"Silver Bullet" review

Silver Bullet (1985)

Directed by Daniel Attias
Writing credits Stephen King

Gary Busey .... Uncle Red
Everett McGill .... Reverend Lowe
Corey Haim .... Marty Coslaw
Megan Follows .... Jane Coslaw

"Silver Bullet" is a werewolf movie done right.

Marty, (Corey Haim), is a handicapped kid with a snotty sister and the coolest Uncle in the world, (Gary Busey). I would have liked to have had an Uncle like that. One that would have bought me beer, dangerous fireworks and various other life threatening thrills. Sigh. Of course I didn't. But that is neither here nor there. Gary Busey is Marty's best friend. But even he has trouble believing that Marty did battle with a werewolf. His drunken Uncle is the only grown-up who can possibly help.

This movie is great for two reasons. One is Gary Busey. This must be one of his best roles. He should play a good guy more often. He's great in this one. Secondly, the werewolf is shown as an evil blood thirsty beast, not as some misunderstood, confused human who happens to get hairy when the moon is full. A lot of werewolf movies show the action from the werewolf's point of view. Empathy with the beast is always bad. Here we have our heroes trying to solve the bloodbath mysteries by looking for the wolf in human skin.

"Silver Bullet" is also respectful of the werewolf legend. The title says it all: You need a Silver Bullet to kill a werewolf. Period. The End. I hate it when movies mess with the legends for these monsters. The rules for killing them are etched in movie stone.

Very enjoyable werewolf flick. Busey and the Beast.

SCORE: 3 out of 4 Uncle Buseys