Roger Ebert Said This Stephen King Horror Movie Was Bad, But He Loved It Anyway

"Stephen King's 'Silver Bullet' is either the worst movie ever made from a Stephen King story, or the funniest," is how Roger Ebert opened his review for Dan Attias' 1985 film. Ebert treated this horror adaptation as a genre parody that took King's knack for small-town horror and turned it into something unintentionally hilarious. This might sound odd if you haven't seen "Silver Bullet," as King's novella — titled "Cycle of the Werewolf" — opens with a string of vicious murders and how the traumatized Marty Coslaw is shaped by these grisly events. How misguided does an adaptation have to be to turn such a somber throughline into laugh-out-loud comedy? Turns out, Attias' film was troubled from the word go, with Don Coscarelli quitting directorial duties after the producer ignored King's meticulous notes during production.

Behind-the-scenes conflicts aside, "Silver Bullet" is a baffling take on King's intriguing werewolf horror, as it plays into every monster movie cliché while ignoring narrative coherence. But that didn't stop Ebert from rating it a three out of four stars (!), as the film managed to make him laugh on several occasions:

"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–so bad, I think every laugh was put in lovingly, by hand [...] If you are sick up to here of horror movies in general and Stephen King in particular, this is the movie for you. If you have impeccable taste and high artistic standards, why have you read this far in the first place?"

That does sound fair. The problems that plague "Silver Bullet" are obvious, but is it truly as funny as Ebert claims?

Spoilers for "Silver Bullet" ahead.

The key to enjoying "Silver Bullet" is to throw serious expectations (or any expectations) out of the window. The film's tonal incoherence takes on a fever-dream-like quality the moment the murders commence, where we see a kid being mauled by an unseen threat because he was flying a kite at night. There's an absurd tint to these objectively grim events, especially when we're introduced to the raging alcoholic Red (Gary Busey), whose ad-libbed dialogue is the primary source of the film's unintentional humor. Red is Marty's (Corey Haim) over-reactive uncle, and he spends his time berating his 10-year-old nephew and saying things like "Holy jumped-up baldheaded Jesus palomino!" Most of the film's dialogue is of a similar bent, alternating between mildly corny and whatever it is that Red chooses to yell when you least expect it.

The werewolf effects, which ideally should've been the primary draw, also leave much to be desired. The unpredictable threat gimmick works quite well in the beginning, where Attias chooses to frame the werewolf in the shadows or uses extreme violence (like an unexpected beheading) to set the foundation for dread. But all of this is squandered as soon as we see the monster, as the werewolf costume is laughably unserious, especially when we see the creature beat up a man with a baseball bat. The same sequences feel more tense in the novella, as King finds a compelling way to weave visual cues and suggestions to enliven an overdone premise.

"Silver Bullet" can be quite hilarious if you don't read too much into its glaring flaws. To that end, it's time to revisit this underrated King adaptation, which can be streamed for free.