Stephen King's Creepy (And Underrated) Werewolf Movie Is Streaming For Free

The 1980s may have been the decade of the slasher flick, but fans of vampires and werewolves had plenty to enjoy, too — the classic creatures were having their biggest moment since the '30s and '40s heyday of Universal monster movies. Although bloodsuckers just about edged it in terms of quality and variety, there was some really good lycanthrope action around, most notably John Landis's "An American Werewolf in London" and Joe Dante's "The Howling." Elsewhere, you had Michael J. Fox's slam-dunking furball in "Teen Wolf;" Neil Jordan's dark take on Little Red Riding Hood in "The Company of Wolves;" and the Wolf Man teaming up with his old Universal buddies again in "The Monster Squad." Somewhat lost in the mix was "Silver Bullet," a creepy and underrated tale from the pen of Stephen King.

The author from Maine was just about everywhere in the mid-'80s. King was churning out novels, writing screenplays, directing movies ("Maximum Overdrive"), and appearing in front of the camera in wacky cameos and larger roles in films like "Creepshow." He had even become so successful that he was even turning out books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman to see how he'd fare without all the fame. 1983 was arguably peak Stephen King with the release of three film adaptations: "Cujo," "The Dead Zone," and "Christine;" and the publication of three books: "Christine" (John Carpenter was a fast worker), "Pet Sematary," and "Cycle of the Werewolf."

The latter is a slender illustrated volume that started out as an idea for a calendar. The gimmick was that each month would feature an image drawn by comic book artist Bernie Wrightson ("Swamp Thing") and a little vignette from King. The author wasn't happy with the size of the individual tales and decided to expand it into a novella including Wrightson's drawings. "Cycle of the Werewolf" wasn't particularly successful, but King was so hot at that point that he could have sold the movie rights for his grocery list. He adapted the screenplay himself and "Silver Bullet" was the result, with Dan Attias making the leap from directing "Miami Vice" on TV to helm his only feature film to date. It could have been very different, however; Attias replaced Don Coscarelli, the man who brought us the "Phantasm" franchise and "The Beastmaster." His experience might have helped, but let's take a look at what we got instead — a film that's now streaming for free on ad-based platforms such as Pluto TV and Hoopla. 

"Silver Bullet" is set in the fictional town of Tarker's Mill, a typically Kingsian rural backwater in Maine. Following an unnecessary voiceover from Jane Coslaw (Megan Follows) explaining the story is set in the mid-'70s, the movie gets straight down to the werewolf action as a drunken railroad worker is attacked by the light of a full moon and a pregnant woman is also savaged by the creature. Having set the scene, Jane disappears for a large chunk of the movie and our focus switches to her younger brother Marty (Corey Haim), a paraplegic 11-year-old who enjoys bombing around in his motor-powered wheelchair. He also adores his Uncle Red (Gary Busey), an irresponsible alcoholic who is the only adult who treats Marty like a normal kid.

More unsolved murders send the townsfolk into a frenzy, and anger reaches boiling point after Marty's best friend is ripped to shreds. Local sheriff Joe Haller (Terry O'Quinn) struggles to maintain control as the local men form a posse to seek "private justice," heading out at night to lynch the killer. The vigilantes suffer a predictably gory fate and Marty begins to believe that a werewolf is responsible, confirmed when he narrowly escapes a skirmish with the creature. The resourceful kid manages to shoot out one of its eyes with a firework and suspicion falls on Reverend Lowe (Everett McGill), the local preacher who has suffered a similar ocular injury.

"Silver Bullet" puts a horror spin on the classic '80s-style kids-on-bikes adventure where the grown-ups don't believe the children and it's down to our young heroes to solve the mystery. The big twist here is that the usual BMXs and Choppers are switched out for a frankly unbelievable mode of transport when Uncle Red upgrades Marty to a souped-up wheelchair/motorcycle hybrid nicknamed the Silver Bullet. It's pretty silly stuff but the movie is kept grounded by the cast, particularly with the winning dynamic between Marty and Uncle Red. Haim offers the same brand of adorable cheekiness that he would show again hunting vampires a few years later in "The Lost Boys," and Busey is off the charts as the boozy uncle. The actor is always a larger-than-life presence and he apparently enjoyed ad-libbing most of his lines. Thankfully, King and Attias went with his improv, and it gives the character a really lived-in and chaotic quality.

"Silver Bullet" doesn't skimp on gory violence from the start as we get a beheading, a mauling, and an impalement within the first 25 minutes. But while the kills are entertaining, the movie fall down when it comes to actually showing the creature. This is perhaps the major difference between vampire and werewolf flicks; you don't need much more than a guy with fangs and some spooky makeup to have a scary vampire story, but any film focusing on lycanthropy lives and dies on its transformation scenes. Sadly, the money shots in "Silver Bullet" aren't anywhere near as good as their equivalents in "An American Werewolf in London" and "The Howling," and that failure must be attributed to Stephen King.

The author reportedly wanted to tone down the creature design to something more simple, a strange choice which represents a serious waste of SFX wizard Carlo Rambaldi's talents. Rambaldi had three Oscars under his belt before signing up for "Silver Bullet," taking home awards for "King Kong," "Alien," and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." Sadly, the restrictions placed upon him meant his monster ended up looking more like a beady-eyed bear than a supernatural shapeshifter. To make matters worse, Dan Attias clearly didn't have much of a feel for suspense or dread, so we get a few creepy moments but no real scares as we dash from one scene to the next.

All that said, "Silver Bullet" makes up for its underwhelming creature effects and lack of tension with some zany "only in the '80s" moments. The film has a cheerfully hokey B-movie energy, and you've got unlikely spectacles such as Corey Haim outrunning a car in his hot rod wheelchair-bike and a werewolf wielding a baseball bat. It's the only instance that I can recall in horror history where a lycanthrope uses sporting equipment as a weapon of choice, and how that comes about is probably why Roger Ebert mistook it for a Stephen King parody. Overall, "Cycle of the Werewolf" is one of the lesser entries in Stephen King's bibliography, and "Silver Bullet" is fun but similarly lightweight. It's not up there with the truly great werewolf movies of the decade, but it is definitely worth checking out for fans of '80s horror, and you can do so for free right now on ad-based platforms such as Pluto TV and Hoopla.