"What's a kid gonna shoot a silver .44 bullet at anyway?"
Finally. With this 4K Collector’s Edition from Scream Factory, a long requested top 10 horror film arrives with picture-perfect clarity!
Stephen King’s Silver Bullet, starring Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Corey Haim, Anne of Green Gables’ Megan Follows, and LOST’s Terry O’Quinn is still a howling good time of canine carnage. It is the movie in which Dino De Laurentiis takes on lycanthropy with the help of a bevy of strong character actors, including Bill Smitrovich from Life goes On. It begins, as most things do when featuring werewolves and such nighttime creatures, with a full moon. It is, in fact, the last full moon of the spring, arriving right before school lets out for summer vacation and, just like that, the killing begins.
Poor Arnie (James Gammon). The sad drunk gets his head lopped off by one of these creatures just after the opening credits finish. It is a suspenseful moment that is capped off with the slow motion toss of a blood-soaked head through the night air. And then we settle into the “booger” antics of the wheelchair bound Marty (Haim) and his best friend Brady Kincaid (Joe Wright) as they aim to torment Marty’s sister, Jane (Follows) with a snake.
Welcome back to the small rural town of Tarker's Mills, Maine. A place where people care a bit too much about themselves as the shotguns, especially when the murders start happening with no suspect in sight, fly off the shelves. Even Marty’s Uncle Red (Busey), who is sort of a mentor to Marty as he starts dealing with some pretty hairy and supernatural events, winds up getting involved in this sort of mob mentality, rendering the local sheriff and his crew pretty damn ineffective.
Werewolves in Maine. Who’d believe it?
Now, for you hardcore horror fans out there, Silver Bullet might not be up to snuff. I still stand by it as the film manages to provide a solid introduction into the werewolf genre. With decent practical effects (even if there was some major disagreement on the look and lighting of the werewolf which caused the original director, Phantasm’s Don Coscarelli, to drop out), Silver Bullet provides some seriously strong bites in its transformation.
Who can forget the eye peering through the plants in the greenhouse of Milt Sturmfuller (James A. Baffico)? Or the brutality inflicted upon Stella Randolph (Wendy Walker) after her man dumps her when he discovers that she is pregnant. This is rough stuff and the mob that gathers in the local bar to track down the killer– none of which have been deputized – aren’t helping matters at all. Not even Reverend Lowe (McGill) can talk sense into the armed group of vigilantes. Trouble is bound to happen and it is brutal in its rollout.
So, yeah, werewolves, firecrackers, a drunken Busey, lynch mobs and Stephen King. It’s all here in one neat Silver Bullet. It’s an asskicker, idn't it?
Collector's Edition / 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Home Video Distributor: Shout Factory
Available on Blu-ray - December 5, 2023
Screen Formats: 2.35:1
Subtitles: English SDH
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
Discs: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set
Region Encoding: 4K region-free; blu-ray locked to Region A
Stephen King's Masterful Werewolf Novelette Comes Alive! In Stephen King's thrilling adaptation of his novelette, Cycle of the Werewolf, a peaceful town is suddenly terrorized by a maniacal killer. The townsfolk think a madman is on the loose, but a wheelchair-bound 13-year-old (Corey Haim, The Lost Boys) knows the truth…a werewolf is on the hunt. With the help of his Uncle Red (Gary Busey, Lethal Weapon), young Marty Coslaw sets out to stop the half-man/half-beast before he sinks his teeth into another innocent victim. Now, time is ticking…and the full moon is about to rise.
VIDEO
Silver Bullet gets to be brand new all over again. Maybe now it will find the right audience. The new scan of the original film is crisp and bright, adding a lot of pop to the scenic locations used throughout this hair-raising tale of werewolves. Colors absolutely pop. Locations, both at night and during the day, are vibrant. The town at night is full of depth and well-defined shadows. Black levels are solid and deep. Presented in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, the 4K Ultra HD transfer looks great.
AUDIO
The howling sounds of madness and death are presented in a crisp DTS-HD Master Audio track.
Supplements:
Commentary:
- Audio Commentary With Producer Martha De Laurentiis
- Audio Commentary With Director Daniel Attias
Special Features:
- NEW Audio Commentary With Producer Martha De Laurentiis
- NEW Cutting To The Bone – An Interview With Editor Daniel Loewenthal
- NEW A Little Private Justice – An Interview With Actor Kent Broadhurst
- The Wolf Within – An Interview With Actor Everett McGill
- Full Moon Fever – The Effects Of Silver Bullet – An Interview With Special Effects Artists Matthew Mungle And Michael McCracken
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Composite Blu-ray Grade
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MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 95 mins
Director: Daniel Attias
Writer: Stephen King
Cast: Gary Busey; Everett McGill; Corey Haim
Genre: Horror
Tagline: It Started in May in a Small Town. And every month After that whenever the moon was full... it came back.
Memorable Movie Quote: "I feel like a virgin on prom night."
Theatrical Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: October 11, 1985
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: December 5, 2023.
Synopsis: In a small town, brutal killings start to plague the close knit community. Marty Coslaw, a paraplegic boy, is convinced the murders are the doings of a werewolf.
