Amazingly the kid protagonists are not annoying. Corey Haim (The Lost Boys) as Marty is
likeable and not smart-alecky at all. He
does somehow predict that a werewolf is killing everyone in town but it’s a
tossed off idea that he doesn’t bring up again until he witnesses the thing
with his own eyes. And the relationship
he has with his sister is believable where they may fight sometimes but one of
them sheepishly apologizes without actually saying sorry and they move on.
They assembled a cool cast for this. You got Terry O’Quinn (Stepfather II)
as the town sheriff who doesn’t know what the hell to do about his citizens
being mutilated, Everett McGill (Under Siege 2: Dark Territory) as the
priest who tries to comfort the community, Bill Smitrovich (Renegades)
as the leader of a mob inciting vigilantism and Gary Busey (Under Siege)
as Marty’s drinking, gambling, rude joke telling uncle (in other words he plays
himself).
It’s cute how the title has a double meaning in that it
takes a silver bullet to stop a werewolf and it’s also the name of Marty’s
motorized wheelchair. However, I have to
admit I’m disappointed they didn’t use the wheelchair to deliver the death blow
at the end. Seems like a natural with
the setup and it would’ve been a good twist on the legend. Oh well, maybe next time.
What I Didn’t Like: The movie ends fairly
abruptly. There’s some good suspenseful
cat and mouse stuff with the person who’s the werewolf and Marty but then we
jump ahead a month and suddenly it’s all over in a rushed finale.
The werewolf itself isn’t the best design. It’s definitely not the worst but when the
camera stays on it for more than a half a sec you can tell it lacks. This is especially true in the final battle
where there are a few shots that are clearly some dude in a modified bear
costume. Most of the time the cuts are
very quick and they only show a small part of the wolf so it works well
enough. It’s those couple of shots
sprinkled in that unfortunately sorta ruin the illusion.
Overall Impressions: What a nice little werewolf
movie. It doesn’t try to do too much or
blow you away with spectacular special effects or anything. Nah, this guy only wants to gnaw on some
arms, knock a head off or two and beat a few folks with a baseball bat called
“The Peacemaker”. Sounds like a good
time to me.
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