This Needs a Cinematic Revisit

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Neesy

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May 24, 2012
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Just revisiting this film (well actually we recorded it for the 2016 Halloween Horror movie thread)

It does have a nice vibe to it - not a lot of blood and guts and violence and the kid in the Silver Bullet wheelchair is a really nice little boy

tumblr_nq6vqcRcjy1qg8i80o1_500.jpg


First time viewing for my son Josh - I told him the movie is older than him - it was made in 1985!
 

Steffen

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Aug 9, 2015
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Just revisiting this film (well actually we recorded it for the 2016 Halloween Horror movie thread)

It does have a nice vibe to it - not a lot of blood and guts and violence and the kid in the Silver Bullet wheelchair is a really nice little boy

First time viewing for my son Josh - I told him the movie is older than him - it was made in 1985!

You are quite correct abut the vibe. Films like this one inspired Stranger Things. I still maintain that a new version is warranted, but they need to choose the right creative talent to get the proper aesthetic. AND get Rick Baker to do the creature designs.
 

Nomik

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Jun 19, 2016
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I am having technical difficulties: 1. The movie (Silver Bullet) did not record the other night and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it the first fifty three times.2. I had a friend over tonight (more like I kidnapped this female neighbor out of sheer desperation) and right in the middle of watching Unfriended, the cable stopped functioning.

Now they I've gotten the meaningless blather out of the way, I will weigh(ha ha) in on the idea of a cinematic revisit.
Why???? Should some things best be left preserved perfectly in the cinematic context from whence they are lagacizedn Why?? What's wrong with the original? GOOD Lord, can't we just leave a masterful piece of storytelling preserved in the Amber of pre -Pixar bliss?
The acting may have been terrible, but in my mind, it is superb. I can visualize Gary Busey right now saying "holy jumped up bald headed Jesus palomino"
. . .
"What the heck are you going to shoot a silver 44 at anyway?"
"How about a werewolf?"

It's not necessary for this to reincarnate itself, in fact, I might call it sacrilegious.
Then again, if it meant that another generation of movie watchers would enjoy his work- so be it. Personally, I would fight tooth add nail to leave this as it is. I'm usually wrong though.
 

Steffen

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Aug 9, 2015
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Silver Bullet was a great movie, yes, but it's one of the few SK stories that would benefit from a fresh approach. It won't be a remake. I would like to see a new film approach it from the point of view of the book, where the changing seasons synchronise with the plot. This is why I keep referring to the aesthetic: take a look at what Bryan Fuller did (splendidly) with the Hannibal TV series. That show was just damn beautiful to LOOK at. Check out the cinematography in Robert Eggers's The Witch: the woods are stark and foreboding, almost alive without any kind of digital enhancement. Also, special-effects technology has evolved to the point where, in the hands of a good film-maker, we can get a terrific cinematic realisation of Berni Wrightson's drawings. The closest I've ever seen to that is the werewolf in Michael Pare's Bad Moon (see examples below). Look at what Rick Baker did with the Wolf-Man in Universal's remake. Fantastic make-up/prosthetics combined with just the right touch of CGI made for a splendid, mythic looking beast (unlike the CGI vomit-fest that is the Underworld series).

BadMoon2.jpg


Bad-Moon.jpg
 

Sunlight Gardener

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Jul 22, 2013
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I just re-watched yesterday too. Gary Busey is so darn good in it. You know who else stole the movie for me acting wise? The balding guy who played Brady's Dad. He does a great job portraying the anguish and rage a stricken father might feel. I haven't seen him in too many things but he was awesome in this. When he gives that speech in the bar about "Private Justice"....wow. Made my arm hairs stand up. He was scary in the church dream sequence too.
 

KERoseRed

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Dec 15, 2016
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I agree one hundred percent. No reason for a re do. Leave it just as it is. All of the older Stephen King movies are a little bit cheesy, that's part of their appeal. I think remaking Dead Zone was a mistake, and in fact I have avoided several remakes by choice. The only exception to this for me would be the remake of The Shining. There's a place for Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, and it was one of the best creepy weirdo movies ever made. The Remake however dealt more with the alcoholism than the psychotic episodes which is as it should have been.
 

GNTLGNT

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Jun 15, 2007
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I agree one hundred percent. No reason for a re do. Leave it just as it is. All of the older Stephen King movies are a little bit cheesy, that's part of their appeal. I think remaking Dead Zone was a mistake, and in fact I have avoided several remakes by choice. The only exception to this for me would be the remake of The Shining. There's a place for Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, and it was one of the best creepy weirdo movies ever made. The Remake however dealt more with the alcoholism than the psychotic episodes which is as it should have been.
...big welcomes to ya!...
 
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Gerald

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The look of the werewolf was very much what SK wanted, even though De Laurentiis was opposed to it.
From the IMDb trivia:

"Stephen King asked that the werewolf be ambiguous, plain, and hard to see, in contrast to the hulking monsters seen in other werewolf films and books in the early-to-mid-1980s, with the end result being a creature which looked more like a black bear than anything else and did not really have any identifying characteristics. After seeing Carlo Rambaldi's design, per King's request, producer Dino de Laurentiis was very unhappy and demanded a change, which both King and Rambaldi refused. Eventually pre-production fell behind schedule and director Don Coscarelli opted to start filming the non-werewolf scenes without knowing what would happen with the werewolf suit. After completing the non-werewolf scenes and not having any clear picture about what would happen with the film Coscarelli resigned as director and was replaced with Attias. When pressured to either cancel the film or accept the design de Laurentiis relented and allowed filming to continue with Rambaldi's werewolf suit. A modern dance actor was hired to perform the stunts inside the suit but de Laurentiis was also unhappy with his performance and demanded a change. As a result, Everett McGill, who played Revered Lester Lowe in human form, wound up acting out most of the scenes in the werewolf suit and was credited with a dual role."

Can't wait til I get the blu-ray which has commentary by Attias. I wonder if he adresses all this. There are few commentaries (or other extras) which adress all that went wrong with a film, they tend to prefer to be rather positive about it. I don't know if they are urged by the companies to be positive, or that they think it's more fun to listen to. There often is a disclaimer about comments not being representative of the company, so I wouldn't see why they couldn't adress negative aspects.
 

Steffen

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Aug 9, 2015
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Yeah I'm gonna chalk that "decision" by SK up to uh...what's word... oh yeah!

Drugs.

Seriously, that movie is generally well-regarded, but those sucky werewolf designs prevent it from being ranked right up there with the best of 80s werewolf films like The Howling and An American Werewolf in London.
 

Gerald

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Yeah I'm gonna chalk that "decision" by SK up to uh...what's word... oh yeah!

Drugs.

Seriously, that movie is generally well-regarded, but those sucky werewolf designs prevent it from being ranked right up there with the best of 80s werewolf films like The Howling and An American Werewolf in London.

I didn't know SK's clout on the adaptations was that big. I thought a decision like this would be made by the producer finally. He wrote the screenplay for this one too, of course, so probably the ones he writes he is more directly involved with, but I didn't know his influence was that big on the final result.
It doesn't say WHY he wanted the werewolves that way, so hopefully that's answered on the blu-ray.
 

Marty Coslaw

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May 19, 2018
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There a FEW of King's works that I actually wouldn't mind seeing adapted again for film, and this is one of them. Silver Bullet was great, but it would be fantastic to see a more faithful version of Cycle of The Werewolf as a film or high-profile mini-series. I would love to see someone like Bryan Fuller have a go at it, because I think the aesthetic he brings to Hannibal is gorgeous and would fit perfectly with the book's theme of changing seasons. Hire Rick Baker to do the wolf designs (following Berni Wrightson's drawings) and we would have a pretty terrific end result, I believe.
It's a great thought. I love the original screenplay, and the original cast and score so much I'd be a harsh critic, but I think the original turns a lot of people off because it's so 80s.
 

Marty Coslaw

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Say what you want.....but to me it still looked way better than 99% of the big budget CGI crap effects that have come out in the past 10 years as far as monster movies go. Give me low budget makeup where they actually try to do something creative over multi million dollar cartoon looking garbage any day.
I'm with you on that. For one thing, when that movie came out, you were watching on a fuzzy square tv with a curved screen, probably less than 30 inches across. Those effects were pretty darn adequate when I first saw them. Newer movies that rely on CGI are almost always disappointing.
 

Marty Coslaw

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May 19, 2018
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Silver Bullet was a great movie, yes, but it's one of the few SK stories that would benefit from a fresh approach. It won't be a remake. I would like to see a new film approach it from the point of view of the book, where the changing seasons synchronise with the plot. This is why I keep referring to the aesthetic: take a look at what Bryan Fuller did (splendidly) with the Hannibal TV series. That show was just damn beautiful to LOOK at. Check out the cinematography in Robert Eggers's The Witch: the woods are stark and foreboding, almost alive without any kind of digital enhancement. Also, special-effects technology has evolved to the point where, in the hands of a good film-maker, we can get a terrific cinematic realisation of Berni Wrightson's drawings. The closest I've ever seen to that is the werewolf in Michael Pare's Bad Moon (see examples below). Look at what Rick Baker did with the Wolf-Man in Universal's remake. Fantastic make-up/prosthetics combined with just the right touch of CGI made for a splendid, mythic looking beast (unlike the CGI vomit-fest that is the Underworld series).

BadMoon2.jpg


Bad-Moon.jpg
I'm glad someone mentioned this one. Honestly, I've always felt Howling was overrated, and I even enjoyed a couple of the more absurd sequels in that series. Nearly all werewolf movies are a bit silly (and fun) at one point or another, and it's necessary, similar to the way it is with found footage movies, for the audience to take these movies on their own terms. "Bad Moon" is a great example. Great movie. I'd argue "Bad Moon" achieves some of the best creature effects of any wolf film (even without much polish), along with others like "Dog Soldiers" and "Late Phases." I'd say the 1985 "Silver Bullet" is right up there with the best, if falling short of the unequaled American Werewolf.

That's without mentioning that there's a lot more to a movie than the special effects on the creature, even if it is a monster movie. I think the ones I've mentioned have strong elements that surpass both AWIL and Howling in one way or another, along with "Wolf," "The Wolf Man," "WolfCop," and "An American Werewolf in Paris."
 

Steffen

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It's a great thought. I love the original screenplay, and the original cast and score so much I'd be a harsh critic, but I think the original turns a lot of people off because it's so 80s.

Funny enough, that hasn't been my experience. I've introduced that film to many people over the years, all of them far younger than me. They loved the film (and couldn't believe that Gary Busey was actually sane at one point in time), but disliked the werewolf make-up.
 

Marty Coslaw

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Funny enough, that hasn't been my experience. I've introduced that film to many people over the years, all of them far younger than me. They loved the film (and couldn't believe that Gary Busey was actually sane at one point in time), but disliked the werewolf make-up.
That's interesting to hear. The Busey aspect makes perfect sense to me, and I feel the same way, but I guess I'm surprised werewolf movie fans would be caught up in the makeup. But maybe that's just because I've been watching every werewolf movie I could find since I was 8 (I mean only that I got past scary makeup pretty early on, not that my opinion is more valid than anyone else's). I would say, for example, that even though American Werewolf in London is by far the best of all time, the achievement is really in that one transformation sequence in the apartment. You don't see the wolf much aside from that. The subway scene, which I think is the scariest moment of any wolf movie, is literally just a glimpse, and the big confrontation at the end isn't much more extensive (in terms of makeup and special effects). You could give extra points, maybe, to movies with lesser makeup effects which show the audience more, e.g. Dog Soldiers, Bad Moon. More importantly, I'm glad to hear there are new viewers enjoying this movie!
 

Dana Jean

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That's interesting to hear. The Busey aspect makes perfect sense to me, and I feel the same way, but I guess I'm surprised werewolf movie fans would be caught up in the makeup. But maybe that's just because I've been watching every werewolf movie I could find since I was 8 (I mean only that I got past scary makeup pretty early on, not that my opinion is more valid than anyone else's). I would say, for example, that even though American Werewolf in London is by far the best of all time, the achievement is really in that one transformation sequence in the apartment. You don't see the wolf much aside from that. The subway scene, which I think is the scariest moment of any wolf movie, is literally just a glimpse, and the big confrontation at the end isn't much more extensive (in terms of makeup and special effects). You could give extra points, maybe, to movies with lesser makeup effects which show the audience more, e.g. Dog Soldiers, Bad Moon. More importantly, I'm glad to hear there are new viewers enjoying this movie!
My favorite character in American Werewolf... was Jack. I loved that guy and every time he showed up -- in the theater was so hilarious when he brings all his friends.
 

Deviancy

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I Will Not be threatened by a walking meatloaf!!

I heard Meat Loaf is a really nice guy in person so I will not be threatened by him. Seriously, when it comes to Silver Bullet there's a way they can do a reboot and separate it from the original by just calling it Cycle Of The Werewolf. As much as I still enjoy the original, it got a little hard to watch films with Corey Haim in them, even The Lost Boys, because of how tragic his life got and how it ended. However, if they were to do a reboot, I wouldn't put it past them to cast a kid from Stranger Things, probably the kid who plays Will, he seems like a good fit.
 
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