In the late 70's and early 80's Stephen King wrote a series of books under a false name, Richard Bachman. A bookstore clerk noted similarities between Bachman and King's work. He eventually did enough research to deduce that it was in fact King going publishing with a different name. After contacting King they did an article about his outing. King used the experience as inspiration for his 1989 novel, The Dark Half.
TDH follows Thad Beaumont, a writer who finds little success with his novels published under his name. He releases a series of books under the pen name George Stark. These novels are violent and sexual in nature. After being discovered by a reader attempting to blackmail him, Thad goes public that he is actually Stark. Shortly after, people involved with the news article and his publishing company turn up murdered. Thad's fingerprints are at each crime scene. But is it really him or is George Stark more real than anyone imagined?
The film is decent at first thanks to good acting from the cast. Of note, Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) has a supporting role as a local cop and does well as the conflicted law enforcer. There's also some suspense involved with who's actually committing these murders. That's thrown out the window when we learn that Stark actually has physically manifested himself about halfway through the movie. What we're left with is another entire hour of film with little to no suspense whatsoever. This is when the 2 hour runtime begins to drag.
Stephen King has certainly suffered worse adaptations of his work. The Dark Half isn't horrible by any means. It's worth noting that George Romero wrote and directed the screenplay. While his direction is decent if not a bit pedestrian by his standards. The writing fails here with the early reveal. Great special effects are present here, but they don't show up often enough. Chopped down to about an hour and a half and arranged differently, we might be looking at one of the better King adaptations. But instead this one is average. Check it out if your a hardcore King or Romero fan.
No comments:
Post a Comment