Is Silver Bullet Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Somewhat, 4 out of 10. It's a small-town werewolf story with jump scares and some graphic attacks.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
4 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Low
You'll check the moon for a night, then forget about it by the weekend.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: It is a werewolf story with a kid on a wheelchair-motorcycle, and most teenagers can handle it.
Silver Bullet runs 95 minutes and is set in Tarker's Mills, Maine, where a string of murders has the town under curfew. The Fourth of July celebration gets canceled, so one family throws its own in the backyard.
The premise, briefly
After a series of murders hits the small town of Tarker's Mills, Maine, Marty Coslaw, a boy in a wheelchair, and his sister Jane start to suspect what the creature is.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Marty shoots Reverend Lowe, the werewolf, in the right eye with a silver bullet, and Lowe turns back into a man and dies. Marty, Jane and their uncle Red all survive.
The scene you're dreading
The bridge scene around the middle of the story. Marty sneaks out at night, lights a pile of fireworks, and the werewolf confronts him. He gets away by firing a rocket into the creature's eye.
The dog
No dog dies in Silver Bullet.
Silver Bullet is a bloody small-town werewolf story with jump scares, and Marty, Jane and Red all make it out.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A vigilante group with no plan for the woods
In the spring of 1976, murders begin in Tarker's Mills, Maine, and the strained relationship between Jane Coslaw and her younger brother Marty, who is paraplegic, changes with them. Arnie Westrum, a railroad worker, is the first to die. The attacker kills a pregnant woman named Stella Randolph in her bedroom, Milt Sturmfuller, an abusive father, in his greenhouse, and then Brady Kincaid, who is Marty's best friend. Townspeople form a vigilante group, and Sheriff Joe Haller gives in when Brady's father Herb confronts him. Reverend Lester Lowe tries to stop more bloodshed and fails. In the woods, three vigilantes are attacked and killed, and the survivors, especially Andy Fairton, deny having seen anything unusual. Afterward Lowe dreams that he is leading a mass funeral and the whole congregation, coffins included, turns into werewolves and attacks him. He wakes up screaming and begs God to let it end.
The unsolved murders keep piling up, and curfews cancel the Fourth of July celebration. The Coslaws throw their own party and invite Nan's alcoholic brother, Red, who gives Marty a custom wheelchair-motorcycle that Marty calls the Silver Bullet, along with a stack of fireworks. That night Marty sneaks out to a bridge to set them off. The scene people dread is here, around the middle of the story: the display draws the werewolf, which confronts Marty, and he escapes by firing a rocket into its eye. Marty asks Jane to help him find someone with a freshly injured or missing eye, and she learns that Reverend Lowe has lost his left eye. Knowing no adult will believe him, Marty sends Lowe anonymous notes saying he knows what Lowe is and that he should kill himself. Lowe responds by trying to force Marty's wheelchair off the road. When Marty gets stuck under a covered bridge, Lowe, by now unhinged, explains the murders as God's work against sinners. A passerby arrives just in time.
The gunsmith melts down a cross
Jane and Marty persuade Red that Lowe is behind the murders and that he tried to kill Marty. Red talks Sheriff Haller into investigating. That night Haller, still doubtful but out of ideas, goes to Lowe's house and finds that the reverend has shut himself in the garage so he can't hurt anyone else. Before Haller can arrest him, Lowe changes into a werewolf and beats Haller to death with a baseball bat. The siblings realize the werewolf will come for them next. They talk Red into carrying a silver cross of Jane's and a silver medallion of Marty's to a gunsmith, who melts them into one silver bullet.
The ending, explained
On the night of the full moon, the three of them sit up waiting. Lowe shuts off the house's power, comes in and goes for Red. The silver bullet nearly gets lost in the scramble, but Marty grabs it and shoots Lowe in the right eye. Lowe turns back into a man before he dies. Marty, Jane and Red all survive. Haller and Brady did not. Marty and Jane hug, and Jane says in narration that she hasn't always been able to say it, but she can tell Marty she loves him.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there is a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Silver Bullet scary?
Somewhat. Silver Bullet is a 4 out of 10: low dread, jump scares and graphic attacks, and most teenagers handle it fine.
How does Silver Bullet end?
Marty shoots Reverend Lowe, who is the werewolf, in the right eye with a silver bullet, and Lowe turns back into a man and dies. Marty, Jane and their uncle Red survive.
Does the dog die in Silver Bullet?
No, no dog dies in Silver Bullet.
Is there a post-credits scene in Silver Bullet?
Nobody has confirmed whether Silver Bullet has a scene after the credits.
Who is the werewolf in Silver Bullet?
Reverend Lester Lowe. Marty guesses it after shooting the creature in the eye with a rocket, because the minister is missing his left eye.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Silver Bullet is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
Silver Bullet is 95 minutes of a town in Maine lighting fireworks at the wrong moment. Install Scaredy Cat and the trailers stay blurred while you read the plot instead.
