This Is a Great Stephen King Adaptation but an Awful George Romero Movie

One thing that this world needs more of is creative partnerships between master storytellers. Without the shared brain power of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, we wouldn’t have Indiana Jones! If Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez didn’t unite for Grindhouse, who knows if we could ever see world peace? These unifying projects aren’t just exciting for movie buffs. When two artists come together, they bring out the best in each other and merge their individual voices into a unified approach. This can be fun when you have two similar creatives coming together, but it’s even more fun when they have disparate styles, particularly if they typically idle in different genres or mediums.

In the last 50 years of genre storytelling, few horror partnerships have been as promising as the one between Stephen King and George A. Romero. Together, these two crafted the early ’80s cult classic anthology film, Creepshow. That movie wasn’t an Earth-shattering sensation, but it was successful enough (and had to be enjoyable enough for the parties involved) that King and Romero reunited again. This time, it was for a 1993 adaptation of the acclaimed author’s novel, The Dark Half. While not as enjoyable as this duo’s previous joint effort, Dark Half is one of the more direct adaptations of King’s style. Of course, most of the plot is still intact, but Romero makes more of an effort to be honest about his source material’s author’s voice than many other filmmakers have. In fact, the Dawn of the Dead director is so true to typical King-isms that he almost loses his own voice in the process. The satirical, handheld, indie nature of his early works all dissolve in the waters of name-brand studio horror. We still end up with a solid film, but it’s less of a Romero experience than some fans might have hoped for.

The Dark Half

A writer’s fictional alter ego wants to take over his life…at any price.

Release Date

April 23, 1993

Director

George A. Romero

Runtime

122 Minutes

‘The Dark Half’ Came Out at the End of Stephen King’s Prime

Despite coming out towards the tail-end of arguably the best era in King’s career, The Dark Half isn’t one of King’s more well-known novels. It was released in 1989, three years after It and two after Misery. But between Misery and The Dark Half came The Tommyknockers, which King himself has called “an awful book.” King fans everywhere know that he was still cranking out one fantastic idea after the next during this era, his execution just wasn’t on par with what it was a few years prior. The Dark Half is a prime example of this.

King’s novel, and Romero’s film, follow Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton), an author who writes under his actual name but also uses a pseudonym, George Stark, to remain anonymous when working on his highly successful crime novels. It soon becomes public knowledge that Beaumont operates under the Stark name and that this authorial front will be retired. Soon after Beaumont “kills off” his Stark name, many of Beaumont’s associates are found brutally murdered, with his fingerprints and cryptic messages being left behind at the scenes of these crimes. It doesn’t take long for Beaumont to suspect that his alter-ego might be a more sinister figure than just a simple pen name.

‘The Dark Half’ is True to the Stephen King Experience, But a Lackluster George Romero Movie

Getting the simple parts of The Dark Half out of the way first, there’s almost nothing wrong with this movie in an acting and production sense. Hutton is fantastic in his vastly different dual performances as Beaumont and Stark (the latter of which is one of King’s typical uber-badass, leather jacket-wearing villains). The rest of the cast is superb too, with Amy Madigan bringing a level-headed voice of reason to everything as Liz Beaumont, and character actor extraordinaire Michael Rooker playing the classic King character Alan Pangborn. There are a few shots with some dodgy CG-generated flocks of birds, but otherwise, this movie looks fantastic. It’s a polished-up studio horror picture that drips with every bit of King’s typical Maine-flavored Americana.

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On the grounds of this just being a regular old movie or a King adaptation, the production level and grim tone of The Dark Half isn’t an issue. If we’re looking at this as a Romero movie, though, things get a bit dicier. Romero’s very best works are his independent efforts. He was a regional filmmaker who made movies his way or the highway. When you fire up one of his pictures, nine times out of ten, you can expect a charmingly shoddy yet effective experience to come your way. His movies were crafted on a low budget, filled with gore, resourceful in their locations and props, and most of the time, carried a wry, satirical edgeto them. The Dark Half is the complete opposite.

Romero’s Satirical Edge Was Key to His Artistic Voice

Romero wasn’t just interested in grossing out his audiences, he wanted to make them think too. Of course, Night of the Living Dead was a bit of an accidental social commentary, but from there, Romero was always making thought-provoking films. Dawn of the Dead examines 1970s consumerism, The Crazies is largely critical of the ways that our government tries to control us, and even later efforts like Land of the Dead tackled several early 21st-Century themes (with such a heavy hand that Land suffered for it).

The Dark Half doesn’t have one ounce of that bitter Romero satire. Aside from his name appearing at the top of the credits and a few genuinely upsetting images (the opening reveal alone), this movie has no trace of Romero. For those that are just in the Stephen King market, that won’t be a problem. Fans of his will be rather pleased with The Dark Half. Romero captures the author’s small town-isms masterfully — whether we’re talking about his framing of wide-open geography, the ways that these townies’ stories are connected, the tension when someone has to race from one end of town to another, and even down to the clothes that these people wear. This iteration of King’s classic location, Castle Rock, is spot on.

Romero even holds onto King’s, particularly “book-y” dialogue. He’s the kind of author who often has his characters speak exactly how he does (or maybe how he thinks he does). When you’re reading these passages in a novel, it mostly works, with an occasional eye roll. King’s singular dialogue is dropped directly into this film adaptation… a medium in which it doesn’t work as well. The best (and worst) line of the movie is when Beaumont is first accused of committing a capital crime. He doesn’t miss a beat, immediately cracking a joke when asking why they’re looking at him like a “splat of bird shit on your new car.” No one talks like this! Who on Earth would wise up to a room full of cops with such a crude joke after being accused of something heinous? Again, this is an easier pill to swallow on the page. When you’re seeing actual people act it out, it doesn’t work nearly as well. In some ways, that makes this a much more faithful King experience. So, depending on the mood that you’re in, The Dark Half might be an even more fun watch because of that.

In sacrificing his own voice to bring this book to life, Romero has to be one of the great adapters of Stephen King’s works. It might not be the greatest movie ever, but this Dark Half adaptation wears its source material on its sleeve — loud and proud, baby. We all love Frank Darabont and Mike Flanagan, but Romero sticks to the guns of the world’s most famous horror author, warts and all.

The Dark Half is streaming on Tubi in the U.S.

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