While Slashers were all the rage in the ‘80s within the Horror world, there were also some other sub-genres holding their own during the era… like werewolves. Led by standouts such as 1981’s The Howling and An American Werewolf in London, there was also the 1984 gothic film The Company of Wolves, but also 1985’s Silver Bullet.
Silver Bullet, a film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1983 novella Cycle of the Werewolf, emerged in theaters on October 11 of 1985 to a decent response from both critics and fans. Featuring a strong cast that included a young Corey Haim (two years prior to 1987’s The Lost Boys), Gary Busey, plus Terry O’Quinn, it also actually features narration from Tovah Feldshuh (famously known to Horror fans as Deanna Monroe in AMC’s The Walking Dead).
Directed by Dan Attias (who has worked on everything from HBO’s The Sopranos to The Wire) and produced by the late Martha De Laurentiis (Breakdown 1997, Hannibal 2001), the film also goes down as one of the better King film adaptations around. This all-in mind, Silver Bullet did make it VHS in the ‘80s, DVD in 2002, before Scream Factory put it out on Blu-Ray in 2019. However, now in 2023 Scream Factory upped the ante with a new 4K presentation of Silver Bullet for the first time ever.
Released on December 5th, this new set comes as a 2-disc set and a limited-edition poster (which unfortunately sold out in pre-orders back on November 1st). As far as the itself set goes, the 4K disc gives you a 2023 transfer of the film from the original camera negative, plus some extras such as new audio commentary with Eric Vespe and Scott Wampler of The Kingcast. Disc 2, the Blu-ray, offers more of the same but also more interviews to dig into.
These features explained, the set itself has a nice cardboard sleeve with the original film artwork. The art also featured on the inner set sleeve, in all offers, it is a solid package. Which leads to the actual 4K presentation of the film which is also quite worthy. As some may know, the 2019 Scream Factory Blu-ray featured the exact same 1080p transfer found on The Paramount Pictures Blu-Ray. This all considered, the new 4K transfer does have a slight noticeable difference where the colors are a bit brighter, the image a bit sharper, and the shadows/lighting are more clarified.
Overall, this Silver Bullet Collector’s Edition is a fitting addition to any fan’s collection. It does the film justice and reminds us that Silver Bullet is an effective, moody Horror film with plenty of tense moments. That is why Cryptic Rock gives Scream Factory’s efforts put into this new 4K Collector’s Edition 4 out of 5 stars.
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