YMMV / Late Phases

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • There's a bit of ambiguity as to whether Clarissa really dislikes Ambrose and wants him kicked off the bus into town or is simply going along with her friends opinions, based on how little she says in that scene. If nothing else, she seems less vehement about it, and after their bad first meeting still says that he can call if he ever needs help (and seems to mean it) before leaving.
  • Westmark the gunsmith, when he has a conversation with Ambrose about the silver bullets he was going to make, talks about The Lone Ranger instead of werewolves. Was Westmark really being Wrong Genre Savvy and didn't have a clue about Ambrose deciding to take on the werewolf? Or was he just playing dumb and implicitly knew what Ambrose was going to do (considering he lived in the town where all the werewolf killings took place) so he decided to just go along, play it cool, and quietly let Ambrose handle his business so he could personally fly under the radar and not attract too much attention to himself? Considering he was the only person in town who could make silver bullets, it's very possible Westmark was trying to lay low because he didn't know who the werewolf really was in town and Plausible Deniability was his best bet in the worst case scenario someone did come to him to inquire why he made the silver bullet for Ambrose.
• Cult Classic: The film slipped under the radar when it first came out but there are people out there who consider it to be one of the best werewolf films ever made.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The gunsmith Ambrose hires to make his silver bullets and the mail carrier whom Ambrose enlists to help follow the blood trail after the first werewolf attack are both only on screen for a minute or two but make strong impressions with their helpfulness and the nuances they give their characters.
  • Father Roger is a secondary character but feels like he could have carried the movie himself whenever he has a touching conversation with Ambrose that also teases him as a werewolf suspect.
  • Clarissa isn't the most prominent of the three Mauve Shirt welcoming committee ladies but is easily the most popular of them due to getting some nuanced, compassionate moments and being played by Tina Louise of Gilligan's Island.
  • Heroic Dog Shadow doesn't survive the first act, but effortlessly melts fans' hearts.
• Genius Bonus: Clarissa (in a Throw It In! by her actress) prays the Prayer of Saint Francis when James arrives at her house suspiciously, indicating that he's troubled. This is a reference to the religious tale of Saint Francis getting a dangerous wolf to leave a community alone by showing it kindness, something which unfortunately does not occur with James in result of that scene with Clarissa.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Ambrose is rude to most of the people around him and left his wife and son, but he's a deeply sad man who has some inner bitterness about his blindness, regrets his actions towards his family, has a bad These Hands Have Killed complex from the Vietnam War, and has his beloved dog and a neighbor he'd befriended killed.
  • James Griffen, the werewolf has a selfish and brutal streak and is willing to kill to survive, but does seem to suffer a lot of grief and guilt, and actually started out trying to fight a previous werewolf to keep people safe while not being believed.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Ambrose being stalked by a hooded figure (the un-transformed werewolf) outside of Shadow's grave.
  • The transformation scene.
• The Scrappy: The local cops, who show very little sympathy for the victims, and who have been unable to notice a pattern in the werewolf attacks for a year or more.
• Spiritual Successor: While not specifically marketed as one to Silver Bullet, with many fans noting several shared aspects between the films. Both feature many of the same elements. 1) a disabled individual investigating the identity of a werewolf that kills someone every month after being the first person to survive an attack. 2) A werewolf who is a Tragic Monster and struggles with a sense of humanity at first but ultimately gives in to his darkest impulses. 3) a clergyman among the suspects. 4) The werewolf being identified through an injury or disability. 5) Getting a silver bullet made from a gunsmith in a scene which references The Lone Ranger. 6) Preparing to be attacked in their house by the werewolf for the climatic scene. 7) The disabled individual is a flawed person with a family member who's tired of dealing with him but comes around to realizing how much their disabled family member means to them at the end of the movie.