He seemed so evil and mean even before he turned into the werewolf. Most werewolf movies the guy who turns into the wolf is a nice average guy. In this movie the priest seemed very evil and it wasnt explained. Ive never heard of a mean and evil priest before.
shareI didn't think Reverend Lowe seemed so evil before he got his eye shot out. He actually seemed to hate the curse that had befallen him when he woke up from his dream.
shareWhat? He was not only coward, he was SOB madman! Rather than have the balls to kill himself he chose to punish(eat for food) those he saw as sinners or unclean while using his church as screening base,meanwhile he kills the little boy .
shareIve never heard of a mean and evil priest before.
Whatever!!! Dude, you don't know how disturbed I was growing up as an altar boy. Man, I thought something was wrong with me because none of the priests ever molested me.
I don't think, therefore I am not.
Assuming everything you say is true...
Just because you were never molested doesn't mean it never happens to anyone. Most preists are truely good, kind men, however there are unfortunetly a small group who have indeed raped and molested alter boys. As the old saying goes, "There's a few bad apples in every barrel."
It is very good described in King's book. As much as I remember - I've read it for about 12 years ago.
shareJust like anyone from politicians to school teachers to even garbage men.
shareActually the reverend was okay in the earlier half of the movie. He only grew dark and sinister when he had one eye and the five o'clock shadow on his face, which was due to his identity clinging in the balance, knowing he had nothing more to lose.
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He was a priest, and then he probably got bite by a werewolf or something, but he probably remained being a priest to try and rid himself of being evil, but being a werewolf is an evil thing so as you can see in the movie, it took over him.
He only killed those who sinned at first until the kid pissed him off.
He didn't have to kill those who sinned during the beginning, but if you were a werewolf, I think you would too. It's not even you anymore, which could also easily explain another reason on why he was a priest, monsters come in all forms.
I think that alot ofthe reason why the preist was so pissed off was just sheer frustration with the whole being a werewolf situation. I mean if you were a werewolf I'd imagine you'd be pretty pissed off about it too anyone would be.
"I'm here for the President"~~Sam Seaborne
I got the impression that he wasn't so much evil as he was losing his mind and control over himself. He was, essentially, being taken over by the werewolf persona more and more.
share"I got the impression that he wasn't so much evil as he was losing his mind and control over himself. He was, essentially, being taken over by the werewolf persona more and more."
I like to think of this way as well. He's a much more interesting character this way. I wish the would of played up this angle a bit more, Made the priest a little more 3D.
can we stop referring to him as a priest? he is a minister, different thing altogether
shareI wondered about that. The book plainly states he is Baptist and that Marty's family is Methodist, but wasn't he wearing a tab and collar at one point in the movie? I've only ever seen Catholic and Episcopal priests wearing those.
Of course, I kinda fell asleep while watching it so I may be confused about what he wore.
I do agree that he wasn't evil per se. His humanity was ebbing away from him with each change. In the book, he does not realize that he is the wolf at first. It's as if they are two separate beings who share a body. Once he begins to put the pieces together, he even leaves town at one full moon to protect the residents(and himself, because he knows they will be armed and ready to track 'the Beast').
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In the film, he is referred to as Reverend Lowe.
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
In the book, he's the town's Baptist minister. As well, Marty and his family are clearly Roman Catholic -which is why Marty doesn't spot him right away, since he doesn't attend Lowe's church.
In the film it's strange, since Marty and Jane wear Catholic symbols, yet seem to attend Lowe's church. (Or at least, take part in projects Lowe works on).
As well, Lowe does wear the classic tab shirt that are mainly worn by Catholic clergy.
I think that Lowe was sort of miscast in the film. Everett McGill tends to play sinister types, so he would be playing to type in this as well. In the book, Lowe is described as a more meek looking type. Supposedly, unless it's in periods close to full moon, he only has to shave every two or three days. The guy who played Brady's father would have been a much better choice as Lowe. It would make the revelation (for people who hadn't read the book) all the more shocking.
He's referred to as a reverend in the book too, where his first name is given as Lester.
shareQUOTE:
can we stop referring to him as a priest? he is a minister, different thing altogether
How do you think that is? A priest is a kind of minister. A minister has a ministry. Ministries come in all shapes and sizes. You can have a ministry of music (famous examples include Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith). You can have a ministry as a missionary. Etc, etc. If you promote the message of the Bible in any way, you have a ministry. If you're thinking of who can conduct weddings and funerals, only priests can, aside from sea captains and city hall people.
So calling Reverend Lowe a priest is correct. Calling him a minister is correct too, but it's like calling a stewardess an airline worker.
Anyway, I agree that Lowe only started being evil when his werewolf was shot in the eye, and that the werewolf persona was slowly taking him over. But the eye-shooting incident probably really set him off.
The insinuation was that the priest somehow became afflicted with the werewolf curse long after he became a priest. It affected him psychologically and emotionally because he knew was committing evil as a werewolf. As for 'looking' evil, that's the consummate bravura actor, Everett McGill of the famous, "Quest For Fire" caveman movie. McGill frequently found himself typecast as the 'heavy' because he looked so intense, so mean, and potentially the villain. It was just his misfortune to be born with a mean-looking face. But the man was genius. He parlayed his looks into a profitable acting career. He's retired now and from what I hear, living happily in Arizona.
shareThe priest was so evil because he was a werewolf, and not the kind from Teen Wolf
share
**SPOILER ALERT**
Perhaps the priest was from a clan of werewolves who just lived amongst humans while preying on them. It's pretty obvious his religious convictions were completely duplicitous, perhaps placing himself in a position of authority without doubt was his modus operandi and he moved from town to town doing the same thing. Just a conjecture.
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In the book, Lowe doesn't even realize he's a werewolf right away.
The first attack happens in January -each of the twelve chapters details a month of the year. In May, he has his dream about the congregation turning into werewolves and the morning after discovers that the church janitor has been savagely killed by the pulpit. (In hindsight, the reader can guess that Lowe might have been talking innocently with the janitor when the change came on in.) After that, Lowe realizes that something's wrong as he has clothes that are missing, muddied and torn. As well, he has bruises and cuts he can't account for, generally right after the full moon. On July 5th (the fireworks incident took place on the night of July 4th), he wakes up with his left eye missing. That's when he finally realizes he's the werewolf.
In the book, as well, there are only two more people killed after this. The town constable, at August full moon, who is killed while out on patrol on the backroads when the werewolf reaches in through the window of his truck. And, in November when Lowe drives to a motel near Portland and -ironically- kills the Tarker's Mills librarian who was shacked up in the motel with his mistress. It's as if once Lowe realizes his curse, he at least tries to get away from the populated areas of the town on the night of the full moon. (In September, a farmer's entire pen of pigs is slaughtered. The next morning, the farmer muses that insurance will cover most of the loss and he'd prefer his pigs to be killed over some person. In October, four deer are found slaughtered close to the highway turnpike.)
In the film it's as if the reverse is true. As Lowe becomes more aware of his condition, he takes less precautions. As Lowe had been in town long enough to be trusted and known by people, it's possible he'd been able to keep it under control but had begun to lose control as the werewolf took over his mind more and more.
Thanks for the novel summary. I had read the book as a teenager a long time ago and had forgotten just about all of it. So I was watching the movie with new eyes. Whatever flaws there were in the movie version rests with Stephen King just the same, as he is the screenwriter.
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No problem.
The film does have some of the same plotholes that the book has.
In the book, we never find out how Lowe became a werewolf. It DOES say that Lowe had been parson of the Baptist Church in town for about a decade, or so. Lowe himself doesn't know how it happened to him. The closest he can think is that the previous November, he saw some strange flowers on the hills outside of town. He picked them to put in vases in the church vestry. However, they had all died and turned black by the time he got back to the parsonage.
He isn't certain, but that's what he suspects is the case. It's not mentioned what happened during the full moon that December. Either Lowe transformed and didn't attack anybody through sheer chance, or the full moon was on the 31st, like in the coming year, and his first attack is on Arnie Westrum in the early hours of January 1st.
So, Lowe had, for the most part actually been the kind, well-meaning, cleric that he appeared to be. It was only fairly recently that he became a werewolf and started to lose his mind afterwards.
He was on a mission from God.
"Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing."
Brings the idiom "A wolf in sheep's clothing" to extraordinary new heights, doesn't it? har har...
~`~
Happy Happy Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Happy Happy Halloween! Sillverr Shamrock!
I got the impression that he wasn't so much evil as he was losing his mind and control over himself. He was, essentially, being taken over by the werewolf persona more and more.
I wondered about that. The book plainly states he is Baptist and that Marty's family is Methodist, but wasn't he wearing a tab and collar at one point in the movie? I've only ever seen Catholic and Episcopal priests wearing those.
Of course, I kinda fell asleep while watching it so I may be confused about what he wore.
I do agree that he wasn't evil per se. His humanity was ebbing away from him with each change. In the book, he does not realize that he is the wolf at first. It's as if they are two separate beings who share a body. Once he begins to put the pieces together, he even leaves town at one full moon to protect the residents(and himself, because he knows they will be armed and ready to track 'the Beast').
The insinuation was that the priest somehow became afflicted with the werewolf curse long after he became a priest. It affected him psychologically and emotionally because he knew was committing evil as a werewolf. As for 'looking' evil, that's the consummate bravura actor, Everett McGill of the famous, "Quest For Fire" caveman movie. McGill frequently found himself typecast as the 'heavy' because he looked so intense, so mean, and potentially the villain. It was just his misfortune to be born with a mean-looking face. But the man was genius. He parlayed his looks into a profitable acting career. He's retired now and from what I hear, living happily in Arizona.
Actually, the book clearly states that Lowe is a Baptist, while Marty and his family are Catholic.
That's why it takes until Halloween (when Marty sees Lowe when his trick-or-treating takes him to the Baptist parsonage's door) to track down the werewolf via the missing eye. Marty and his family don't attend Lowe's church so he hasn't seen Lowe since the July 4th incident.
And yeah, Lowe himself was never evil...at least not until the changes started to affect his mind. In the book, he had no reason to realize he was the werewolf...At least not until his nightmare followed by the discovery of the murdered church janitor. It's said that he has no memory of what happens during the attack.