History Film / SilverBullet

A 1985 film adaptation of Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/CycleOfTheWerewolf'', directed by Daniel Attias, produced by Creator/DinoDeLaurentiis, and starring Creator/CoreyHaim, Creator/MeganFollows, Creator/GaryBusey, Everett [=McGill=], Creator/TerryOQuinn, and Creator/LawrenceTierney.

* AscendedExtra: Brady's father Herb Kincaid is just mentioned once or twice in the book but has some notable scenes, including a ShamedByTheMob one, in the film. Brady himself appears in several earlier scenes as a friend of Marty.

* OhCrap: One member of the mob, Aspinall, has this reaction when he realizes the werewolf is there with them, hiding under the fog.

* CombatPragmatist: The werewolf (Reverend Lowe) is quite adept at using whatever weapon or object happens to be within easy reach, in addition to his ability to rip people to shreds barehanded.

** The werewolf also targets a very specific woman in her own home and breaks in to murder her there, which is uncharacteristic of most werewolves who in both mythology and other works of modern fiction keep to themselves for the most part and only attack those who enter into their territory.

* ResistTheBeast: Played with. Based on the dream he had, it was heavily implied [[spoiler: Reverend Lowe]] ''wanted'' to do this, since he considered his curse to be a nightmare. However, circumstances of the story where he loses an eye to Marty, receives a bunch of letters implying they know he's the werewolf and encourages him to commit suicide, and is possibly driven more and more insane by a combination of the full moon coming closer and losing his eye that it's practically ensured he never seriously tries to put this into practice or put any effort into maintaining his humanity in the face of the beast within himself.

** In the book, Constable Neary is a somewhat incompetent man who fails to follow up on good leads and despite boosting about good police work, during the next full moon is caught drinking and unprepared in his car. Sheriff Haller in the film is a more competent and professional authority figure who gets a good attempt at ShamingTheMob and does investigate more thoroughly.

* AdaptationInducedPlothole: In this movie, the werewolf actually goes in the wood to confront the hunters when they go looking for him, when he could have easily avoided them, seeing how he knew they were going to go look for him. In the original book, he instead leaves the town for the night so he will be out of their reach when he transforms. One possibility for this is that he didn't yet know that he was the werewolf in the film (whereas in the book the hunting parties went out after the werewolf had lost an eye and started receiving Marty's threatening letters, both of which helped make him realize the truth about himself).
* AdaptationTitleChange: ''Silver Bullet'' is based on the graphic novel "Cycle of The Werewolf".

** Milt is downplayed example. He's still pretty rotten to both Marty and his family but his book counterpart cheated on his wife (giving her an STD) and physically abused her with alarming regularity.

** In the book, Elmer Zinneman is one of the leaders of the hunters who go after the werewolf, and does so with careful and efficient planning while knowing that it is a supernatural beast their seeking. In the movie, Elmer is just a friendly passerby who sees Marty trapped on the covered bridge and interrupts, [[spoiler:Reverend Lowe's]] attempt on his life and wasn't even part of the mob of hunters.
** Arnie Westrum is shown to just be a drunken man whose decapitated from the shadows by the werewolf. In the book, he is hinted to be psychic (or at least keenly perceptive), having had omens about something bad coming to Tarker's Mill and not letting in the werewolf when he hears scratching at his door, as well as putting up a brief fight with his ice axe.

* BearTrap: When the posse searches the forest, one guy accidentally steps on to a bear trap.

** Jane believes him for reasons she can't quite explain, despite how crazy it sounds, and begins helping him track down anyone with an eye injury matching the one inflicted on the werewolf with a firework. [[spoiler: She discovers ''both'' a murder weapon and the injured Lowe.]]

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Red demonstrates himself throughout the movie as an irresponsible drunk who is the laughing stock of the town. The first thing he does when he sees the Werewolf? Smash a chair over its head, and then take it on with a fire poker.

** In the book the werewolf lay low while the posse hunted for [[spoiler:him.]] Here the werewolf goes after and kills several of them.
* DeathByPragmatism: [[spoiler: Once Sheriff Haller has no more leads, he decides to take a look at the reverend's place due to Red's earlier insistence. Once he actually finds some damning evidence, he is of course discovered by Lowe. Who then promptly transforms and bludgeons him to death.]]

** The werewolf is implied to have contemplated this, but [[spoiler:due to his religious beliefs, he can't bring himself to do it.]]

* GoryDiscretionShot: Subverted. We never see the act of [[spoiler:the werewolf killing Brady]], but while we see the bloody crime scene from a distance afterwards, along with [[spoiler:Brady’s kite covered in blood]], we never see the body itself. [[spoiler:Judging by how Brady’s Dad reacted though, it wasn’t pretty.]]

* InfantImmortality: Averted. The werewolf mauls young [[spoiler: Brady]] to death and kills a pregnant woman too. No-one is safe.

* {{Lunacy}}: DiscussedTrope. When Mary first start suspecting that a werewolf is behind the killings, Red just says its probably a psycho, since the "full moon drives them crazy". Once they know it's an actual werewolf, they believe the closer the full moon is, the more vicious it likely becomes.

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: When Red questions the culprit's supposed lycanthropy by pointing out that there wasn't full moon when Marty was attacked, Marty and Jane posit that while the stories say that the werewolves turn during the full moon, this werewolf may perhaps turn whenever he likes.

* RefugeInAudacity: Mr. Knopfler is attacked and dragged beneath the mist by the werewolf, and he makes a last-ditch effort to drive it off with his [[BatterUp baseball bat]]. We see a human hand rising out the mist and hitting with the bat twice, there is a beat, and then we see the werewolf's hand holding the bat and striking its victim instead.
** Also, the hunter who steps in a bear trap. His companion carefully pries open the device's "jaws", which have made a bloody mess of the man's ankle ... and then ''loses his grip'' when a call from another hunting team startles him, letting them champ down on the poor guy's leg all over again.

* TorchesAndPitchforks: After one death too many the town gathers an angry mob to go on a WitchHunt into the woods to find the killer. The search is poorly organized and at one point a townsman steps on bear trap, badly injuring himself. [[FromBadToWorse Then]] the werewolf shows up to start killing people.
* SavedByCanon: At the beginning of the film, an older [[spoiler: Jane is narrating the story so it's clear that she'll survive the events of the film]].

--> '''Red:''' "Accurate? Uh...they're just a gift. What would you shoot with a silver bullet?"\\
'''Gunsmith:''' "Maybe a werewolf?"
* ShamingTheMob: When the posse is organizing itself, Sheriff Haller tries talk them out of it. He is in turn shamed by [[spoiler: Brady's dad]], who's fresh off from his son's funeral.
* StupidEvil: Justified. Initially the wolf is smart enough to kill without drawing too much attention but, as the full moon draws near, he becomes more savage and his victims more numerous. A drunk dying by the railway doesn't draw suspicion. However mauling a woman and a child to death sparks a mass manhunt for the killer. [[spoiler:An act which leads Lowe to wittingly murder three more people and brings himself even closer to being caught.]]

* TitleDrop: Marty's SuperWheelchair

* WhamShot: [[spoiler: When Jane is returning bottles for the bottle drive, she talks to Reverend Lowe, who's on his knees gardening with his back to her. Then the camera cuts to his face -- and, complete with ScareChord, we see that he's sporting an eye-patch over the same eye that Marty damaged on the werewolf...]]

** Deputy Sylvester who never appears when [[spoiler:Haller is hearing Red and Marty's suspicions]] or after [[spoiler:Haller is killed.]]

A 1985 film adaptation of Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/CycleOfTheWerewolf'', directed by Daniel Attias, produced by Creator/DinoDeLaurentiis, and starring Creator/CoreyHaim, Megan Follows, Creator/GaryBusey, Everett [=McGill=], Creator/TerryOQuinn, and Creator/LawrenceTierney.

* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Stella is a deeply lonely, middle-aged virgin in the book and a younger woman upset about being abandoned her boyfriend after getting pregnant in the film.

A 1985 film adaptation of Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/CycleOfTheWerewolf'', directed by Daniel Attias, produced by Creator/DinoDeLaurentiis, and starring Creator/CoreyHaim, MeganFollows, Creator/GaryBusey, Everett [=McGill=], Creator/TerryOQuinn, and Creator/LawrenceTierney.

A 1985 film adaptation of Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/CycleOfTheWerewolf'', directed by Daniel Attias, produced by Creator/DinoDeLaurentiis, and starring Creator/CoreyHaim, Creator/MeganFollows, Creator/GaryBusey, Everett [=McGill=], Creator/TerryOQuinn, and Creator/LawrenceTierney.

A 1985 film adaptation of Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/CycleOfTheWerewolf'', directed by Daniel Attias, produced by Creator/DinoDeLaurentiis, and starring Creator/CoreyHaim, Creator/GaryBusey, Everett [=McGill=], Creator/TerryOQuinn, and Creator/LawrenceTierney.

** Mr. Knopfler manages this twice over in a CompositeCharacter sort of way. In the book he is just a random victim who runs the diner in the book. In the film, he's a no-nonsense bartender whose quick to break up fights with threats of his baseball bat, and joins in the hunting parties that pursue the werewolf. Billy Robertson, the local bartender from the book is also less tough than Knopfler, letting a drunk leave his bar despite knowing it might be a werewolf night, and not talking back to a belligerent customer out of fear of being hit.

* AdaptationInducedPlothole: In this movie, the werewolf actually goes in the wood to confront the hunters when they go looking for him, whebyn he could have easily avoided them, seeing how he knew they were going to go look for him. In the original book, he instead leaves the town for the night so he will be out of their reach when he transforms. One possibility for this is that he didn't yet know that he was the werewolf in the film (whereas in the book the hunting parties went out after the werewolf had lost an eye and started receiving Marty's threatening letters, both of which helped make him realize the truth about himself).

** Several minor townspeople who never encounter the werewolf in the book, including RecurringExtra principal Ollie Parker, barmaid Elise Fournier (who moves away out of fear of the werewolf) and hot-headed gas statin attendant Pucky Davis.

** Arnie Westrum is shown to just be a druken man whose decapitated from the shadows by the werewolf. In the book, he is hinted to be psychic (or at least keenly perceptive), having had omens about something bad coming to Tarker's Mill and not letting in the werewolf when he hears scratching at his door, as well as putting up a brief fight with his ice axe.

* ProperlyParanoid: After what he did to its eye, Marty expects the werewolf to come after him in one form or another for both revenge and to prevent any chance of the truth coming out. [[spoiler:Lowe]] makes that abdunently clear very shortly.

* TorchesAndPitchforks: After one death too many the town gathers an angry mob to go on a WitchHunt into the woods to find the killer. The search is poorly organised and at one point a townsman steps on bear trap, badly injuring himself. [[FromBadToWorse Then]] the werewolf shows up to start killing people.

* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Stella is a lonely, middle-aged virgin in the book and a younger woman upset about being abandoned her boyfriend after getting pregnant in the film.
* AdaptationInducedPlothole: In this movie, the werewolf actually goes in the wood to confront the hunters when they go looking for him, whebyn he could have easily avoided them, seeing how he knew they were going to go look for him. In the original book, he instead leaves the town for the night so he will be out of their reach when he transforms.

** Mr. Knopfler is just a random victim who runs the diner in the book. In the film, he's a no-nonsense bartender whose quick to break up fights with threats of his baseball bat, and joins in the hunting parties that pursue the werewolf.

** Local principal Ollie Parker, a RecurringExtra among the townsfolk.

** Marty and Jane. Marty gets a cooler, motorized wheelchair in contrast to his normal one from the book and the two go out trying to find the werewolf's identity rather than stumbling across it accidentally while trick or treating.

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Zigzagged (although not as much as in the book, where Marty's family [[spoiler:Don't notice Lowe's eyepatch for so long due to going to a different church]]). Reverend Lowe is a major character and a Baptist, but the town also has a catholic priest whose a minor character (he's the hunter with Virgil who steps into a bear trap).

* AdaptationalBadass: The werewolf was no slouch in the book, but his method of dealing with the mob hunting him during the full moon was to move to another town for the night so they wouldn't find him. In this movie, he actually goes to confront them, and ''wins''.
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Stella is a lonely, middle-aged virgin in the book and a younger woman upset about being abandoned by her boyfriend after getting pregnant in the film.
* AdaptationInducedPlothole: In this movie, the werewolf actually goes in the wood to confront the hunters when they go looking for him, when he could have easily avoided them, seeing how he knew they were going to go look for him. In the original book, he instead leaves the town for the night so he will be out of their reach when he transforms.

** Marty's grandparents.
* AdaptationalWimp: In the book, Elmer Zinneman is the leader of the hunters who go after the werewolf, and does so with careful and efficient planning (waiting until winter so the leaves will have fallen off the trees and the werewolf won't be able to hide and ambush them in the forrest), while knowing that it is a supernatural beast their seeking. In the movie, Elmer is just a friendly passerby who sees Marty trapped on the covered bridge and interrupts, [[spoiler:Reverend Lowe's]] attempt on his life and wasn't even part of the mob of hunters.

* EpicFail: An angry mob goes into the woods in a bid to drive out the killer. They don't suspect he's among their number, which is a real possibility, and no-one knows the killer is also a werewolf. All it accomplishes is adding four more victims to bury.

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Zigzagged (although not as much as in the book, where Marty's family [[spoiler:Don't notice Lowe's eyepatch for so long due to going to a different church]]). Reverend Lowe is a major character and a protestant, but the town also has a catholic priest whose a minor character (he's the hunter with Virgil who he steps into a bear trap).

* StupidEvil: Justified. Initially the wolf is smart enough to kill without drawing too much attention but, as the full moon draws near, he becomes more savage and his victims more numerous. A drunk dying by the railway doesn't draw suspicion. However mauling a woman and a child to death sparks a mass manhunt for the killer. [[spoiler:An act which leads Lowe to wittingly murder four more people and brings himself even closer to being caught.]]
* SuperWheelchair: Marty's uncle Red rigs up a [[TitleDrop silver-painted]] wheelchair/motorcycle combo for his nephew as a gift.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Deputy Sylvester who never appears when [[spoiler:Haller is hearing Red and Marty's suspicions]] or after [[spoiler:Haller is killed.]]

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Zigzagged (although not as much as in the book, where Marty's family [[spoiler:Don't notice Lowe's eyepatch for so long due to going to a different church]]). Reverend Lowe is a major character and a protestant, but the town also has a catholic priest whose a minor character (he's the hunter with Virgil when he steps into a bear trap).

* OhCrap: One member of the mob has this reaction when he realizes the werewolf is there with them, hiding under the fog.

* TheSheriff: Joe Haller.

* AssholeVictim: At least two of the werewolf's victims fell under this category.
** The first was Milt Sturmfuller, the overbearing father of Marty's girlfriend. From the way he talked to his daughter, it could be inferred that he was pretty emotionally abusive to her at the very least. He also made some pretty nasty remarks about Marty even though Marty hadn't done anything to him.
** The second was Andy Fairton, the local hotheaded yokel at the bar who had a habit of insulting and getting into arguments with the local cops. He was also the one who organized most of the town into a mob to hunt the werewolf, which in turn leads to his own demise.