When you hear the phrase “Corey Haim horror movie,” your mind, it’s safe to assume, jumps to The Lost Boys. That’s only natural. Hell, that’s probably the title that comes to mind when you hear the phrase “Corey Haim movie” in general. Unless you’re a die-hard fan of License to Drive, that is. There are a lot of completely valid reasons for the love that The Lost Boys receives. It’s a great movie. Certainly one of the best vampire movies of the 1980s. But Corey Haim was also in one of the best werewolf movies of the 1980s. That would be the 1985 Stephen King adaptation Silver Bullet, which deserves to have the same level of voracious fandom.
Why Silver Bullet Deserves More Love Than The Lost Boys
I can guess why Silver Bullet hasn’t had the same impact as The Lost Boys. Corey Haim wasn’t as big of a star in 1985. Silver Bullet director Dan Attias went on to a long television career, while Schumacher went on to direct Batman movies. Any 1980s werewolf movie has to exist in the shadow of the masterpiece, An American Werewolf in London. Silver Bullet doesn’t have Kiefer Sutherland psychosexually manipulating Jason Patric. I get it. But Silver Bullet’s stats are lagging.
The Lost Boys is Corey Haim’s #1 most popular movie and his #1 highest-rated on Letterboxd. Silver Bullet is #4 and #12. The Lost Boys is his #1 movie on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer and #2 on the Popcornmeter. Silver Bullet is #5 and #9. Silver Bullet is Corey Haim’s fifth highest-rated movie on IMDb and The Lost Boys is – you guessed it – #1. Silver Bullet also lagged behind at the box office, earning $12.4 million compared to The Lost Boys’ $32.5 million.
October 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Silver Bullet. It’s high time to raise the profile of this damn movie, even if I have to build the winch myself.
Silver Bullet is a Blast and a Half
Silver Bullet, which was written by Stephen King, adapting his own novella Cycle of the Werewolf, is a doozy. It’s set in a small town that is being besieged by regular werewolf attacks, and nobody can identify the culprit. But never fear, an absolute weirdo is in town!
That would be Gary Busey as Uncle Red, a deeply unsettling fireball of charisma. His nephew is Marty (Corey Haim), who has paraplegia. Naturally, Red builds him a tricked-out motorcycle wheelchair that he can go rocketing through town in. Gary Busey is something of a punchline these days. But let’s never forget that the man became famous in the first place because he was a goddamn movie star. He makes nonstop strange choices that are electromagnetically compelling. Corey Haim was perhaps the only 1980s child actor who could hold his own against that cinematic force of nature. Thankfully, he was cast, and the characters’ relationship is as rich as it is strange. That’s the sweet spot for any King adaptation.
A Stellar Cast of 1980s Character Actors
That dynamic alone could have been enough to sustain a movie. However, Silver Bullet has also assembled a murderer’s row of 1980s character actors around Busey and Haim. This includes Lawrence Tierney, Terry O’Quinn, and perhaps never better Everett McGill. Not to mention the fact that the story is randomly narrated by Broadway legend Tovah Feldshuh.
Thanks to the talented cast, the movie survives the fact that it features a somewhat goofy-looking werewolf. They bring a sense of grit and reality to their small-town characters. What results is an explosion of intensity that plays startlingly well against the uncut 1980s goofiness of its genre elements. This movie’s confident enough to contain both a thrillingly tense covered bridge setpiece and a werewolf swiping off somebody’s head. And if that’s not the vibe you desperately want from an ‘80s shocker, I don’t know what to tell you.
Silver Bullet Lacks Some of The Lost Boys’ More Obvious Flaws
I am certainly not trying to use this article to cast The Lost Boys into the muck. I think both movies can stand together on the Mount Rushmore of Corey Haim’s career. Nevertheless, it is true that Silver Bullet lacks the two biggest flaws of The Lost Boys. It’s got its own flaws, sure, but none quite so glaring as Lost Boys hugely losing steam in Act 3. Once the identity of the werewolf has become known in Silver Bullet, the story actually gets even more tense. That’s because the danger still stems from children being at the mercy of adults, rather than the werewolf mystery itself.
The Lost Boys is also somewhat scattershot, juggling too many characters, storylines, and tones simultaneously. While Silver Bullet does have a deep bench of characters, its storytelling is much more focused. It’s primarily centered on the relationship between a young boy and his family, and how it’s complicated by werewolf attacks. Standard stuff!
Silver Bullet Deserves a Spot Next to The Lost Boys
Look, here’s the bottom line. The Lost Boys is a fun, great movie. Silver Bullet is a fun, great movie. This town (Hollywood) is definitely big enough for the two of them. That’s all I’m saying. It’s simply unfair that Silver Bullet has taken up B-tier status behind The Lost Boys. Watchers has more than enough B-movie energy to take up that slot all by itself, thank you very much.
PS: I look forward to Horror Press hosting somebody’s impassioned defense of Watchers, but it ain’t gonna be mine.
