Stephen King 5-Film Collection: Silver Bullet (Blu-ray Review)
Continuing my deep dive into the Stephen King 5-Film Collection, I took a look at Silver Bullet. The Gary Busey/Corey Haim led adaptation has its share of fans and also detractors. I hadn’t seen the film before, so it was the obvious next step for me. What I ended up with was one of the most quintessentially 80’s horror flicks I’ve seen in a while. Check out the review below and be sure to click the paid link at the end to order your copy of the collection!
Film
The tagline goes: “It started in May in a small town… After that, whenever the moon was full… It came back…” To quote Gene Hackman’s character in Get Shorty, Harry Zimm, “It’s a real grabber!” All smarminess aside, the tagline does work and werewolf films are always assuredly interesting. The werewolf always seems to be a tortured soul, often times sweet and genial when human, but gradually becoming something worse as the moon begins to become full. Silver Bullet is no different in this instance. But that’s where the similarity ends between this and other werewolf features.
Marty Coslaw (Corey Haim) and his sister Jane (Megan Follows) have moments where the best of friends and the worst of enemies. Marty is slightly younger than Jane, so the torturing younger brother routine is fitting. Jane is on the verge of 16 and is in more ways than one sick of her brother. Marty is disabled and wheelchair bound. Strong as ever, Marty still enables himself to be mobile, and is strong enough to climb trees and hang out with the boys. He also has a pretty cool motorized wheelchair that’s made by his favorite uncle Red (Gary Busey).
After a railroader is killed on the tracks, there is a speculation of foul play. The death is suspicious because the man is beheaded, but police say it was a railroad accident. Following a very insensitive breakup, another woman, Stella, also pregnant, plans to kill herself and is instead murdered by a hairy beast. Next, Marty’s best friend… and as they say, the mystery begins.
I would be remiss to go on, spoiling the film for people who haven’t seen it yet. Obviously, the mysterious beast is the werewolf… but just who is that bad boy? It could be any number of Stephen King characters – The abusive father, the town drunk, or the grief-stricken family man. There are so many King-isms involved in the film, as he was the screenwriter for Silver Bullet. Something that was extremely refreshing to me was the overall tone of the film. While grisly in its violence and often foul in it’s language, the film also has another side. Inside the short 94 minutes, we get some sort of coming-of-age family film aspects weaved in. Marty has a great bond with his sister and Uncle Red. When they team up to solve the mystery there is that 80’s magic that comes with many an 80’s film favorite. There are cheesy jokes, sweet moments and even a kindness to some scenes I just wasn’t expecting.
There are also the essential townspeople. We get the argumentative bar drunk, the tough bartender, a creepy priest, a rude hillbilly father, and some of the most unintentionally funny funeral sequences I’ve seen in a long time. This isn’t a criticism, but a welcome laugh to add to the goodness radiating out of the film. Performances are solid overall and the direction from Dan Attias is solid as well. There really is a great atmosphere to the film. I will also single out a chase scene in the film as having me genuinely concerned, which is rare for me personally in films.
Video
- Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC
- Resolution: 1080p
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Clarity/Detail: Paramount’s Silver Bullet disc is not going to launch 1000 ships, but it does the trick overall. Clarity is fine for the runtime with some softness popping up in wider shots, making close-ups nice and clean. Details aren’t sacrificed even with that softness at times.
- Depth: The depth department is handled nicely here. Despite some softness, close ups and densely designed interiors all look solid throughout.
- Black Levels: Blacks are nothing to scoff at here. The blacks are solid throughout, especially the creepy priest’s creepy priest outfit! Night shots are the right kind of dark too!
- Color Reproduction: Colors are reproduced very naturally. Nothing looks too warm, cool or blown out anywhere. Nice and even.
- Flesh Tones: Flesh tones appear accurate throughout. Some actors appear to be tanner than others, but that seems to be a natural thing. Flesh tones are one of the major strengths of this transfer.
- Noise/Artifacts: The film has a grainy look overall, but nothing to truly be concerned about.
Audio
- Format(s): English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono
- Subtitles: English SDH
- Dynamics: This appears to be the same mix included on the far superior Scream Factory collector’s edition disc. Overall this is a solid mix considering everything comes from the center channel. Dialogue though is mixed quieter than sound effects so you may be reaching for your remote when louder moments come into play.
- Height: N/A
- Low Frequency Extension: N/A
- Surround Sound Presentation: N/A
- Dialogue Reproduction: Solid when you’ve got the volume turned up to your preference.
Extras
Sadly, Paramount’s edition of Silver Bullet is featureless.
Summary
Silver Bullet is asinine, cheesy, funny and just the right amount of creepy. I can imagine this being a lot of fun at a teen slumber party and it’s a lot of fun now. There isn’t a great deal of plot development, but the film still works. Creature effects have also held up surprisingly well too, even if the Wolf himself leaves a little to be desired. This is another solid entry into the 5-Film Collection and one of the more fun entries too!
** Special Thanks to Brandon Peters, Whysoblu super writer for the unknowing use of some of his images!
**This is a paid Amazon link**
