George A. Romero is, of course, the Godfather of the modern zombie movie. Without him, the genre as we know it might not even exist. And 100 years from now, people will still be talking about the original “Dead” trilogy. His other films, the ones that don’t feature gut-munching? Not so much.
Creepshow notwithstanding, most of Romero’s work outside of the zombie genre has largely been forgotten…sometimes for good reason, but just-as-often due to circumstances beyond his control. An example of the latter is 1993’s The Dark Half, one of the few times the fiercely independent director worked with a major studio. Unfortunately for him, that studio was Orion Pictures, which was famously falling apart at the time and resulted in this film being unceremoniously dumped into theaters two years after it was completed.
Too bad, really, because while no masterpiece, The Dark Half is one of Romero's better films that doesn’t have ‘dead’ in the title, and a pretty faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s novel (especially in terms of its tone). Timothy Hutton plays Thad Beaumont, an author whose literary work goes largely unnoticed, but the violent, sleazy potboilers he writes under the pseudonym of George Stark are bestsellers. Rather than be blackmailed into keeping his identity secret, Thad decides to go public as the real author of those books…effectively ‘killing’ Stark through a publicity campaign.
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| "I see you've highlighted the naughty bits." |
For the most part, it’s an intriguing story inspired by King’s experiences related to his own pseudonym, Richard Bachman. Romero, who also adapted the screenplay, does a good job establishing a consistently dark tone and depicting the ominous presence of sparrows (symbolically important to the story). Largely free of the visceral gore Romero is known for, things still get plenty bloody at times. Elsewhere, the overall performances are quite good, especially Hutton in a dual role. Amy Madigan is less effective as Thad’s wife, though that’s largely because her character mostly just exists to be put in peril.
But just like the original novel, the final act leaves something to be desired. As much as I’ve always enjoyed Stephen King’s work, sometimes he struggles to stick the landing and The Dark Half is a prime example. Similarly, Romero doesn’t appear to know how to effectively end this thing, resulting in an uninspired conclusion that’s also maddeningly abrupt. Other than that, this is an underseen, underappreciated horror thriller from a director who did more during his lengthy career than make zombies shamble.
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