Stephen King's Classic '80s Werewolf Movie Starring Gary Busey Is Streaming For Free

Just in time for Halloween, the cult classic Stephen King film "Silver Bullet" — based on his novella "Cycle of the Werewolf" — is now streaming for free on PlutoTV and Tubi. King didn't direct, but he did write the screenplay. His only directing credit is "Maximum Overdrive," which was trashed by critics. "Silver Bullet" reviews weren't much better on release, but it has since gained cult status because of its campy melodramatic creature feature.

It probably won't scare you like "The Blair Witch Project" scared Stephen King, but the film's cozy setting becomes unsettling. It takes place in small-town Maine — no surprise for a King story — where a string of grisly murders has townsfolk on edge. They get all fired up, form posses, and march around with shotguns and flashlights, the modern equivalent of pitchforks and torches. Corey Haim stars as Marty, a kid in a hot rod of a wheelchair that was supercharged by his uncle (Gary Busey). Don't worry about Marty; he can take care of himself. It's his friends he's worried about, especially when they start to disappear.

The story escalates with a few fun transformations peppered in, with a great one being a dream sequence of a church congregation turning into werewolves. Carlo Rambaldi, a visual effects coordinator who won Oscars for his work with the xenomorph in "Alien" and E.T., handled some of the effects on "Silver Bullet." Despite his pedigree, the New York Times said the werewolf looked like "Smokey Bear with a hangover."

"A bomb of a bullet," the Washington Post called "Silver Bullet." With reviews like that, it's no surprise the movie sits at 46% on Rotten Tomatoes. But it's not a bad film. Veteran cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi and director Daniel Attias, who later directed "The Sopranos," and "The Wire," accomplish excellent work with smooth tracking shots and action sequences. Sure, some are corny, but most of the film is deftly shot and paced to build tension.

On the acting side, Busey chomps scenery. Like his real-life persona, his character is a touch wild and way too loose to be a guardian. Attias and King allowed Busey to make up some lines, which made the final cut. Haim was just 13 years old, but his range of emotional expressions take you from popping-wheelie joy to cornered-by-a-monster terror. Small towns are usually safe places, unless you're an outsider, and Roger Ebert saw through the rubbery masks for the small-town satire on display.

Ebert's October 1985 review said, "It is either simply bad, or it is an inspired parody of his whole formula, in which quiet American towns are invaded by unspeakable horrors. It's a close call, but I think the movie is intentionally funny." You see it in the dive bar politics and mouth-breathing local yokels. Ebert insists the tasteless humor was "put in lovingly, by hand." In October 2026, the campy creature classic streams for free on Tubi or PlutoTV with ads, or on Hoopla, a popular library app that shows movies without ads.