It stars Gary Busey, Everett McGill, and Corey Haim, with Megan Follows, Terry O'Quinn, Lawrence Tierney, Bill Smitrovich, Kent Broadhurst, David Hart, and James Gammon in supporting roles.

The rocky relationship between Jane Coslaw and her paraplegic younger brother, Marty, changes after a series of murders begin in their small rural town of Tarker's Mills, Maine, in the spring of 1976.

Afterwards, Reverend Lowe dreams he is presiding over a mass funeral, only for the congregation — including the bodies in the caskets — to transform into werewolves and attack him.

When Marty becomes trapped under a covered bridge, the increasingly deranged Lowe attempts to justify the murders as doing God's work.

In addition, Joe Wright plays Brady Kincaid, Marty's best friend, while Tovah Feldshuh provides the narration as the voice of the adult Jane.

Gary Busey felt a certain kinship with the Uncle Red character and was allowed to ad lib all of his lines in certain takes of each scene in which he appeared.

The result was less than satisfactory ending up as a creature which looked more like an American black bear and did not really have any identifying werewolf characteristics prompting some people to call it a "werebear."

As a result, Everett McGill, who played Reverend Lester Lowe in human form, wound up acting out most of the scenes in the werewolf suit and was credited with a dual role.

[3] The film was released on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment in 2002,[4] on Blu-ray in Germany on September 14, 2017, under the name Der Werwolf von Tarker-Mills.

[10] Conversely, Vincent Canby of The New York Times dismissed the film as "very low-grade Stephen King fiction" and thought the werewolf "looks less like a wolf than Smokey Bear with a terrible hangover.

"[12] Rick Kogan of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one star out of four and called it "a limp retelling of the werewolf legend that is about as frightening as a rubbery Richard Nixon mask.

"[13] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The human drama gives 'Silver Bullet' an extra warmth—and Marty's handicap and ingenuity make him a more attractive hero.

"[14] Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post remarked that the plot "is about as suspenseful as looking at your watch to see which minute will pop up next," but Gary Busey's lively performance "almost makes the movie bearable.