Silver Bullet
It started in May. In a small town. And every month after that whenever the moon was full...It came back.
Silver Bullet (1985)
Production
Budget
$7 000 000
Revenue
$12 361 866
Director
Scenario
Stephen King
Author
Composer
Jay Chattaway
Producer
Actors
Gary Busey
Uncle Red
Everett McGill
Reverend Lowe
Tovah Feldshuh
Older Jane (voice)
Megan Follows
Jane Coslaw
Corey Haim
Marty Coslaw
Terry O'Quinn
Sheriff Joe Haller
Robin Groves
Nan Coslaw
Leon Russom
Bob Coslaw
Short description
Silver Bullet is set in the small American town of Tarker's Mills, where a series of brutal killings shatters the peace. The attacks follow the full moon, and as residents begin to suspect something other than a human killer, fear takes hold and night-time life in the town shuts down. Marty Coslaw, a thirteen-year-old boy who uses a wheelchair, becomes convinced the culprit is a werewolf. His uncle Red is among the few who take him seriously, while the local reverend and sheriff figure among the townspeople drawn into the widening panic.
The film was directed by Daniel Attias, working from a screenplay by Stephen King based on his own illustrated novella. It was produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Martha De Laurentiis, and the cast includes Gary Busey as Uncle Red, Everett McGill as Reverend Lowe, Megan Follows as Jane Coslaw and Corey Haim as Marty. Produced on a budget of around seven million dollars, it took roughly twelve million dollars worldwide, a modest return. On IMDb it holds a 6.4 rating from about 35,000 votes, and on TMDB a 6.7 from roughly 725 votes; a critics' rating of 5.2 from 23 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Tarkers Mill, the setting for the film, is a fictional town in the Stephen King universe. It borders locations from other King books that have also been adapted for the screen, including, in particular, Chester's Mill from the series “Under the Dome” (2013-2015), Derry from the film “It” (Tommy Lee Wallace, 1990), and Castle Rock from the films “Needful Things” (Frazier Clarke Heston, 1993), “Cujo” (Lewis Teague, 1983), and “Pet Sematary” (Mary Lambert, 1989).
- According to director Daniel Attias, Gary Busey improvised in many scenes (for example, when Uncle Red enters the gun shop). Attias stated that he asked screenwriter Stephen King for his opinion on this, and King did not object to the improvisations.
- Gary Busey performed a significant portion of the stunts himself. Closer to the end of the film, in the scene where he is thrown onto furniture, a compressed air catapult had to be used. During the filming of the scene where Busey's character hit the mirror, the actor cut himself on the shards (one of which pierced his hand, causing bleeding). And his reaction to the werewolf breaking through the wall was genuine and not at all acted, because the scene had not been rehearsed (but was filmed in one take).
- The dream scene involved 70 extras, divided into four groups according to the degree of makeup and corresponding costumes. This included about a dozen fully made-up and costumed actors, who were used in close-ups, and the rest, who were filmed from a distance and were given makeup quickly, just to look menacing, and most importantly – to create the impression for the viewer that the room was packed.
- Stephen King specifically requested that the werewolf not appear particularly remarkable, so it would differ from the huge, shaggy monsters that had flooded screens and book pages between the early and mid-1980s. The result was a creature that resembled a bear more than anything else, and had no particularly noteworthy features. Upon seeing what special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi (1925-2012) had created at King's request, producer Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2010) demanded that the creature be redone, but King and Rambaldi refused. De Laurentiis was given an ultimatum (he could either accept the monster as it was, or cancel the project altogether), and he backed down. A modern dancer was hired to perform inside Rambaldi's costume, but De Laurentiis didn't like his performance either, and in the end, Everett McGill, who played the priest, performed a significant portion of the scenes in the werewolf costume.
- The exterior of the main characters' house was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, while the interior sets were built on studio soundstages. In the 1990s, the house was moved slightly to make way for a shopping center.
- The scene with the firecrackers on the bridge was filmed in two takes, several months apart. Filming wrapped in the fall of 1984, but it soon became clear that the bridge scene needed to be reshot. The crew didn't return for the reshoots until four months after principal photography had concluded, and they found that the bushes and trees surrounding the location had already almost lost their leaves. They had to spend a lot of time and effort finding angles from which this wouldn't be noticeable.
- Marty and Jane give Uncle Red a silver medallion and a cross to be melted down into a silver bullet. This contains a subtle reference to the legend of the Beast of Gévaudan, possibly the most famous werewolf legend in history, from which the myth arose that only silver bullets are effective against them. According to the legend, this creature terrorized the vicinity of the town of Gévaudan for three years. After the creature killed the wife and child of a local hunter, he melted down a silver cross (a family heirloom) into a bullet and ordered the priest to bless it three times. This legend became so popular that its elements became part of many fictional works about werewolves.
- Creating the werewolf costume took three months. After final decisions were made regarding the appearance (using three-dimensional clay models), the entire costume was made from foam rubber and polyurethane and covered with natural bear fur. Six people remotely controlled the head (the distance reached nine meters).
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