Silver Bullet (1985, R)

Stephen King is one of my favorite authors, so I feel compelled to watch any movie based on a book of his.  One day I'll learn better.  There are some good movies based on his books (The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) but there are also some pretty sub-par ones (the second attempt at Carrie, The Running Man [I know it's a cult movie now, but if you've read the book, the movie will make you cry])... OK, now that I look at the filmography, most that I've seen don't fall below "just OK", but I still find that pretty disappointing (Sometimes They Come Back, The Langoliers, Pet Semetary, Thinner).  I think Silver Bullet is my least favorite yet.  The credits say it's "based on a novelette by Stephen King,"  but that might be generous.  I know filmmakers love to base films on Kings stories - and there are plenty to choose from, with over 60 books to his name, several of which are collections of short stories - but this one is the shortest yet: Cycle of the Werewolf is about 20 pages (compared to his average of 500-600), and was intended to be a calendar! It has about one page per month of the year (on the full moon) plus illustrations.  So we can only expect so much in terms of plot.

The lead role of Marty is played by a 14-year-old Cory Haim and the film is narrated by his sister's character as if she's recalling it in her adulthood recalling how they didn't get along.  Gary Busey plays the crude fun-loving Uncle Red who has a great rapport with Marty (and soups up his electric wheelchair).  I get the feeling that the movie would be a lot more fun for a 10-13 year old boy then it would be for me.  It's a shame it's rated R, though I get the impression that is mostly for the gore which I thought was appallingly cheesy (for an adult).  Yeah, it's the kind of movie to watch at a sleepover with friends when my parents are asleep (not that I'm condoning this of course).  Everett McGill plays the town reverend and helps keep up the film's creepy-face quotient.  Cory Haim never wowed me and Gary Busey always weirds me out, so the cast and acting is nothing to write home about. 

In case it wasn't obvious, the story is about a werewolf terrorizing a small town (I imagine in Maine, because it's Stephen King, though it was not mentioned explicitly).  This is another movie that's only available to stream through this weekend (gone 10/1/12), but unless you share my accursed completionist mentality and are a fan of King and/or werewolves (or if it's late and your friends want to watch a cheesy werewolf movie) you shouldn't skip anything important (or even mediocre) to catch Silver Bullet.