Silver Bullet

Initially conceived as a series of vignettes for an illustrated calendar, the project first grew into the 12 chapters of a short novel (“Cycle of the Werewolf”, 1983), and then, after catching the eye of producer Dino De Laurentiis, was adapted into a feature film.

The story was written by Stephen King, who also handled the film’s screenplay, churning out a sort of dark tale that despite its inevitable succinctness, still encompasses the author’s familiar themes and situations, from its depiction of small-town squabbles to its focus on the world of children and adolescents. As is often the case in stories penned by the “Master of Horror”, the hero turns out to be a kid with some sort of disability who witnesses extraordinary events, and with rare exception, has a tough time getting adults to believe him (“If we tell anyone… grownups, I mean, they’d laugh“).

With his clean and simple direction, newcomer Dan Attias sticks to the basics, avoiding vain virtuosity as works to make best use of Armando Nannuzzi’s fine cinematography. Besides, the story is about as straightforward as one could imagine: it flows straight to the epilogue with no detours, nor does it seem terribly interested in providing any backstory. In fact, the audience isn’t offered the slightest hint of an explanation as to why Reverend Lowe suddenly comes down with lycanthropy (in King’s novella, there’s a mention of a cemetery and a mysterious plant, a variety of “Mariphasa lupino lumino” capable of curing lycanthropy in the 1935 film “Werewolf of London“, but in King’s story it’s suspected of actually causing the condition: “I picked some flowers for the vases in the church vestry one day last November. […] I never saw such flowers before… and they were dead before I could get back to town. They turned black, every one. Perhaps that was when it started to happen”).

At any rate, this film as a whole is a bit bland and flies by without really engaging the viewer. Basically, other than a couple of violent killings effectively presented by special effects maestro Carlo Rambaldi, “Silver Bullet” looks more like a puppy dog compared to its werewolf cousins earlier in the decade. In fact, 1981 alone was a werewolf “annus mirabilis”, what with “The Howling”, “An American Werewolf in London” and “Wolfen” unleashing a triple dose of surefire lycanthropic exhilaration.