Silver Bullet

SILVER BULLET

A wildly entertaining film that Stephen King scripted (based on his novella Cycle of the Werewolf), Silver Bullet follows a brother and sister (young Marty and teenager Jane) who live in a small town where someone authorities describe as “a maniac” has been picking off residents during full moons. Dense with lycanthropy action (the antagonist kills four people within the movie's first thirty minutes, though one death occurs off-screen), the story features some emotionally gut-wrenching beats (like when the father of a murdered child confronts the sheriff in a bar). 

 

The tale's midpoint consists of a way cool dream sequence set in the community's church.

One night Marty is out shooting off fireworks when the werewolf attacks him. Marty hits the beast in one eye with a rocket and gets away. He tells Jane what happened, and the next day she canvases the town looking for someone with only one eye. Soon enough Marty and Jane know the identity of the werewolf, and they set out (with the help of their uncle) to kill the beast before it gets them. I won't spoil the plot beyond this point.

 

In the foreword to a book that includes the screenplay and the novella on which it is based, Stephen King writes, “Is the picture any good? Man, I just can't tell. I'm writing without benefit of hindsight and from a deeply subjective point of view. You want that point of view? Okay. I think it's either very good indeed or a complete bust... After you've been through four drafts plus spot rewrites, the film itself seems like a hallucination when you first see it.”

Silver Bullet is a fantastic movie with richly-drawn characters, witty and realistic dialogue, and a plot that spins along at just the right pace with plenty of tense and horrifying scenes in which the werewolf strikes. It ranks alongside Ginger Snaps as one of my favorite werewolf films. 

 

Not all critics agree with me. A review in The Overlook Film Encyclopedia of Horror states that the project “is half-hearted horror” and says, “Set in a rural community populated by hysterical, intolerant, booze-befuddled, trigger-happy rednecks, this displays King's cynicism about the common people.” Roger Ebert wrote, “I know that a case can be made for how bad Silver Bullet is. I agree. It's bad. But it's not routinely bad. It is bad in its own awesomely tasteless and bubble-brained way...”

 

I urge you to check out Silver Bullet, for I perceive it as a superior horror movie. It's an anomaly: an R-rated project with kids as the central characters. That alone sets it apart from the pack.

It Follows

IT FOLLOWS

With a musical score and visual style that evoke the vibe of the best aspects of John Carpenter's early films, the 2015 project It Follows (written and directed by David Robert Mitchell) tells the tale of Jay, a young woman who lives with her mom and sister in a suburb. Jay sleeps with a guy who claims his name is Hugh. The dude then presses a chloroform rag to Jay's face and knocks her out. When Jay awakens, she's tied to a wheelchair in a crumbling abandoned parking garage, and Hugh explains that he has to show her something. He says that he's passed something on to her, and soon a “thing” (that can look like anyone) will be following her with the intent of killing her. He encourages Jay to sleep with someone else to pass “it” to that person, and he notes that whenever it kills someone it then goes after the previous person in line; no one who has ever encountered it is ever safe. The thing shows up in the form of a nude woman, and Hugh wheels Jay to his car and speeds away. Hugh advises Jay that the thing is “slow but not stupid.” Hugh dumps Jay in the street outside her abode, where her allies (sister Kelly and friends Paul and Yara) rush to help her. Thus begins Jay's ongoing waking nightmare.

At first skeptical of Hugh's story, Jay goes about her normal life until she spots an eerie old woman relentlessly walking toward her. Jay flees and next encounters the thing at her house, at which point she's utterly convinced of its reality (though her friends and sister don't believe her). Neighbor Greg drives the group to the abandoned house that Hugh had been renting, and there (within the pages of a pornographic magazine) they discover a photo print of “Hugh” with a classmate who sports a letterman jacket. Jay recognizes the school and in a yearbook finds her assailant, whose real name is Jeff. Jay and her posse go to his house, where (out in the yard) Jeff spouts more exposition and advises Jay to buy some time by driving somewhere. Greg takes the group to an isolated beachfront property where his dad used to take him hunting. There Kelly, Paul, and Yara become convinced of the thing's reality when it (invisible to all but the afflicted) attacks Jay from behind; Paul breaks a chair over the entity, which shoves him back with preternatural force. Greg (who had been off peeing and missed the assault) remains the only skeptic after the group escapes. Jay takes off in Greg's car, crashes, and winds up in the hospital where she sleeps with Greg to pass along the curse. To describe the plot from this point on would be to deprive a first-time viewer of some of the story's best frightening moments.

With an oddly-paced third act that's laced with a large degree of ambiguity, It Follows is not a perfect film, but it's an enthralling ride that pulls you through a tension-filled journey that largely takes place in an environment generally associated with safety and the American dream (the suburbs). Jay and her friends are pleasant characters to spend time with; there's a bit of business involving a fart early in the narrative that reveals how comfortable these kids are around each other, and it's a fine moment of levity to balance out the grim tone of the prologue (which reveals what can happen when the thing catches up to a victim). The soundtrack features synthesized rhythms that are as driving and unrelenting as the antagonist. It Follows is a singular project that filled me with dread the first time I watched it (at the movie theater in the spring) as I rooted for Jay to find some way, any way, to escape the seemingly unstoppable entity. Having just revisited the story on Blu-ray, I can testify that It Follows is even better the second time around, and I imagine it'll hold up to repeat viewings over the years ahead. The “monster” of It Follows is wholly unique and thought-provoking. I look forward to whatever cinematic yarn David Robert Mitchell spins next, and I hope he remains in the horror genre (his debut film, The Myth of the American Sleepover, is a straight-up ensemble drama). It Follows: utterly marvelous.