Ever think back to old horror flicks that scared the living daylights out of you when you were a kid? Did you ever find yourself rewatching them in an effort to relive the thrills, be all freaked out again? Well, that's how I ended up nabbing Silver Bullet and sitting down for a good old fright night.

I had fond memories of that movie. It was one of those flicks that effectively built up a chilling atmosphere. Be it the laidback town itself, its surrounds or the hungry werewolf, everything looked frightened you. So you can understand why I always slumped that movie in the 'Guaranteed to give sleepless nights' category. The scene with the blood on the kite, the angry balding man shouting about his dismembered kid, the murdered woman in her bedroom … these scenes lingered in your mind, gave you shivers when you thought back to it. And the fact that the movie is based on a Stephen King novel certainly gives it extra street cred, doesn't it? Which is why I was surprised to find a werewolf wielding a baseball bat when I caught the movie the second time around. Eh? What! I didn't remember such a cheesy moment, I kept telling myself later.  

Bear with me, I'll come back to the baseball bat. Let's go on with the story first. The overall plot of the movie is pretty good, with just some minor glitches. You get a cozy little small town that is suddenly under attack by a werewolf. Actually, folks think it might some sort of weird serial killer. After all, 'Ooh it must be a mythical creature, look at the gnaw bites on that body' is not the first thought that should occur to anyone, no matter how much time you spend in a pub. Anyway, the folks in town are antsy and folks start getting on each other's nerves at the pub. People make snide remarks at the sheriff and his assistants, men thump their chest and do the whole 'what are you going to do about it' move. Generally, you can pick up the mood of the whole town in the local pub and this seems true for this movie. You probably think I am going on about the pub but check it out, that place features quite extensively in the flick.

So, back to the story. Folks are getting mauled and people are obviously scared/angry/bitter/finally finding something to talk about at pub. And they are slowly migrating towards the idea of a 'monster in town'. I must say that the scene where they found the missing kid is still rather disturbing. We understand the kid's fate through the reactions of the sheriff, the kid's dad and from the folks in the pub (see what I said about them being a mood gauge). However, I do wish the sheriff had pulled the guy away from the crime scene. It's probably not the best idea to let him linger around a horribly mutilated body. Well, you realize that later on, when the sheriff appeases a riled up 'let's kill the monster ourselves' crowd. At the most inappropriate moment, the dead kid's father shows up and argues for the bloodthirsty group. And he shows off a polaroid snapshot of his dead kid (seriously, how did he get that? Surely there's a law against that?). This ends up in this utterly brilliant moment that results in a really panicked man trying to stop the gun-toting crowd followed by a few more folks being eaten by a werewolf. That's the baseball bat moment right there; one guy attempts to maim the creature with the bat, the monster snatches it from him and badgers away with the bat. End of the day, there is yet another funeral in the Church, with three more people being buried in the town graveyard. 

So far, the kids are somewhat carefree though. To some extent anyway. It is the children, particularly Marty, who first suspect that something is amiss. I suppose his best buddy being mutilated by a monster had something to do with it. And that telltale story of weird sounds from the greenhouse made him suspicious as well. Technically, it should make anyone wary (Rats? Mice? Giant rabbits? Noises in a greenhouse/shed are never good signs) but as it is in horror flicks, the kids are the first to get scared. Oh and there was that incident where Marty comes face to face with the werewolf at night on a bridge.

That starts Marty's little escapades with the werewolf. The smart kid that he is, he manages to injure the werewolf in one eye whilst the townfolk are faffing about in foggy marshes and then licking their wounds in the pub. This makes it easy to trace the creature in human form, right? Not quite. Firstly, convincing everyone that he is a monster doesn't work out. Secondly, sending him threatening letters about his dark secret ends up a doubly bad move. Now you have a really angry one-eyed werewolf, one who is sore about his injuries, worried about his other self being exposed and irritated at the cut-and-paste blackmail letters (he saw you on the bridge, kid. He knows who would send them.) The showdown is about to start. How will Marty faceoff the werewolf?

Whilst this movie had its share of cheesy moments (which means more than one baseball bat scene), it still counts as one of the best horror flicks from the 80s. For one thing, King does an excellent job portraying the story from a kid's perspective. A lot of writers opt for this as it enhances the feeling of helplessness surrounding the character. However, many movies mess this up by showing the kids as either irritating or objects to be saved. King strikes a nice balance where the kids do depend on adults but they are also quite capable of reacting when the time arises. Case in point, look at Mr one-eyed, soon-to-be blinded Werewolf. This point leads to the second aspect that I liked about the movie. The main character, Marty, is wheelchair-bound kid but King never describes this as a major hindrance for the kid. Well, as you can imagine, the kid has a lot more difficulties to face than other kids and escaping a werewolf is not that easy in such a situation. However, King adds to the kid's support group and Marty's personality where the kid never acts or feels completely helpless.