Silver Bullet (1985)

Obviously, not a whole lot of serious consideration was given to the source material, here (being Stephen King's 1983 'novelette', "Cycle of the Werewolf"; notably illustrated by the great Bernie Wrightson...) resulting in a substantially WEAK film adaptation with "Silver Bullet". The shit they came up with to keep the movie more of an undeviating narrative turned the story into just a silly, anti-climactic joke, I thought. Was that the point? Eh, maybe.

A wheelchair-bound 11-year old comes face-to-face with the lycanthrope that's been killing the residents of his small town and, with the help of his sister and 'cool uncle', attempts to put an end to its reign of terror...

Unlike the book, this movie only takes place in spring through autumn, hence "cycle" pretty much HAD to be stricken from the film's title. It also sticks primarily with a few main characters - striking the 'vignette' structure of King's initial story, which was pretty much just a literary string of werewolf murders. Aside from these differences, "Silver Bullet" is just a overtly cheesy and boring '80s horror flick. I guess it's more "dated" than anything, so perhaps I'm being a little 'rough' on it, but I really just couldn't stomach the cheap-ass looking werewolf effects and all the goofy, souped-up wheelchair material that makes up the movie. Also, the wolf kills way too many people with a baseball bat... Having read the book numerous times since I was a kid (being the short read that it is...), I can safely say the movie version is highly disappointing.