Image taken from Wikipedia
Introduction
“The Dark Half” is a 1993 production directed by horror movie legend George A. Romero and based on the novel by Stephen King. The novel was inspired by real events in Stephen King’s life. King used to work under a pseudonym, Richard Bachman, earlier in his career. Bachman’s books were more violent in nature that King’s books. Upon being revealed as Bachman, King wrote “The Dark Half” in response.
Though met with mixed to positive reviews on opening weekend, it was a box office bomb, making back only $10 million of its $15 million budget. It currently holds a 60% rating on the review website “Rotten Tomatos.”
Plot (Spoilers!)
WARNING! This movie contains graphic depictions of violence. If you are disturbed by these sort of images, or do not wish to see them, then do not watch this movie. I believe that you will be ok to read this review though, but exercise caution.
The film starts with a teenaged Thad Beaumont, who is a junior high school student who wishes to be a writer and spends many hours in his room writing violent stories. His mother buys him a typewriter for him to use. Beaumont soon begins to have terrible headaches and hears noises, particularly the sound of birds screeching. One day as he is waiting for the bus, Beaumont collapses and is taken to the hospital. The doctors X-ray him and notice some sort of “mass” in his brain. Assuming it is a tumor, they decide that Beaumont needs surgery. During surgery, it is revealed that the “mass” in his brain is actually an undeveloped fetus that he partially absorbed as a child. The fetus is removed, and one of the nurses runs out of the operating room, unable to handle it. As she is outside, she notices thousands of screeching birds flying around the hospital.
The movie skips forward several years to when Beaumont (Timothy Hutton) is an adult. He is a fairly successful writer who also teaches a fiction writing class at a university. He is married to a woman named Liz (Amy Madigan) and has two twin children. One day, after he has taught his class, a strange man named Fred Clawson, who is a reporter from New York, approaches him and asks him to sign a book by “George Stark.” After trying to say that he is not Stark, Clawson claims that he knows about how Beaumont has been knowing a pseudonym to write his violent thriller novels. He demands blackmail money once a month or he will tell the press. After going home and talking to Liz, Beaumont decides he will come clean and publicly reveal his pseudonym and show the press his lake house where he writes his novels as George Stark. As a joke, they also decide to make a grave for George Stark, even though no one will be in it.
A few days later, the gravedigger calls the police after he discovers a large hole at the George Stark grave. He claims it looks like someone dug itself out. Soon, all of the people who knew about Beaumont’s alias are savagely murdered by an unseen attacker. The photographer, Homer Gamache, is attacked by a hitchhiker and beaten to death with his own prosthetic leg. Sheriff Alan Pangborn calls Beaumont the next day, since he suspects him of being the killer because witness describe the suspect as similarly looking to him, and his fingerprints are found on the scene of the crime. Since Beaumont had an alibi for the time when the murder occurred, the sheriff doesn’t take him in.
Soon after, Beaumont’s headaches start to return. He hears about how Fred Clawson has been found dead in his apartment in New York City. The phrase, “The sparrows are flying again” is written in Clawson’s blood on the wall of his apartment. Beaumont is sure that his pseudonym, George Stark, has come to life and is killing everyone around Beaumont for “killing” him.
Next, “George Stark” breaks into the apartment of Miriam, Beaumont’s publicist. He forces her to call Beaumont and leaves him a message on his answering machine before killing her. Pangborn pays Beaumont another visit, and despite strong evidence saying that Beaumont did it, he still doesn’t arrest him.
“George Stark” goes after Mike Donaldson, the alcoholic reporter, next. He ambushes him in the hallway outside of his apartment and beats him to death. After each death, Stark calls Beaumont to inform him about the killings. Stark sneaks into the apartment of Beaumont’s publisher, Rick Cowley, and kills him along with the two officers protecting him. Stark calls Beaumont once again and tells him he will continue killing unless he starts writing under Stark’s name again. After the call, Stark notices that his body is decomposing, and he realizes if Beaumont doesn’t write with his name soon, he will fade away from existence.
Wanting to investigate Stark’s origins, Beaumont goes and sees the doctor who treated his “tumor.” The doctor tells him that the “tumor” was actually an undeveloped fetus. Stark sneaks in and kills the doctor and leaves before Beaumont notices. Beaumont finds the body of the doctor, and realizes that it looks like he committed the murder. Beaumont flees the scene and from the police. He gets a call from Stark, who claims to have kidnapped Liz and the twins, and threatens to kill them unless Beaumont begins writing again.
Beaumont speaks to a colleague named Reggie, who tells him that Stark’s embodiment is the result of Beaumont encouraging his “dark half” to help him write. She says that in order to kill him without killing himself, he must confront him. She also mentions that sparrows are the conduits and bringers of life and death. They can either help Beaumont, or kill him.
Beaumont goes to his lake house where he believes Beaumont is. Stark’s body is so decomposed that he has to wear bandages to keep his face intact. They both go into his office, and Stark forces Beaumont to begin writing a new book so he can live again. As Beaumont begin writing, he tells Stark to take over the writing, and attacks him while he is distracted. While they are fighting, Liz, who is tied up in the living room, notices millions of sparrows descending upon the house. Just when it seems that Stark is about to kill on of Beaumont’s children, Beaumont reveals that he doesn’t want Stark around anymore, and the sparrows break in and break apart every piece of Stark and carry him away (supposedly to Hell). Beaumont, Liz, and the twins are saved.
My Opinion
I’m not going to lie, I thought this movie would be a lot better than it actually was. I have been excited for about a month to see this movie, and it wasn’t all that great. Was it worth the watch? Yes, I would like to say that it’s worth the two hour investment. Would I watch it again? Probably not. I have to say that I expected more out of the amazing combination of the writing brilliance of Stephen King and the directing talent of George Romero. I just believed that I let myself get too excited for it, even though I knew it wasn’t all that great.
The acting in the movie isn’t too bad, though in my opinion the story gets a little crazy at the end, especially if you were like my and didn’t read the novel. The movie takes place in the mid-20th century, so it gives the movie a bit of an older feeling. It also uses the Stephen King trope of having every Stephen King novel/movie set in Maine. In fact, I only really had issues with one of the visual aspects. That was the fact that they used both CGI (Computer-generated imagery) birds, along with Cut-throat finches to represent sparrows in the movie. They seemed pretty convincing in the movie, I just thought it was interesting that they didn’t choose one or the other.
Conclusion
If you are interested in Stephen King novels, or just enjoy watching thriller or horror movies, then you will probably like this movie. It isn’t the worst Stephen King movie adaptation (That award goes to Maximum Overdrive). If you’re not a fan of Stephen King movies, then you won’t like this one. It does contain somewhat graphic depictions of violence, so keep that in mind if you are planning to watch it. Other than that, this movie isn’t that bad.
Critical Condition 