Silver Bullet (1985)

Silver Bullet (1985)

Director: Daniel Attias

Cast: Corey Haim, Gary Busey, Everett McGill

Silver Bullet is a werewolf film that was released a few years after the success of two far superior werewolf films, An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Howling (1981), the two films that all other werewolf films must look up to. And while Joe Dante’s The Howling is a nifty werewolf flick with great effects by the always amazing Rob Bottin, I have to say that as far as I’m concerned, no werewolf movie out there has been able to surpass what John Landis and crew achieved in An American Werewolf in London; the challenge to beat An American Werewolf in London in terms of makeup effects work is still up and running. The film is a great amalgamation of comedy, great effects, horrifying moments and a great story; it’s simply too good of a movie. It’s incredible that with the advancement of technology in the world of special effects, no computer generated images have been able to top the genius that make up effects guru Rick Baker achieved in An American Werewolf in London; which is why the werewolves in Silver Bullet pale so brightly when compared to Baker’s creations.  Still, a werewolf movie does not run on special effects alone, so how was Silver Bullet as a whole, especially when we take in consideration that it’s a Stephen King adaptation?

The world of cinematic Stephen King adaptations is an uneven one. Some are amazing like The Shining (1980) and Pet Sematary (1989), while others are mediocre, like Maximum Overdrive (1986) and The Lawnmower Man (1992), to name just a few examples. Is Silver Bullet one of the good ones? Well, it’s a strange sort of film in the sense that it seems to been aimed at kids, but it’s a hard ‘R’ filled with lots of gore. It feels like it’s aimed at kids because number one, it has a kid in the starring role in the form of a pre-teen Corey Haim, who plays Marty Coslaw, a kid bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Marty knows there’s a werewolf prowling about killing his neighbors in grizzly ways, but of course, same as in every single horror film of the 80’s, nobody believes the kid. The film even feels like it’s a family film, because at its core it’s about a kid’s relationship with his crazy, yet lovable, drunkard uncle. The whole film is tinged with that gee-whiz 12 year old mentality that so many of Stephen King’s novels are known for. King loves to center his horror stories around children. He did it in Silver Bullet (1985), It (1990) and again in Dreamcatcher (2003). King connects horror with childhood, which makes sense. It’s at that age that we are most susceptible to being scared; we know so little of the world. The problem with mixing children and horror on films is that your target audience becomes children, but then if you’re making a horror movie for kids it can’t be too scary or you risk getting an ‘R’ rating and losing your target audience…and then the film becomes a marketing nightmare. Who do you sell the movie to, kids or adults? This is probably the reason why Silver Bullet died a quick death at the box office.

I haven’t read The Cycle of the Werewolf, the novel on which Silver Bullet is based on, but I have seen the illustrations that accompany the novel, namely, Bernie Wrightson’s amazing art work. The sad part is that the werewolves in the film pale in comparison even when compared to Wrightson’s illustrations! Who’s to blame for the underwhelming werewolves on this film? Well, none other than Carlo Rambaldi, the Italian special effect guru best known for creating E.T. for Spielberg’s E.T. The  Extraterrestrial (1982). He also created the creatures seen in David Lynch’s Dune (1984). Rambaldi’s creature work has always been a bit uneven, on some films it can be amazing, like for example the Alien in Alien (1979), while on others not so great, like for example, his work on King Kong Lives (1986) is actually laugh inducing! For some reason, this is one of the films where his work was lackluster, the werewolf’s head looks as big as a refrigerator. If the filmmakers had employed the likes of Stan Winston, Rick Baker or Rob Bottin, this film might have turned out a bit better in terms of the werewolf effects.

Above Bernie Wrightson's illustrations for King's Cycle of the Werewolf, below, Carlo Rambaldi's werewolf for Silver Bullet (1985)

Werewolf effects aside, it’s not the worst werewolf movie I’ve ever seen; that would be Wes Craven’s Cursed (2005). No, Silver Bullet is actually watchable. Corey Haim and Gary Busey play likable characters who live in their own little world. Busey’s Uncle Red is always saying one liners and silly jokes to keep Marty’s spirits up and Marty, even though he is disabled, hasn’t given up on life and is actually very gung-ho about living it. The whole film, like many of King’s stories takes place in small town U.S.A., with a whole slew of townsfolk archetypes like the town asshole, the nice Sheriff who is lenient with the people he’s known his whole life, the violent macho man, the old lady, the unfaithful wife, the natural leader, all these archetypes that tend to inhabit Kings stories. So you definitely feel like you are watching a Stephen King movie. In terms of themes, well, the film does have a thing or two to say about catholic priests who like to chase little boys. Ultimately, I think what hurts this movie the most is the lack of direction. It has that television show feel to it, there’s nothing spectacular or eye catching about the way it was filmed, the direction is actually very banal. This was director Daniel Attias first and only cinematic effort, the rest of his career has been spent directing television, so I guess that explains a lot. Not one of King’s worst adaptations, it certainly deserves a watch if you’re a werewolf or Stephen King fan.

Rating: 3 out of 5

    

Bad Moon (1996)

Bad Moon (1996)

Director: Eric Red

Cast: Michael Pare, Mariel Hemingway

Werewolf movies are a tricky bunch, same as the characters in these films, the werewolf film seems to be cursed at the box office where they rarely make their money back. And I’m not talking about vampire films that include werewolves like the Underworld and Twilight franchises, I’m talking about films where the werewolf is the central character. Hell, even when they are actually good they fail! For example The Wolfman (2010) starring Benicio del Toro was an excellent werewolf movie in my book, yet it bombed horribly. In fact, if we get down to it, there hasn’t been a true blue successful werewolf film since An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Howling (1981) ripped into theaters and wowed everyone with their excellent make up effects. Maybe that’s the reason why we haven’t had a successful werewolf movie. Nobody has been able to top what was done in An American Werewolf in London (1981) in terms of makeup effects. But most of the time, werewolf movies simply aren’t that good. For example An American Werewolf in Paris (1997), made the mistake of replacing practical transformation effects with bad CGI, plus the comedy angle just fell flat. Of course, there have been exceptions. Teen Wolf (1985) made a hefty profit, but that was because its budget was a measly 1.4 million and it starred 80’s ‘it’ boy Michael J. Fox. There was also Silver Bullet (1985), which made its money back because it was based on a Stephen King novel. But putting these exceptions aside, werewolf movies are rarely successful. The film I’ll be reviewing today, Eric Red’s Bad Moon (1996), is a good example of the werewolf curse. Was it one of the good ones?

I’d say that it had potential, but failed to perform. The main problem I had with Bad Moon is that it was too damn simple. A photo journalist named Ted gets scratched by a werewolf while on an expedition in Nepal. Sadly, while Ted only gets a nasty scratch on his chest, his girlfriend gets ripped to shreds! When he returns to America, he lives an isolated life in the middle of the forest, trying to forget it all. That is until his sister visits him and tells him that he should move in with her for a while. He agrees, because he comes to the conclusion that maybe family love might cure him from the werewolf curse, which of course makes no sense at all! You’re putting your sister and her son in jeopardy! But whatever, I chalked it up to wishful thinking. Point is that his sister has a dog named Thor, and Thor detects Ted’s werewolf condition. Um…there really isn’t much more to say about the plot because there isn’t much conflict, a quality sorely missing in this film. We needed more complexity to the story; the movie is just too damn simple. The thing is that the book on which the film is based, a novel called ‘Thor’ by Wayne Smith, actually offered an innovative concept. It tells the story from the dogs’ point of view. Now I realize you can’t really make an entire movie that way, but I find the director could have exploited this angle a bit more.

Speaking of the dog, he’s gotta be the cutest freaking German Sheppard ever. ‘Primo’ (the dogs name in real life) steals the movie from Michael Pare and Mariel Hemingway who offer some of the most wooden performances ever. There’s no chemistry between them whatsoever, the whole brother/sister thing was not played off in a convincing manner, and I normally dig Michael Pare’s movies! If this was meant to be a movie about family, then they should at least have shown a strong familial bond, which just doesn’t happen here. In a way, this movie was supposed to be like the Poltergeist franchise, where family love is at the center of the whole thing. Sadly, Michael Pare’s character Ted doesn’t even come off as likable. Which of course is a huge mistake, we’re supposed to sympathize with the guy. Eric Red should have emphasized Ted’s despair and anguish a bit more; we needed a scene or two of him in true mental and emotional anguish, the director should have given us time to warm up to Ted and his family. As you can see, we simply needed more character development, we needed to complicate things. And it’s not as if they didn’t have any screen time to do it, the film only runs for a measly 80 minutes.

What else ails this film? Well, the big draw with werewolf films are the transformations, which should try and top everything that has been done before, or at the very least be good. Here’s the thing with Bad Moon, the werewolf looks cool and the creature itself was pulled off rather nicely, when completely transformed the werewolf looks imposing, only a little wooden and robotic with its facial movements. Eric Red obviously wanted to build up the suspense with the creature because we don’t see a werewolf transformation until we are way into the films third half. So we’re left expecting a cool werewolf transformation, and we kind of get it. The practical side of it actually works, sadly, somebody decided to include a few scenes of the worst computer generated effects in the world, so we get this horrible morphing transformation, by the way, I’m really glad they don’t use morphing anymore! Morphing works on certain situations but not for hairy, muscle bound creatures like the werewolf. So yeah, morphing effects aside, the werewolf transformation isn’t all that bad. Also, the gore effects are actually quite good on this one, gotta give it that! 

Everything builds up to a confrontation between Thor and Ted. If this film was going to be centered around the whole Thor vs. Ted thing, they should have built up on that a little more. Sadly, the film feels a little half assed, it could have been so much more. I think the film simply didn’t embrace its strengths which is a sad thing because usually, Eric Red makes fantastic films with strong performances. Case in point, the script for The Hitcher (1986), which Eric Red wrote or Jeff Fahey in Body Parts (1991), which Eric Red both wrote and directed. Hell, Eric Red wrote freaking Near Dark (1987), one of the best vampire films from the 80’s! Now these are films with strong characters! This is the reason why I was stumped that Bad Moon had such weak characters! Normally this is Eric Red’s strength! But whatever, every filmmaker deserves a dud in his repertoire and Bad Moon was Eric Reds. It’s worth a watch, it's far from being the worst werewolf movie ever made, but it’s nothing memorable either.

Rating: 3 out of 5   

   

Werewolf Shadow (1971)

Title: Werewolf Shadow (a.k.a. The Werewolf vs.Vampire Woman) (1971)

Director: Leon Klimovsky

Writer: Paul Naschy, Hans Munkel

Review:

If you are a horror fan, and avidly watch and discuss horror films with your horror loving buddies, chances are that Paul Naschy’s name will pop up in conversations and reviews. I started watching mostly American horror films, then like many others have, I worked my way towards horror films from across the world. Usually, that’s how it goes for an American horror fan. You start watching Carpenter, Raimi and Craven and as many American horror films as you can until you’ve seen them all, and then you end up branching out towards horror films from across the world. Usually, this leads horror fans to discover the works of Argento, Fulci Soavi and eventually if you keep searching further down, you discover the wonderful world of Mario Bava’s gothic horror films. But Naschy for me is the filmmaker I ended up discovering after I’d seen all of those. To me, Naschy and his films were something I’d eventually get to after I’d seen all these other horror films and directors I had to discover. Kind of the same way I felt about the Coffin Joe series of films. They were always something I’d eventually get to, but wasn’t in any rush to see.

But my time finally came! I’m glad I finally got to see some Naschy films, because now, it’s a whole other world I have to discover. After doing this huge post on werewolf movies a while back where a couple of bloggers and myself explored werewolf movies from all over the world, I decided that my time had come to finally see some Paul Naschy films. Truthfully, a recent article I read on Rue Morgue magazine which explored this late Spanish director’s whole filmology sparked my interest in his films as well. So I went to a buddy of mine who I always go to when I want to see horror films from across the world (thanks Beto!) and Voila!, I finally had a Paul Naschy film in my hands! The film was Werewolf Shadow, the film I will be reviewing today.

While researching Naschy’s body of work I came to realize that Werewolf Shadow is actually the fifth in a series of 12 werewolf movies in which Naschy plays the same character, Waldemar Daninsky. So I guess I sort of started watching Naschy’s films right smack in the middle of the franchise. That’s okay I guess, these films function in the same way that the Hammer Dracula’s did, you can watch any of the films in the series and it wont affect continuity, because they are all stand alone stories that are loosely connected to one another by the same character. The whole series is made up of the following films:

The Mark of the Wolfman (1968)

Nights of the Werewolf (1968)

The Monsters of Terror (1969)

The Fury of the Wolfman (1972).

Werewolf Shadow (1971)

Dr. Jekyll and the Wolfman (1972)

The Return of Walpurgis (1973)

The Werewolf and the Yeti (1975)

Return of the Wolfman (1980)

The Beast and the Magic Sword (1983)

Lycantropus: The Moonlight Murders (1996)

Tomb of the Werewolf (2004)

Werewolf Shadow felt like one big homage to Hammer and Universal combined. To me, this was very much like a Hammer film because it has that premise where a group of people end up stranded in a castle in the middle of nowhere and a strange alluring individual offers them his hospitality only to later end up threatening their lives. It’s the same old trick Christopher Lee’s Dracula would pull off on anybody who suddenly showed up at his castles doorstep seeking shelter. Sure, come right in! Later, in the middle of the night, I’ll try and suck your blood! This is the premise for Werewolf Shadow as well. Two girls suddenly find themselves at Waldemar Daninsky’s castle. They are searching for the remains of an age old vampiress known as Countess Wandessa. A powerful vampire queen that was buried somewhere nearby Daninsky’s castle. So Daninsky welcomes the girls and offers both of them a stay in his castle.

The one thing about Naschy’s werewolf films is that he is not really the villain in them. Most of the time, the werewolf is seen as a villain that has to be destroyed, but not on Naschy’s films. Daninsky uses his Werewolf powers for good. Though at times he can get out of control and loose it, most of the time he uses his anger and strength to help the good guys. This is exactly the case in Werewolf Shadow were Daninsky ends up protecting the two girls from the vampire queen whom they resurrect entirely by mistake. I enjoyed the way they depicted the vampire queen, whenever she shows up, she moves in slow motion. These scenes were kind of hypnotic to me because she dresses up in these awesome clothes that look great in slow motion. She kind of hypnotizes you with her slow-mo dancing, which I’m guessing was the directors intent. This film is similar to Hammer films The Vampire Lovers (1970) in which Ingrid Pitt plays the vampire who falls for her female victim. In other words, even though this is primarily a werewolf film, it also has a bit of that lesbian vampire vibe seen in films like Vampyros Lesbos (1971) and Daughters of Darkness (1971).

A truthfull assessment with Naschy’s films is that they feel like a Universal horror film; the only difference being that Naschy’s films offer more nudity and gore in them. And it’s true. Sometimes, when watching a Universal Horror film you feel as if they could have taken things a little further, as if they could have been more daring and not so held back. I guess this had to do with the amount of horror people could take at the time. Back then, Universal films were considered frightening by those who went to see them in theaters upon their original release. Yet when we watched these movies now, they entertain and they exist in that world of horror where vampires and werewolves are real, but they never went too graphic or gory. Truthfully, Universal horror films are very tame and can be considered light horror in that sense. Paul Naschy obviously loved those old horror films and paid homage to them, but he did push the envelope a bit further as far as the nudity, sex and violence went.

I mean, lets face it, Universal’s The Wolfman (1941) is a great atmospheric film, but rarely do you see the monster ripping someone into shreds, gnashing at flesh, and drooling huge amounts of blood and saliva. Not so in this film! Naschy’s wolfman is a freaking savage beast! I personally love the look of the monster, obviously a loving homage to Lon Chaney’s take on the character. The final confrontation between Werewolf and Vampire Woman is a memorable one, and again pays homage to Hammer films. Some complain that the film is slow at times, but what ever, not all films got to go at a breakneck pace. Some films, especially older horror films thrive in their deliberate slow pace. In fact, Hammer or Universal films were never fast paced either, the main emphasis on those films, as is the emphasis on Werewolf Shadow as well, is in the atmosphere. The fog, the lonely places, the full moon, the wolfs howl, the castle at the top of the hill and the spooky Halloween score. I thoroughly enjoyed this old school flick and will certainly explore the rest of Paul Naschy’s legacy. Look for more reviews on Paul Naschy films in the near future!

Rating: 4 out of 5

By the way, for more Paul Naschy goodness, visit Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies where The Vicar of VHS is hosting an awesome Paul Naschy themed blog-a-thon with tons of articles, links, pics, images, and everything you ever wanted to know about Paul Naschy and his films!

Skinwalkers (2006)

Title: Skinwalkers (2006)

Director: James Isaac

Cast: Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, Jason Behr, Matthew Knight

Review:

There's a sub-genre in the world of horror films, where a film is scary, but not too scary, horrifying, but not too frightning. I'm talking about the horror film aimed at kids; at the pre-teen audience. These movies feel as if hollywood was saying, you aint ready for full on horror, but you can start by watching this! I’m talking about films like Fred Dekker’s Monster Squad (1987) or Tibor Takac's The Gate (1987), the movie where these kids open a gate to hell in their own backyard. These are movies in which the main character is usually a 12 year old kid, filled with insecurities and a strong sense of awe. Skinwalkers, the werewolf film I will be reviewing today, felt a bit like that, like a genre flick made for kids.

Skinwalkers is the story of a 12 year old boy named Timothy Talbot. Timothy is a very special boy, he is a half breed between humans and werewolves. He also holds the cure for lycanthropy. A prophecy says that at the stroke of midnight on his 13th birthday, “something” is going to happen that can change the fate of all werewolves. Now, some werewolves are happy about this because they see their condition as a curse. They want nothing more then for the prophecy to be fulfilled, so they can be cured. But there is another group of werewolves that is proud of being werewolves and want nothing to do with this cure. They love being werewolves and want to remain that way. It’s this group of zealous werewolves that want to kill Timothy and stop the prophecy from coming true. Will they achieve their goal?

"Leave the granny alone...shes mine!"

Sounds cheesy don’t it? Well, it is. The problem for me with this movie was that the storyline was way to predictable, I mean, we’ve seen this story unfold a thousand times before. Once again we get another film dealing with “The Chosen One” that is going to fulfill the prophecy and destroy the evil. Come on, that has been done to death! So as the story unfolds in Skinwalkers, you feel like “oh no, here we go again”, which isn’t a good thing in my book. Still, you know what they say: “it’s not what you say, but how you say it that matters” and unfortunately the makers of Skinwalkers chose to tell their story in the most predictable way possible. With the most god awful unnatural dialog you have ever heard in your life. This was one thing I absolutely hated about this movie. How robotic the dialog sounded. The actors sounded as if they were reading everything right of the script, with no desire to make it sound believable. In my opinion this is the directors fault, for not even trying to pull a convincing performance from his actors. The director by the way is Jim Isaacs, the guy responsible for directing Jason X (2001) and most recently the killer pig movie Pig Hunt (2010). Aside from having robotic dialog, the storyline is filled with these gaping plot holes. For example, where does this prophecy come from in the first place? What is its origin? What prophet is getting all this info? Why does the moon suddenly turn red? I know it has to do with the prophecy of the “blood moon” but my question is why does it happen? So many questions arise with this movie…yet the script didn’t care to answer them.

The film does have a couple of good things going for it though. First of which is the look of the werewolves. This is something that the film got absolutely right. Each werewolf has their own distinctive look, so you can tell them apart when you see them. Even the female werewolves look completely different, sexier. Love that about this movie and it’s all thanks to the involvement of Stan Winston Studios in the make up department. Stan Winston's team are no strangers to werewolf films, having done the wolfman in The Monster Squad.   The werewolf simply look very fierce, their jaws and fangs looking really menacing! These are some of the best werewolves I’ve seen on any werewolf movie, sadly they are on this “bad” movie. Though, I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is the worst werewolf movie I have ever seen. That would be Wes Craven’s Cursed (2005), and Skinwalkers is not nearly as bad as that one.

Skinwalkers focuses on delivering action as well. There is this big action sequence somewhere around the middle of the film where the evil werewolves finally arrive at the town where all the good werewolves reside in. This town is really weird because it’s filled with empty streets, people don’t seem to inhabit it at all. So the bad werewolves come walking into town in slow motion, loading their guns and nobody gives a damn. Where is the freaking police force in this town? Apparently it’s non existent! There is this huge shoot out between good werewolves and bad werewolves where everyone pulls out their guns and its non stop blowing shit up time! Even grandma werewolf pulls out her .44 magnums and starts blowing away bad werewolves! That scene by the way, with werewolf grandma blowing away the good guys is probably the most memorable sequence in the whole film. Haven’t seen a review that doesn’t mention that scene yet, including the one I’m typing right now. So suddenly, this movie feels like one of those 80’s action flicks where they blow shit up real good. Funny part about the whole shoot out is that nobody seems to get hit! Hundreds of bullets whizzing by and not one of them hits anybody! The shoot out is kind of comical in that way, I guess its also appropriate in a PG-13 film, cause the amount of blood they can show in a PG-13 film is minimal.

Actually, to be honest, this whole film felt like a film from the 80’s for some reason. You know how sometimes you watch a film from the 80’s and suddenly you realize that back in the day movies were kind of crazier? How they didn’t give a damn if their story or premise was extremely cheesy or unbelievable as hell? Where a movie simply didn’t give a damn about being silly? That’s how this movie felt. Specially when it came to its whole prophecy angle, and the whole thing about “the moon turning red, then we will all know that the time of the prophecies fulfillment is near…” that type of thing. But also, with scenes like the big shoot out. I mean, these guys are blowing each other away in broad daylight right smack in the middle of the town and there are no cops to be seen anywhere!

The film also reminded me of something out of the 80’s because it has that whole vibe of having a kid going through the whole adventure right next to his mom all the time, or right next to a mother figure. You guys ever see Tobe Hooper’s Invaders from Mars (1986) where the kid goes through out the whole movie with his teacher right next to him taking the role of the protective mother? That’s the kind of movie Skinwalkers is, Timothy goes through out the whole film with his mom protecting him every step of the way, which makes perfect sense in a movie aimed at 12 year olds. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t stick to its child like tone all the time. The film is aimed at kids, but it has this kind of graphic sex sequence squeezed in the middle of the film that feels totally out of place. This sex scene was actually pretty similar to the one in The Howling (1981), where these two people are making out in the middle of the forest, and as they make out, they start to turn into werewolves. In a movie like The Howling, that scene fits perfectly well, but not on a PG-13 movie for kids like Skinwalkers. This uneven tone of the film is probably what made it difficult for studios to market it. Is it a movie for 12 year olds, or is it a movie for adults? Usually that kind of uncertainty in the marketing of a film spells certain death at the box office.

A lot of people seem to think that this is a terrible movie; I say it does have some bad things going for it, but in all honesty, if I was a 12 year old kid watching this movie I would probably have loved it. It has similarities with films like Werewolves on Wheels (1971) because all the evil werewolves ride motorcycles and with films like The Lost Boys (1988) because it deals with the battle between monsters that want to stop being monsters and the monsters that wave their monster flag proudly. This isn’t the worst werewolf movie ever made, and it isn’t the best either. My advice is, watch this one with a 12 year old and watch them love it. You might laugh at the dialog, but you’ll make that 12 year old kid inside of you happy.

Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5

Make up tests for Skinwalkers

Werewolf Movie Poster Gallery (And then Some!)

So you think you have seen every werewolf movie ever made? Think again! Recently, I had the pleasure of collaborating on a huge blogpost on werewolf movies entitled Werewolves of the Blogosphere! where three fellow bloggers and myself offered up 20 something werewolf movies from all over the world. It was a pretty extensive blogpost and Im proud to say we came up with some interesting choices, if you havent had the opportunity to check out that blogpost yet, do yourself a favor! So anyway, while doing research for that post, I came upon a bunch of other werewolf films I had never heard of. So, for your viewing pleasure I offer you guys this poster gallery. It's filled with posters for werewolf movies from all around the world, and quite frankly, I found some I had never even heard of before. Some are straight to video, some are not directly werewolf films, but have werewolfs in them. Hope you enjoy them!