Silver Bullet

Another in the long and frenetic line of Stephen King books made into films is bestowed upon us with this one based on the ‘novelette’ Cycle of the Werewolf. Stephen King has also written the screenplay for this tale that sees a young crippled boy (not a new theme with King) and his sister uncover the awful truth about their small country town. They believe it’s terrorised by a werewolf who doesn’t just turn at the full moon, but does so in stages, just as the moon goes through its cycle.

"Bubby, you gonna make lemonade in your pants?"

There are plenty of classic Stephen King trademarks thrown in here as well as a simple bare bones horror mystery reminiscent of the good old days of splatter horror. Drunken hillbillies and inbred hooligans, lynch mobs with burning torches, crappy creature effects, buckets of claret and Corey Haim at about three years of age. Well, actually a little older, but he is so fresh faced here you just want to reach out and pinch his little cheeks. Hard. Then punch him.

King’s smalltown mindset appears in the majority of his films, as does the central theme of a mystery evil and one (or more) children who can see what adults are too blind or stupid to see. Here the townsfolk are literally grabbing pitchforks in their pursuit of the mystery beasty what’s carving a swathe through their inbred ranks. Unfortunately, there are so many pointers as to what is doing this evil and who it might be, it’s a little hard to get excited by this fairly average portrayal of a thrill from a bygone age.

King’s novels work so well on paper because he’s a true author (unlike DVD reviewers) and knows how to build tension cleverly through structured anticipation. In a story, or ‘novelette’ as the case may be, (what is that, a nicotine chewing gum?) there is a grey mist beyond the written word where things unspoken aren’t seen. They are implied when they are at their cleverest, but in a film, every frame is filled with detail that both a) clogs the original story up and b)leaves little to the imagination. I’m not saying this is the case in all translations or adaptations, but in a ‘novelette’ (who has ever heard of it being called that?) there isn’t a whole lot of detail to begin with. Start filling in that grey mist and suddenly things that aren’t so clear in a book are crystalline on film.

The ending comes about as well in such a limp fashion, all real tension is practically faded away so even though you know some ending must occur, the pacing of the film is long dead and it doesn’t hit anywhere near as hard as it wanted to. So while this is a watchable film (if only for the woefully clichéd performances), this again gets relegated to the pile of Stephen King books that didn’t quite make it to film successfully...

...Unlike the transfer, which is a bit of a credit to the authors. A sharp and practically artefact-free picture brings the full sized cinema aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (with enhancement) to the screen, though it tends to get wasted with no real wide usage. Colour is great and blacks are mostly true, but for one or two instances of greenism. Shadow detail is okay too, which is always a plus in a horror film. There’s one point in the church when the film resembles Michael Jackson’s Thriller film clip (almost, almost doing the dance too) and in fact the image is so clear at times that some of the dodgier rubber effects are a bit too visible.

The sound here is nicely balanced, and even though only presented in Dolby Digital stereo, this does an above average job. Dialogue is clear and easily understood (save for some particularly hillbilly slash redneck statements) and there are stacks of classic sound effects splashed about like cheap cologne. Rending, tearing, wet tears and chunks plus some classic stock screaming that goes a long way to adding toward the mildly homage feel.

Jay Chattaway’s musical score is what you’d expect from a scary movie score, building and deconstructing frequently to heighten the action. Not bad, but pretty run of the mill.

Nothing here but animated menus and the bloody irritating new Studio Canal logo. I never would have thought it, but it’s more annoying than their last one and plays twice as often.

When the lead adult character is named Uncle Red and there’s a motley collection of classic imagery and drunken rednecks getting torn apart by werewolves, you know this isn’t everyday cinema. Thank God. However, this is a watchable film with a couple of better moments, but the obviousness of the plot is just a little too hard to miss. In the books, he can keep you guessing when he needs to, but on film? This isn’t so easy.

One for the hardcore Stephen Kingers, but for everyone else this is but a fleeting shimmer as it crosses the sunshine on its way to the average adaptation pile.