Success of Stephen King's literary career was such that the writer himself couldn't resist to be inspired by that phenomenon. He wrote two novels on the subject – Misery and The Dark Half. The latter one was inspired by the real events of King's career - discovery of his early four novels, written under pseudonym "Richard Bachman". Just like almost anything King had ever put on paper, that novel was adapted to screen. The 1993 film was written and directed by George A. Romero, filmmaker whose classic Night of the Living Dead had created a cult following among horror movie fans.
Protagonist of the film is Thad Beaumont (played by Timothy Hutton), literature professor whose own writings are failure. Only few people, including Thad's loving and supportive wife Liz (played by Amy Madigan) know a secret - Beaumont, under the pseudonym "George Stark" wrote whole series of graphic, violent novels that turned to be best-sellers. One day, facing blackmail, Beaumont decides to go public, reveal true identity of "George Stark" and stop writing those novels. After the symbolic burial of "George Stark" his life should turn to normal, but, instead, first the blackmailer, than his own publisher and few other people fall prey to vicious serial killer. Sheriff Alan Pangborn (played by Michael Rooker) discovers evidence pointing to the writer's complicity, but Beaumont claims that the murders were committed by "George Stark" who somehow turned into living flesh and wants to have his life and writing career back.
Many screen adaptations of King failed because even the most talented directors simply couldn't process richness and complexity of King's prose into cinematic language. In this film Romero tried to evade this by making a longer film, with the plot slowly unfolding, thus allowing development of atmosphere and characters. That also gave room for exploration of few themes - like existence of "dark halves" in every personality, and sometimes blurring boundaries between the author, his work and the outsiders' perception of both. Unfortunately, the link between supernatural segments in the beginning and the end haven't been properly explained. So, most of the time we watch standard psychological thriller about mad slasher/split personality, with mystic elements being somewhat out of place. The finale, that in King's adaptations usually turns into cheap schlockfest, is very original and spectacular in this film. The actors did very good job, especially Timothy Hutton in an interesting double role. Amy Madigan was good as his wife, and Michael Rooker was very believable as sympathetic lawman. All in all, although not too successful, The Dark Half is one of the better adaptations of King, that could be enjoyed even by those who aren't fans of his literature.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on May 9th 1999)
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