Check out Film School Rejects posts, 31 Days Of Horror. Today's entry, the 1985 movie, Silver Bullet, based on the short King book, Cycle of the Werewolf. The article is HERE.
Kevin Carr's review gives the movie high marks. I'm glad, since I think it's a greatly overlooked story.
Get this quote from a section titled, "Killer Scene" :
Forget the gore and the violence. A really strong scene in a horror movie is best achieved with a level of suspense. While this movie carried and R rating and had some levels of blood and creature effects in it, one of the best scenes features Marty in his wheelchair on a bridge in the middle of the night setting off fireworks. He is surprised by the werewolf, which has been stalking him. While it plays relatively short, it’s an effective moment in the film, and it allows Marty to display an uncommon level of cogent thinking (which is pretty rare for a horror movie) in order to escape. It’s also one of the most effective uses of a bottle rocket you’ll ever see in cinema history.The entire article is great!
Silver Bullet is a rarity in that it's one of the few times I've seen King enter Steven Spielberg - Ray Bradbury territory.
ReplyDeleteAs much of the horror on display, the film shares a lot of elements in common with the the fantasy flicks produced during that era (my childhood), from setting to music, and camera work, it;s 80s alright, and this is one occasion were it's to the film's strength.
Bullet is also an anomaly in that King gives us a picture of small town life that's mainly positive. not that there are negative elements, but that compared to Derry or Castle Rock, Tarker's Mills is almost a kind of nice place to live.
One thing I always liked is the opening music theme, it's just so Bradburyesque, it could easily belong in a book like Something Wicked this Way Comes or The Halloween Tree.
Speaking of which, I urge any interested in the history of the holiday to pick up Halloween Tree, it's like sociology text that's not boring, and contains some interesting implications of the holiday
ChrisC