Too much of everything

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I Was Afraid This Was Going To Be Too Much Like "Secret Window" (Johnny Depp) And While It Is Easy To See How One May Have Drawn On The Other For Inspiration, These Two Movies Are As Different As Night And Day ... Timothy Hutton Is Excellent And Pulls It Off With No Issues At All ... Amy Madigan Gives An Excellent Performances As The "Stand By Her Man" Wife ... Michael Rooker Comes Together Well As The Sheriff Investigating A Series Of Horrific Murders ... Horror From Stephen King Means A Script That Works Well All The Way Around ... The Last Time I Saw Timothy In Something I Liked As Much As This Was The 1981 "Taps" ... The Dark Half Is An Excellent Ride Down Spooky Lane From Beginning To End ... My IMDb Rating 7 Out Of 10

Stephen King Adaptations are Plentiful and Range in Quality from God-Awful (Thinner 1996) to Great (Carrie 1976). Some Fall Somewhere in the Middle and This One is Right There Despite Romero Writing and Directing.Most of the Problems Lie With Explanations. It Never Really Explains or Pays Much Attention to Exactly Where the Doppelganger Comes From. Obviously, He is the Alter-Ego, Dark-Half, of the Writer. But Exploring the Methodology of the Psychological Manifestation, is He-It a Conjured Spirit, an Unwelcome Intrusion of Ancient Practices that Linger Today, etc, is Lacking. These are Touched Upon but Never Really "Fleshed Out". Weak Expositional Dialog from the Cop (Michael Rooker) About the Writer (Timothy Hutton in a Dual Role) Being Allowed to Roam Free While Damning Evidence is Everywhere and There Are Others.But These Weaknesses Do Not Make the Film Awful, Just Not as Good as It Could Have Been with a Deeper Script. The Acting is Passable with Hutton Maybe Straining a Bit Here and There and Amy Madigan as the Wife in a Thankless Role is OK. But The Twin Babies "Performances" Steal the Show in that Department.There are Some Romero Flourishes that are Graphic and Work Well, but the Film Overall Seems to Lack Any Energy or Style, and the Pacing is Off. Worth a Watch for Stephen King Fans, Horror Movie Buffs, and Romero Completest. Others Might Want to Take a Chance but be Advised...It's Not Great Stephen King and it's Not Great George Romero and as a Stand Alone Genre Piece it is Just Average.

In 1968, young Thad Beaumont has a brain tumor removed. It turns out to be an undeveloped twin. The sparrows swarm supernaturally. 23 years later, Thad (Timothy Hutton) is a college professor and a successful writer under the pen name George Stark. He's married to Liz (Amy Madigan) with young twins. Fred Clawson discovers that he's the secret pulp novel writer and blackmails him. His publishers accept killing off George Stark even with a fake tombstone. They try to publicize transitioning to the safer Thad Beaumont writing. Then the people involved start getting killed off by a mysterious figure and Thad is the prime suspect for Sheriff Alan Pangborn.I like the basic idea and I think the movie is well made. However, a couple things keep bothering me. First, the whole idea of 'killing' off Stark doesn't make sense. Clawson's blackmail is based on the fact that it would hurt business. Yet they close up the Stark business themselves. A better reason has to be written to explain killing off Stark. It may be as simple as Thad being tired of the violent imagery.The second is that I don't understand why the sheriff doesn't arrest Thad on that first night. It seems like he has enough evidence. It would be more compelling if he had less evidence. It would be more tense if the killer's face isn't revealed so early. They should stretch out the questions until the third act. The overall work is good. Timothy Hutton is a compelling lead. If only the movie could fix my concerns, this could be great.

Thad Beaumont (Hutton) is a successful write living in Maine with his wife Liz (Madigan) and two infant twins. Thad is critically acclaimed but far from a best seller. Writing under the pseudonym George Stark, Thad writes trashy violent novels that just happen to sell better than his own. A Blackmailer threatens to expose his other identity so Thad goes Public with the information in hopes of burying his alter ego. Instead, Thad's dark half which is George Stark takes on a life of his own and is bent on destroying Thad's world and everyone connected to him. Stark is soon stalking Thad's agents' friends and slashing them to ribbons with a razor. Horror Veteran George A. Romero adapts Stephen king's novel and directs here. Romero wisely keeps the audience wondering if it is Thad blacking out and committing these crimes, or has his mind actually released this killer into the real world. Timothy Hutton is wonderful in the dual role and has the talent to make a menacing glance be actually scary. There are multiple scare scenes that work very well. Such as when Thad's agent Miriam (Rutanya Alda) comes home puts her key in the door and it slowly opens. The audience is on the edge of their seat and they know they're going to get it, but Romero's timing is so good he gets the Jump scare anyway. There is an excellent dream sequence that is scary as well. The effects are top notch and Romero makes the attacks very violent and gory. There is a delicious sequence in a hallway that is just dripping with mood and atmosphere. All though the end result of the story is a bit much to swallow, 'The Dark Half' works as a first rate horror film.