Rating: C
Dir: Daniel Attias
Star: Corey Haim, Gary Busey, Megan Follows, Everett McGill
For a film based on a Stephen King novella, this is surprisingly straightforward: beast is ripping up townspeople, cops are ineffective, up to crippled kid Marty (Haim) and his sister Jane (Follows) to find out who is the lycanthrope. My money was initially on alcoholic-yet-kindly Uncle Red (Busey), who spends his spare time building a super-powered wheelchair for his nephew – surely such a character is too good to be true? However, the acting here is good enough to lift the film above such cliches, and even the kid’s disability is never played for the usual pathos.
Can’t say the effects were up to much though – I mean, this was made several years after American Werewolf tore up the script, yet still we get cutaways and an unconvincing wolf suit. from Carlo Rambaldi. I’m also wondering how Marty got back to his upstairs room after his midnight excursions. [I had visions of him getting out of his wheelchair for the the final battle with the wolf, and announcing that he’d just been tired and needed a sit-down for the past five years.] Despite such weaknesses in plot and execution, there’s still plenty to like, with not much slack, and excellent use made of a bottle rocket and baseball bat as weapons. The moral here: don’t go looking for werewolves in a foggy swamp at night. You just might find one.