There was a time in the 80's that almost anything Stephen King wrote would be sure to arrive at the local Cineplex within a year. It was the decade that brought us stellar adaptations like The Shining and Christine, entertaining fare such as Cat's Eye, and middling productions like Firestarter. Then there are all the films in the middle of the pack. Silver Bullet is such a movie. And even though it doesn't hit the nadir of later King-based flicks such as The Mangler and The Tommyknockers and it has a lot in it to enjoy, I just didn't find it to be overly entertaining or satisfying.

Things open the way they should (that being bloodily, in case you're wondering) as a drunken railroad worker is decapitated by a clawed, unseen creature while stumbling around the tracks late at night. It's a top-notch scene and tells us instantly that there's something amiss in the small, mid-Western town of Tarker's Mill.

The year is 1976 and we're introduced to fifteen-year-old Jane (Megan Follows) and her wheelchair bound brother Marty (Corey Haim). They're your typical bickering siblings and have never had to worry about much in their quiet little town. But that's about to change as people start turning up dead and mutilated. The adults in town believe it's the work of a deranged serial killer but they know differently upon encountering a snarling werewolf. The only person they manage to convince is their heavy-drinking Uncle, Red (Gary Busey), which doesn't exactly help their case.

The remainder of Silver Bullet has Marty and Jane trying to track down who our shape-shifting killer is while various townsfolk meet their end at the claws of our vicious beast. This gives director Daniel Attias (making his debut here before going on to a long career directing various television series episodes) the chance to stage some surprisingly bloody and violent attack sequences as well as a failed dream sequence where Marty sees local Reverend Lowe (Everett McGill) and his parishioners turn into werewolves, and a decently done chase sequence involving a covered bridge, before it ends with the under whelming finale.

Based on King's novella, "The Cycle of the Werewolf", this is notable for being one of the first screenwriting attempts by King to adapt his work for the big-screen. And, surprisingly enough, he doesn't do too badly as our young lead actors feel genuine and have a good rapport between them, he captures the feel of a small town quite well, and it generally feels like a monster movie should. So why do I feel so indifferent towards Silver Bullet? Maybe it's because its following in the footsteps of genre-bending werewolf films like An American Werewolf in London and The Howling, or perhaps it's the fact the tone of the film shifts between comedy and outright horror more than it should - which is quite evident when our creature uses a baseball bat during the mob justice sequence. I should also quickly throw in that the title has double meaning as both the thing that kills werewolves and the souped-up wheelchair that is built for Marty by his loving Uncle. I much prefer the original title.

As mentioned above, Haim and Follows are definitely the best things here and it was easy to buy them being brother and sister from the way they played off each other. Busey gets to crack a lot of one-liners in his role but I found him to go a little bit too over-the-top here. I've read a lot of opinions saying that he's the best thing here but I found his nuttiness to get tiring (though looking at how his career has gone since, perhaps it wasn't that much of a "performance" per se). McGill actually turns in the weakest performance here as he's not menacing enough and it was quite fun to see Terry O'Quinn (The Stepfather) playing the town's Sheriff.

If you're a fan of King's work then you could do worse than Silver Bullet. Like I said, there's a handful of things here to really enjoy and the creature effects by Carlos Rambaldi (E.T., 1976's King Kong, Dune) aren't too bad - just don't expect to be wowed like when you first saw Rick Baker's work in American Werewolf. But, for me personally, I didn't get enough from it to make it anything more than a forgettable time I have little desire to revisit in the future. (Chris Hartley, 9/29/09)

Directed By: Daniel Attias.
Written By: Stephen King.

Starring: Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Corey Haim, Megan Follows.