2002.
The film was not heavily anticipated when it was released and received mixed reviews, garnering a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
.
Roger Ebert
gave the film three stars out of four, saying that the film "is either the worst movie ever made from a Stephen King story, or the funniest." Ebert admitted that he thought that the film was a parody of the novella and of King's work in general but said that he enjoyed the film. Felix Vasquez Jr. of Film Threat
called Silver Bullet "a great horror film."
The film had its equal amount of retractors however. James Kendrick of Q Network Film Desk said that the film "feels episodic and slight, little more than a slasher film in which the slasher is a lycanthrope." Scott Weinberg
of DVDTalk.com called the film "[a] horror flick for young fans who aren't quite prepared for the really scary stuff."
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
novella Cycle of the Werewolf
Cycle of the Werewolf
Cycle of the Werewolf is a short horror novel by Stephen King, featuring illustrations by renowned comic book artist Bernie Wrightson. Each chapter is a short story unto itself. It tells the story of a werewolf haunting a small town as the moon turns full once every month...
. It stars Gary Busey
Gary Busey
William Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
, Everett McGill
Everett McGill
Everett McGill is an American actor, best known for mostly playing villains in films like Licence to Kill, Silver Bullet, Dune, Yanks and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.-Life and career:...
, Megan Follows
Megan Follows
Megan Elizabeth Laura Diana Follows is a Canadian/American actress. She is most known to international audiences for her role as Anne Shirley in the acclaimed 1985 Canadian television miniseries Anne of Green Gables and its two sequels.-Biography:Follows was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as the...
, Corey Haim
Corey Haim
Corey Ian Haim was a Canadian actor, known for a 1980s Hollywood career as a teen idol. He starred in a number of films such as Lucas, Silver Bullet, Murphy's Romance, License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream...
, Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn is an American actor, most famous for playing John Locke on the TV series Lost. He made his debut in a 1980 television movie called F.D.R.: The Last Year. Since then, O'Quinn has had minor supporting roles in films and TV movies such as Young Guns, All the Right Moves, Silver Bullet,...
, Lawrence Tierney
Lawrence Tierney
Lawrence Tierney was an American actor, known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and hardened criminals, which mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law....
, Bill Smitrovich
Bill Smitrovich
-Personal life:Bill Smitrovich was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna and Stanley William Zmitrowicz, a tool and die maker. Bill is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport and holds an MFA from Smith College . He is married to Shaw Purnell from Pittsburgh, PA...
, Kent Broadhurst
Kent Broadhurst
Kent Broadhurst is an American actor. He is known for his part as the hypnotherapist in Dream Theater's special Scenes from a Memory concert performed at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City and released on DVD as Metropolis 2000: Scenes From New York.He was born in St...
, David Hart
David Hart (actor)
David Hart in Marianna, Florida, is an actor best known for his portrayal of Sgt. Parker Williams on the hit television series In the Heat of the Night. He also appeared in numerous commercials including IHop Restaurants, Maxwell House Coffee, Coors Light Silver Bullets, John Deere, and GE...
, and James Gammon
James Gammon
James Richard Gammon was an American actor, known for playing grizzled "good ol' boy" types in numerous films and television series.-Early life:...
. The film is directed by Dan Attias
Dan Attias
Daniel Attias is an American television director and producer. Attias' career has spanned three decades and during this time he has directed a significant number of popular primetime television programs, including Miami Vice and Beverly Hills, 90210...
and produced by Dino De Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
.
Plot
Jane Coslaw (Follows), the narrator of the film, is the oldest sister in a dysfunctional familyDysfunctional family
A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is...
of four. Her narration centers on her strained relationship with her younger, paraplegic brother Marty (Haim) and their parents. Their rocky relationship changes after a series of murders in their small rural town of Tarker's Mills, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
.
First, a railroad worker, Arnie Westrum (Gammon), is killed by a werewolf
Werewolf
A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...
. The county coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
believes that Arnie passed out on the railroad tracks and was run over by a train. Soon after, a local woman, Stella Randolph (Wendy Walker), prepares to commit suicide because she is unmarried and pregnant. Before she can act, she is murdered, and although it is offscreen her mother was also murdered. This murder goes unsolved and the townsfolk become worried. The next victim, Milt Sturmfuller (James A. Baffico
James A. Baffico
James Angelo Baffico is an American television soap opera director, producer and occasional script writer. Born in San Francisco, California, has a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, an M.A. and B.A. from the University of Nebraska. He also played the character Wooley in George A. Romero's...
), whose daughter is Marty's girlfriend, hears a racket in his shed. Believing teenagers are making mischief, Sturmfuller plans to scare them off with a shotgun. Instead, he encounters the werewolf and is killed. His family leaves town. Next to die is teenager Brady Kincaid
Brady Kincaid
Brady Kincaid is a fictional character in the Stephen King universe. He appears in the novella Cycle of the Werewolf and the film Silver Bullet.- Role in the Novella :...
(Joe Wright
Joe Wright
Joe Wright is an English film director best known for Pride and Prejudice, Atonement and Hanna.-Early life and career:...
), Marty's best friend, who stayed out too late one night while flying a kite.
After Brady's death, citizens led by local gun shop owner Andy Fairton (Smitrovich) form a vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
justice group. Although local Sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
Joe Haller (O'Quinn) and his lone deputy (Hart) attempt to stop the citizens, the officers relent after being berated by Brady's father (Broadhurst). In the middle of the melee, Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
Reverend Lester Lowe (McGill) attempts to prevent the townsfolk from causing further bloodshed. After the vigilantes go out hunting for the killer, several are attacked and killed, including Owen Knopfler (Tierney). The survivors later deny seeing anything unusual. After the vigilantes are attacked, Reverend Lowe dreams that he is presiding over a mass funeral when his congregation -- including the dead bodies in the caskets -- begins to transform into werewolves before his eyes. He awakes and asks God to "let it end."
When Jane and Marty's parents go out of town, they leave alcoholic Uncle Red (Busey) in charge. Uncle Red builds a wheelchair/motorcycle for his nephew's birthday, which he nicknames the "Silver Bullet". Marty uses that vehicle to go out in the middle of the night to a small bridge where he lights fireworks. Marty is confronted by the werewolf and barely escapes with his life by launching a rocket into the left eye of the creature.
Marty enlists Jane's help to look for someone with a newly injured or missing left eye. The search is conducted under the cover of the church's bottle drive
Glass recycling
Glass recycling is the process of turning waste glass into usable products. Glass waste should be separated by chemical composition, and then, depending on the end use and local processing capabilities, might also have to be separated into different colors. Many recyclers collect different colors...
, so as not to arouse suspicion. When Jane turns her bottles in, she discovers that Reverend Lowe is missing his left eye. A cat and mouse chase ensues between the Reverend and the siblings. Lowe, who has more or less gone insane, uses Judeo-Christian logic to rationalize the murders he has committed: he cites Randolph's murder during her suicide attempt as his effort to save her soul; Westrum was a severe alcoholic; he implies that Sturmfuller was abusing his wife and possibly his daughter (this is made explicit in the novel); and the vigilantes intended to murder someone in cold blood. Lowe's logic cannot explain Brady's murder, however.
The siblings manage to convince Red that Lowe is behind the murders. Uncle Red then persuades Sheriff Haller to investigate. That night, Haller, skeptical but desperate to find a killer, is shocked to discover evidence that at least some of Marty's story may be true. Haller finds Lowe, who has locked himself in his garage, but before Haller can arrest him, Lowe transforms and kills Haller.
Red, Marty, and Jane have a final showdown with the werewolf. Marty shoots the werewolf in the right eye with a silver bullet
Silver bullet
In folklore, the silver bullet is supposed to be the only kind of bullet for firearms that is effective against a werewolf, witch, or other monsters...
, killing him. Afterwards, the bond between Marty and Jane is strengthened.
Cast
- Gary BuseyGary BuseyWilliam Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
as Uncle Red - Everett McGillEverett McGillEverett McGill is an American actor, best known for mostly playing villains in films like Licence to Kill, Silver Bullet, Dune, Yanks and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.-Life and career:...
as Reverend Lester Lowe/Werewolf - Corey HaimCorey HaimCorey Ian Haim was a Canadian actor, known for a 1980s Hollywood career as a teen idol. He starred in a number of films such as Lucas, Silver Bullet, Murphy's Romance, License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream...
as Marty Coslaw - Megan FollowsMegan FollowsMegan Elizabeth Laura Diana Follows is a Canadian/American actress. She is most known to international audiences for her role as Anne Shirley in the acclaimed 1985 Canadian television miniseries Anne of Green Gables and its two sequels.-Biography:Follows was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as the...
as Jane Coslaw - Terry O'QuinnTerry O'QuinnTerry O'Quinn is an American actor, most famous for playing John Locke on the TV series Lost. He made his debut in a 1980 television movie called F.D.R.: The Last Year. Since then, O'Quinn has had minor supporting roles in films and TV movies such as Young Guns, All the Right Moves, Silver Bullet,...
as Sheriff Joe Haller - Robin Groves as Nan Coslaw, Marty's mother
- Leon RussomLeon RussomLeon Russom is an American Emmy-nominated actor.Russom has appeared in numerous television shows, particularly soap operas. He portrayed Admiral Toddman and the Starfleet Commander-in-Chief in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country...
as Bob Coslaw, Marty's father - Bill SmitrovichBill Smitrovich-Personal life:Bill Smitrovich was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna and Stanley William Zmitrowicz, a tool and die maker. Bill is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport and holds an MFA from Smith College . He is married to Shaw Purnell from Pittsburgh, PA...
as Andy Fairton - Lawrence TierneyLawrence TierneyLawrence Tierney was an American actor, known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and hardened criminals, which mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law....
as Owen Knopfler - Kent BroadhurstKent BroadhurstKent Broadhurst is an American actor. He is known for his part as the hypnotherapist in Dream Theater's special Scenes from a Memory concert performed at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City and released on DVD as Metropolis 2000: Scenes From New York.He was born in St...
as Herb Kincaid, Brady's father - James GammonJames GammonJames Richard Gammon was an American actor, known for playing grizzled "good ol' boy" types in numerous films and television series.-Early life:...
as Arnie Westrum - Wendy Walker as Stella Randolph
- James A. BafficoJames A. BafficoJames Angelo Baffico is an American television soap opera director, producer and occasional script writer. Born in San Francisco, California, has a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, an M.A. and B.A. from the University of Nebraska. He also played the character Wooley in George A. Romero's...
as Milt Sturmfuller - Joe WrightJoe WrightJoe Wright is an English film director best known for Pride and Prejudice, Atonement and Hanna.-Early life and career:...
as Brady Kincaid, Marty's best friend. - David HartDavid Hart (actor)David Hart in Marianna, Florida, is an actor best known for his portrayal of Sgt. Parker Williams on the hit television series In the Heat of the Night. He also appeared in numerous commercials including IHop Restaurants, Maxwell House Coffee, Coors Light Silver Bullets, John Deere, and GE...
as Pete Maxwell, deputy Sheriff
Production
Filming began in October, 1984 and took about two-and-a-half months to complete, finishing shortly before Christmas. In the novella the werewolf was said to snarl in nearly human words and the werewolf was supposed to speak in the original screenplay, although this was eliminated after a rewrite. Gary BuseyGary Busey
William Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
felt a certain kinship with the Uncle Red character and was allowed to ad lib all of his lines in certain takes of each scene in which he appeared. Although he read the lines as scripted in most of the takes, Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
and Daniel Attias liked the ad lib scenes better and decided to include most of Busey's ad lib scenes in the final cut of the film.
King asked that the werewolf be ambiguous, plain, and hard to see, in contrast to the hulking monsters seen in other werewolf films and books in the early-to-mid-1980s, with the end result being a creature which looked more like a bear than anything else and did not really have any identifying characteristics. After seeing Carlo Rambaldi's
Carlo Rambaldi
Carlo Rambaldi is an Italian special effects artist who is most famous for designing the title character of the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the mechanical head-effects for the creature in Alien...
design, per King's request, producer Dino de Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
was very unhappy and demanded a change, which both King and Rambaldi refused. Eventually pre-production fell behind schedule and director Don Coscarelli
Don Coscarelli
Don Coscarelli is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for horror films. His credits include the Phantasm series, The Beastmaster, and Bubba Ho-Tep.-Biography:...
opted to start filming the non-werewolf scenes without knowing what would happen with the werewolf suit. After completing the non-werewolf scenes and not having any clear picture about what would happen with the film Coscarelli resigned as director and was replaced with Attias. When pressured to either cancel the film or accept the design de Laurentiis relented and allowed filming to continue with Rambaldi's werewolf suit. A modern dance actor was hired to perform the stunts inside the suit but de Laurentiis was also unhappy with his performance and demanded a change. As a result Everett McGill
Everett McGill
Everett McGill is an American actor, best known for mostly playing villains in films like Licence to Kill, Silver Bullet, Dune, Yanks and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.-Life and career:...
, who played Revered Lester Lowe in human form, wound up acting out most of the scenes in the werewolf suit and was credited with a dual role.
In the novella there was a character named Alfie Knopfler who owned the only diner in the town. In the film the Knopfler character was changed to the owner of the town's only bar as more action took place in the bar than in the diner and the character was deemed too important to cut or diminish. His first name was changed to Owen and the name of the bar was Owen's Bar. This was done in reference to King's son Owen
Owen King
Owen Philip King is an American author and the youngest son of authors Stephen and Tabitha King. He has two older siblings, Naomi King and Joseph Hillstrom King, and grew up in Bangor, Maine...
.
Themes
The main theme of the film is the duality of man. Many characters are seen as pillars of the community but are revealed to have reprehensible characteristics. Andy Fairton is a gun shop owner and leader but also an alcoholic who disdains authority and clumsily leads the vigilantes into a massacre before eventually denying the existence of the werewolf. Haller is well liked and a community leader but knuckles under to the mob justice of the vigilantes when pressured. Revered Lester Lowe is also seen as a great community leader but is also the werewolf. This theme was also present throughout the novel. In addition, Lowe's curse and the duality of man theme was likely taken from the werewolf priest folk tale.Another theme is imperfection. The primary protagonist is an 11-year-old boy who uses a wheelchair. Busey plays a drunken womanizer who seems to have given up on having any kind of a life. Lowe makes efforts to prevent himself from killing someone frequently, by hiding in secluded areas in the woods on three occasions, in Sturmfuller's shed once, and by locking himself in his garage once, but fails in every effort.
Setting
The film, like many other King works (and the novella on which the film is based), is set in a small fictional town in MaineMaine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. Filmed in 1985 and set in 1976, the film makes no reference to its New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
setting. No type of New England slang is used in the film.
None of the characters speak in any kind of a New England accent. Perhaps the only reference to the Maine setting is the inclusion of the Maine State Police
Maine State Police
The Maine State Police is the state police agency for Maine, which has jurisdiction across the state. It was created in 1921 to protect the lives, property, and constitutional rights of the citizens of the State of Maine.-Vehicles:...
in the film's plot. The film begins in spring and ends on Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
- spanning a typical baseball season - although the Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
are never mentioned nor is any Red Sox apparel seen. The film also doesn't include music which was popular in the area at the time. None of the surrounding towns, counties, or highways are mentioned.
Release
The film was released theatrically in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
in October 1985. It grossed $10,490,791 at the box office.
The film was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
by Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment is the division of Paramount Pictures dealing with home video founded in late 1975.-History:...
in 2002.
The film was not heavily anticipated when it was released and received mixed reviews, garnering a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film three stars out of four, saying that the film "is either the worst movie ever made from a Stephen King story, or the funniest." Ebert admitted that he thought that the film was a parody of the novella and of King's work in general but said that he enjoyed the film. Felix Vasquez Jr. of Film Threat
Film Threat
Film Threat is a former print magazine and, now, webzine which focuses primarily on independent film, although it also reviews DVDs of mainstream films and Hollywood movies in theaters. It first appeared as a photocopied zine in 1985, created by Wayne State University students Chris Gore and André...
called Silver Bullet "a great horror film."
The film had its equal amount of retractors however. James Kendrick of Q Network Film Desk said that the film "feels episodic and slight, little more than a slasher film in which the slasher is a lycanthrope." Scott Weinberg
Scott Weinberg
Scott Glenn Weinberg is an American attorney best known for defending high-profile criminal cases in the state of Michigan.-Career:Scott Weinberg began his career as a U.S. Treasury Bond Trader at the Chicago Board of Trade in 1989...
of DVDTalk.com called the film "[a] horror flick for young fans who aren't quite prepared for the really scary stuff."