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ROMERO IS A GENIUS! A great film that does justice to the book.

This is Timothy Hutton's best performance, for he was born to play George Stark and Thad Beaumont. Yes, it did do some changes to the storyline, but it was overall faithful to the book. They pulled off King's conclusion greatly. This is a great film, but the title of the best adaptation goes to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. This film does the book perfect justice and it is as good as the novel. Well shot, acted, and directed. Recomended to fans of horror, George Romero, and Stephen King.

Underrated King adaptation: pick a number

George Romero didn't translate King's book to the letter when he made this screenplay; perhaps for the better because his version is an equally interesting take.Starring Timothy Hutton as a famous pulp novelist writing under the name of George Stark, the main character works; Thad Beaumont is clumsy, intelligent and quite the family man. Married to Amy Madigan and a father of twins.When someone threatens to expose Thad for the pulp writer he is, Beaumont decides to let the world know he is George Stark. Good call you'd think, but George disagrees.Thad's friends and family become the target of a guy going by the name of "George Stark". Like the characters in the books he has a taste for underground killings and a flair for rock 'n' roll one liners.As the killings continue, Thad becomes entangled in an investigation directed at him.This material is at fist glance unknown territory for George Romero, having spend too much time writing dialogue for zombie victims. Sure, Martin and Monkey Shines were proof the man could write a good script, but "the dark half" is as clever in its writing as it is to the point.Add to that a wonderful score by Christopher Young (you haven't lived until you've heard the main theme, reprized at full glory in the end credits) The American DVD is full screen, the European (UK) has the widescreen, so avoid that US edition.Dark Half is an inventive thriller that relies very much on the steps of belief (it builds the fiction, which few horror films do).

The birds

I read the book when I was in ninth grade which was a long time ago. When I was reading it one of the boys saw me and told the whole class I was a devil worshipper. How you get the devil from Dark Half is beyond me. If King is the devil then yes, your damn right I worship him. Thad had to have a tumor surgically removed from his brain. However, it wasn't a tumor, it was his twin brother that didn't develop. Thad, who is a writer, decided to put Stark to sleep for good. Oh I forgot to tell you, Thad is a real clutz.

Underrated adaptation from Romero

Stephen King's The Dark Half is one of the few big screen adaptations of his work to actually be pretty good. Zombie meister George Romero adapted King's tale, which features Timothy Hutton as a writer attempting to put an end to his popular, horror writing, pen name alter ego, but gets a big surprise instead. Soon enough, he's literally struggling with himself while trying to protect his family, all concluding in one of the most memorable endings you'll ever see in a big screen King adaptation. While it may be longer than it had to have been, Romero successfully weaves a film that does King's work justice while also putting a bit of his own spin on it at the same time. The gore and makeup effects are very well done as well, and the cast, which also includes Amy Madigan, Michael Rooker, Julie Harris, and Robert Joy (who would be in Romero's Land of the Dead a little over a decade later) also take memorable turns, but it's Hutton who shines above the rest in one of the best performances of his entire career. All in all, The Dark Half is not only an underrated King adaptation, but it's one of Romero's most underrated films as well, and regardless of you being a fan of either or both horror maestros, The Dark Half is definitely worth a look.

Creepy intelligent horror with a great cast.

Funnily, given the fact that they're both King adaptations, Dark Half reminds me a lot of The Dead Zone. Granted in comparison the Dark Half is less subtle and much more demented, but they both have a similar pace and feel. The Dark Half is a slow, creepy horror, dealing more in chills and scares you'll think about afterwards than special effects and cheap shock tactics.For instance, there's no gore to speak of here. It does have a serial killer in it, but if you're expecting overwrought Jason style 'kill' sequences, you're in for a disappointment. This guy isn't a slasher, he's a murderer, and this is painted out in the unpleasant and realistic way he kills. There's no gratuitous violence here, and as a result the movie is that much more realistic and believable.The plot is, though believable via some excellent acting, complete madness. Effectively, it goes like this. Main character Thad had a tumour that turned out to be his unborn twin, and his family buried it as a dead relative instead of having it destroyed. After a chain of events causes Thad to dump an alter-ego he'd been writing cheapo thriller novels under, the tumour takes on the alter-ego and goes on the rampage having inexplicably grown into a full size doppelganger. Weird? Don't get me started, but damn if it isn't a great ride.It's intelligently told, and is honestly a movie that wouldn't get made nowadays, being as it is a well written horror movie that gives it's audience credit for intelligence. At no point did I feel that I was getting the movie spoon-fed to me, and I genuinely felt that I was allowed to do my own detective work during it. As a result, you come out of the movie feeling like it really involved you.In these days of remakes, sequels and clones, a horror movie that involves should be held up like some DVD holy grail. You owe it to yourself to check the Dark Half out. You'd be crazy not to.

decent if a bit silly

decent and creepy stuff even if it is a bit silly despite all of it's flaws this is a well acted and well made and entertaining time with lots of creepy moments yes it gets extremely silly in the end but the story is always interesting and it has some good gore some cool bird flesh eating attacks yes you heard me right Timothy Hutton gives a dynamic performance as George Stark and Thad Beaumont now it is pretty confusing and hard to explain like why has he come to life i cant explain it the script is uneven at times though the directing is very solid George Romero directed he directed all the dead films and of course we have Michael Rooker who in my opinion is an underrated actor
and it managed to creep me out a times lots of throat slashing scenes as well so overall i had fun with this one but beware it does get REALLY SILLY near the finale but still well worth a watch it gets a **1/2 out of 5 i was going to give it a *** but but the confusing plot and silliness make this a **1/2

OMG this movie sucks

This movie wasn't near as good as the book. It really ticks me off because the novel the dark half is one of my favorites. Don't rent it, don't buy it, just wait until it comes on tv.

Great flick!

Contrary to what other reviewers have written, this film is actually great. It's not corny or mindless like many other films of King books (or some of King's books for that matter), it's VERY suspenseful and the ending is really psychedelic. In actual fact, this is one of the handful of S. King films that doesn't pander to the masses. Romero is a serious director and this film shows the substance of both Romero and the story. Imagine if The Stand hadn't been made into a stupid made-for-TV movie and had been done as seriously as this. Highly recommended!

Poor casting

I think that this would have to be one of the worst book adaptations ever. The Dark Half is one of my favorite books of all time and I was extremely disappointed with the character that they cast to be Thad's alter-ego. In the book descriptions of George Stark, he is almost the exact opposite of the physical appearance of Thad. However, in the movie, the same guy plays both characters. I think that if they had wanted the movie to be better, they should have cast a much larger man and one who would have matched the vivid descriptions given in Stephen King's novel. The book was done a great injustice by the lack of appropriate casting in the movie. As I have said, this movie would have been much better with better casting.

Not bad

Okay...while i did not mind this movie, i have to say that for better or worse, Steven King's novels just do not translate well into the movie realm. If you really want to enjoy The Dark Half, read the book. There are just too many details in King's writing that cannot be put into the movie versions. If you just want a cool horror flick, this will work, but if you have already read the book, do not expect it to be nearly as good.

Has the otherworldly, take-a-bite-out-of-your-arm sense of King's humor, with Romero at the lens

The Dark Half is a film I wouldn't go out of my way to show to my friends for the first time like other films by George A. Romero (Living-dead pictures, and some of the obscurities), or a few choice Stephen King adaptations (The Shining and Shawshank Redemption being tops). But if it shows up on TV I tend to take a gander for a few, and end up watching it till the unusual, nerve-chilling ending. There's some part of King's writing that at times goes too much for the cheap scares, or rather, doesn't do enough to earn them. This time, however, Romero does catch enough of the smoke in the fire of King's book here; I'd love to sit down and actually read the whole book myself, to see how much was incorporated from King's often brilliant, if perpetually odd, writing, into the final project. It's also territory for Romero that isn't very new, though isn't one of his worst pictures either.Timothy Hutton, usually in lesser quality pictures, stars here as a writer who happens to have a certain 'alias' in his writing. Unfortunately, whenever he hears a certain calling card- being the sparrows- it sets him off into territory he's afraid to go into, especially with a wife and family. The divide between Thad Beaumont, the common garden-variety writer of Hutton's character, and George Stark, the madman writer of pulp fiction also played by Hutton, makes for the more intriguing parts to the film. Thankfully, unlike Secret Window, the sort of duality of man, or of the writer in this case, isn't saved up for some over-the-top climax. Here it's meant more as a psychological study, and it's here that Romero scores his best points in his adapting the material. Like his film Martin, he knows how to up the ante on the terror involved inside of the mind. In fact, it's scenes showing Beaumont/Stark writing ala the birds that end up becoming more chilling than those with the usual horror violence in them.Thanks to Hutton, a solid supporting cast, and an ending that does keep one guessing more than could be expected of the material, Romero has a pretty decent work here, and a King adaptation that shouldn't be as much of an embarrassment as some of the others. Individual scenes end up even being mini-masterpieces, even amidst a script that loses its energy and goes into the mundane and usual. Besides, any film with a line like this: "You always were the clumsy one, old hoss", deserves a little recognition, however minor. Under-appreciated and very watchable, though nothing wildly spectacular. 7.5/10

One of the best horror films out there

I've seen some pretty awful horror movies in my time, sometimes they don't even scare me they just put me too sleep. Bu this one is one of the better horror films I've seen lately. The Dark Half stars Timothy Hutton as Thadeus Beaumont who under his pen name George Stark writes horrific murder mysteries novels that shoot him to the top of the bestseller's list and make him know far and wide as the master of horror.But when Thad wants to break away form his other half he stages a mock funeral of George Stark so he can go out on his own, but soon enough the people who helped put George in the grave are suddenly dying left and right and the police have Thad pinned as the prime suspect, as the bodies continue to rise the possibility of Thad committing the murders are becoming less and less likely. Now Thad has only one shot to clear his name but how can he do it when everybody believes he's the killer? The Dark Half is a menacing and increasingly creepy horror mystery that will have you guessing and wondering until the credits roll, it's an amazingly well made film that's basked in mind blowing special effects, dark tones and eerie music that make you jump at the slightest noise. It's a movies that you will want to watch over and over again.

"You are disturbing my peaceful frame of mind." Decent horror from Romero, but we have come to expect so much more.

The Dark Half starts in '1968' where a young boy named Thadeus Beaumont (Patrick Brannan) has recently begun writing novels but is also suffering from some strange side-effects, he collapses outside his home & is taken to Hospital where Doctors discover that he has a deformed embryo growing inside of him... Jump '23 Years Later' & things are going great for Thadeus (Timothy Hutton), he has a wife Elizabeth (Amy Madigan) & two young babies plus a prestigious teaching job at a university. However, one day a man named Fred Clawson (Robert Joy) attempts to blackmail Thadeus when he discovers that Thadeus writes trashy novels under the pen-name George Stark. Instead of giving into Freds demands Thadeus decides to kill off George by going public, but not everyone his happy about the untimely demise of George Stark least of all George himself who will go to murderous lengths to make sure he stays alive, even if it means other's don't...Executive produced, written & directed by George A. Romero I can't say that The Dark Half is a bad film because it clearly isn't but at the same time I can't but say I was disappointed. The script by Romero was based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King & is a fairly absorbing & engaging tale but didn't totally satisfy. For a start things are never explained, what is George Stark? How was he created? There are some vague suggestions such as the opening scenes of the brain tumour which is never mentioned or touched upon again throughout the remainder of the film to more supernatural reasoning such as Thad's alter-ego & literal dark half coming to life. Some may like this vagueness but personally I didn't think it did the film any favours & what's with the Sparrows? The character's are decent & it's well written for what it is but when I consider that Romero wrote the mighty Dead films which all included fantastic subtle social commentary superbly mixed together with wonderful horror & gore I couldn't help but feel something was missing in The Dark Half by comparison.The Dark Half was made in 1991 but sat on the shelf for a couple of years because of the collapse of Orion Pictures & when it did finally see the inside of theatres it did nothing at the box-office. Somewhat surprisingly The Dark Half was one of only two film Romero directed in the 90's with the other being Two Evil eyes (1990) & he only directed half of that, it wasn't for another 9 years before he made another film with Bruiser (2000) which seemed a long time... He does an OK job here but the film drags in places & there isn't a great deal of style or gore, there's an exposed brain, a few splashes of blood & a fairly gory scene at the end in which someone has the flesh picked off their bones by Sparrows.I was absolutely astonished to discover that The Dark Half had a supposed budget of $15,000,000, where on earth did the money go? There are no big name actors, no big action scenes, no explosions, no car chases, no big special effect scenes apart from some computer generated Sparrows, no exotic locations & nothing that would suggest that 15 big ones had been spent on it. Was this film part of the reason why Orion went bankrupt? Was this the reason why Romero didn't work again in the horror genre for 9 long years? Romero's latest film Land of the Dead (2005) only had a budget of $15,000,000 & The Dark Half was made 15 years prior, this is not a 15 million film that's for sure. The acting was OK but no one stands out, it's all rather bland & forgettable. $15,000,000? I just can't believe it, maybe I'm wrong, maybe all the money ended up on screen but I simply didn't see it. We give films a certain amount of slack for being low budget so there's no reason we can't criticise a big budget film when it fails to deliver.The Dark Half is a decent horror film of that there is no doubt but with $15,000,000 in his back pocket & a string of absolute horror classics behind him I can't help but feel disappointed by The Dark Half, a real wasted opportunity. Worth a watch but nothing spectacular.

Stephen King's best!

Well, it's October so me and my mom are watching tons of horror! We saw this on Sci-fi and it was cool! This movie shows you what happens when you use a pseudonym! Scary sometimes and gory at the beginning and at the end (I really don't find throat slashing gory).

Um......

This film had a pretty good idea behind it, but should've been better planned. Basically, you can't anylize this movie or you'll end up frustrated.

Tim Hutton does a great job, and he's pretty darn cute, so he makes up for the poor plot.

Like Minds Joined at the Hip So to Speak

My, my, my...what an intriguing film. I am amazed that this film gets so little regard or publicity as a fine horror film, for it is clearly a fine film filled with loads of spine-tingling suspense, chilling. atmospheric
scenes, settings, and performances, some masterful direction from some guy named Romero, and one hell of a performance by Timothy Hutton in dual roles.
In fact, I still am having trouble believing Hutton played both roles...he is THAT good! The story is somewhat complex about an author who is blackmailed initially for writing trashy books under another name and decides to go public and "kill" off this literary alter ego only to find that somehow his mind has actually created him into being. At least I think that was the explanation. It really isn't oddly too important, because you will be on a rollercoaster ride of thrills as this alter ego kills everyone that stands in his way of being. George Romero also has dual roles as screenwriter(adapting the novel by Stephen King) and as director. He does well in both, but it really is his direction(and Hutton's performance) that carry this film. He still knows how to scare, and some off his best scenes involve the sparrows flying and flitting across the screen. Hutton is magnificent in his two roles. I am just surprised he had it in him...but very pleased. The other actors are very good too with a real nice performance given by Michael Rooker as a baffled policeman. If you are looking for a nice scary movie...look no farther than The Dark Half...it delivers!

Good Idea, Badly Portrayed.

Thad Beaumont is a very successful writer who had a twin removed from his brain, when he was a child. Now, he is going under an assumed name, "George Stark". Now Years later, Thad is the prime suspect in a series of murders that he suspects were committed by his alter ego. Dark, and edgy, with few (if any) jumps,The Dark Half is a perfect example of a good idea, gone wrong. Which is a shame because I so enjoyed the book, and I was very excited when I heard about the movie, but I was thoroghly disappointed with this dragging, and considerably boring, sequel. I am a general fan of Stephen King's work, (Kingdom Hospital, Night Flyer, IT!, ....)but unfortunately, this one didn't click. I give this one a 3 ~SonerBoy~

USA

Novelist (Tim Hutton) is shocked to discover the alias he uses for some of his books, has manifested itself and is acting on the violent urges and thoughts the arthor has. Over baked Stephen King adaption features an over the top turn by Hutton and gets sillier as it progresses. A very disappointing effort from director George A. Romero. Rated R; Violence and Profanity.

Mean Machine...

"The Dark Half" is a movie with an implausible plot, but is executed very well. In fact, it's done so well that you end up forgetting how implausible it is. So, if you suspend your disbelief a little, chances are you'll like it. The suspense is handled very professionally by horror master George Romero, but above all, Timothy Hutton's acting is the stand out of the film. His portrayal of Southern mad-man(ghost) George Stark is intense and will make you think of straight-razors in a whole new light. Not a horror classic, but original and it does get a few scares out of you. The Stephen King book was better, but the film does a suprisingly good job of adapting it.

King rules

I have watched a few stinker horror movies lately, and when I entered the video store I wanted to watch a movie done by King. What a difference a good writer does, compared to all this garbage done to cash in on the resurgence of horror films. King is a present day author like Hemmingway, or Robert Frost. We should enjoy his work while he is alive, because when he dies he will become known as one of America's great authors. Maybe he will be studied in school. This film is about twins, alter egos, and sparrows carrying peoples souls. This film is creepy, and its fiction is done perfectly. No need for a high budget, when you have good acting and an excellent story.