October 11, 1985
Silver Bullet is a 1985 American horror film based on the 1983 Stephen King novella Cycle of the Werewolf. It stars Gary Busey, Everett McGill, and Corey Haim, with Megan Follows, Terry O'Quinn, Lawrence Tierney, Bill Smitrovich, Kent Broadhurst, David Hart, and James Gammon in supporting roles. The film is directed by Dan Attias, written by King and produced by Martha De Laurentiis.
Storyline
The rocky relationship between Jane Coslaw and her paraplegic younger brother, Marty, changes after a series of murders begin in their small rural town of Tarker's Mills, Maine, in the spring of 1976.
Railroad worker Arnie Westrum is decapitated by an unseen attacker. Pregnant Stella Randolph, preparing to kill herself, is brutally murdered in her bedroom along with her unborn baby. An abusive father, Milt Sturmfuller, is killed in his greenhouse, and Marty's best friend, Brady Kincaid, is also slain. Following Brady's death, the townspeople form a vigilante group. Despite Sheriff Joe Haller's attempts to stop them, he relents after Brady's father, Herb, angrily confronts him. Reverend Lester Lowe tries, but fails, to prevent the townsfolk from causing more bloodshed.
While the vigilantes hunt for the killer in the nearby woods, three of them are attacked and killed. The survivors — particularly Andy Fairton — later deny seeing anything unusual. Afterwards, Reverend Lowe dreams he is presiding over a mass funeral, only for the congregation — including the bodies in the caskets — to transform into werewolves and attack him. He wakes up screaming and pleads with God to "let it end."
As the unsolved murders continue to mount, curfews are put in place, canceling the town's Fourth of July celebration. The Coslaws decide to have their own backyard party and invite their mother Nan's alcoholic brother, Red. Red gifts Marty a custom-built wheelchair/motorcycle, which he nicknames the "Silver Bullet," along with a pile of fireworks for his own celebration. Marty sneaks out in the middle of the night to a bridge, where he lights the fireworks. The display draws the attention of the werewolf, who confronts Marty, but he escapes after firing a rocket into the creature's eye.
Marty enlists Jane's help to find someone with a newly injured or missing eye. She soon discovers that Reverend Lowe is missing his left eye. Knowing that no adult would believe his story, Marty sends anonymous notes to Reverend Lowe, telling him that he knows who and what he is, and that he should kill himself to stop the murders. In response, Lowe tries to run Marty off the road. When Marty becomes trapped under a covered bridge, the increasingly deranged Lowe attempts to justify the murders as doing God's work in eliminating sinners. Just as Lowe moves in for the kill, a passerby arrives, saving Marty.
The siblings manage to convince Red that Lowe is responsible for the murders and tried to kill Marty. Red persuades Sheriff Haller to investigate. That night, Haller, still skeptical but desperate, goes to Lowe's house, only to find the reverend has locked himself in his garage to prevent further killings. Before Haller can arrest him, Lowe transforms into a werewolf and kills Haller with a baseball bat.
Realizing the werewolf will come for them next, Marty and Jane convince Red to take Jane's silver cross and Marty's silver medallion to a gunsmith, who melts them down into a silver bullet.
On the night of the full moon, they wait for Lowe. He cuts the power to the house and breaks in, attacking Red. In the chaos, the silver bullet is nearly lost, but Marty retrieves it and shoots Lowe in his right eye. Lowe reverts to his human form before dying. As the trio recover, Marty and Jane embrace, with Jane narrating that although she had not always been able to express it, she could now tell Marty that she loved him.
Movie Trailer
- Silver Bullet (1985) (Trailers)