Stephen King, baby! For many years I re-watched this movie, even owned the DVD at some point and still The Dark Half is a personal classic to me. The fact alone that Timothy Hutton plays both, Thad and George, and displays both of these characters so differently, shows how good he is as an actor. If you haven't seen this one yet, you definetely should check it out, for it is one of the better Stephen King adaptations with a brilliant atmosphere, at times hilarious over the top acting and a storyline that keeps you engaged in what is going on at the screen.

I have not read the book - but the adaptation film is pretty darn good. It's a bizarre story, some great imagery, and good acting.Thad Beaumont had twin brother that was never born, in fact the brother literally lived within his brain. As a child, the twin was developing inside his brain and Thad had to have brain surgery - the doctor calling it a brain tumor. Thad became a husband, father and a writer. As a writer, he created a pseudonym of George Stark to write under. Stark gave rise to a best selling pulp crime spree of novels but Thad decided to "kill off" Stark and write under his own name - a different set of novels. The problem is, Stark becomes real and murders as written in the George Stark novels. The police think that Thad is doing the killings but only one policeman helps to keep Thad out of jail... yet he wonders if Thad is doing the killings and not George Stark come to life.Enjoyable watch, really gets interesting.8/10

I've always been a big fan of Steven King's novels. Almost all his books have been successes. Unfortunately a good book is never a guarantee that the film adaptation will be reach the quality of the book. And out of the many King adaptations only a few have succeeded in bringing the same quality as the book. Its enough to remember the horrible Tommyknockers and the even more pathetic Langoliers. But there have been awesome adaptations The Green Mile, Misery. Though it can't be mentioned with the best ones but Romero's and King's dual work Creepshow is up there with the okay ones and then we also have Dark Half from these two. Stephen Kings three books (Dark Half, Shinning and Secret Window) are connected on a few levels, all feature a writer the protagonist, which is popular with King… and they feature the fear of something, an unknown person (which symbolizes the dark half of our psyche) or higher power. The question is are the directors faithful to the books like Romero and Kubrick, and what twist and film techniques do they use to bring the adaptation to the silver or small screen. When Thad Beaumont was a child, he had an operation to remove a tumor from his brain. during the operation, it was discovered that far from being a tumor, the growth was a twin brother of Thad's that never developed. Years later, Thad is a successful author, writing his serious books under his own name, and his pulp money-makers under the pseudonym "George Stark". When blackmailed by someone who has discovered his secret, Thad publicly "buries" George Stark. From that point on, Thad increasingly becomes the prime suspect in a series of gruesome murders. Despite the films being filled with clichés from the 90s, they are consistent with the books. Romero really captured the depiction of reality and non-reality. The camera work is idea filled and tight, the film is done with rhythmic cuts making it a true Romero film. All this would not have worked without Christopher Younge (the composer of film scores like Hellraiser and Nightmare on Elm street), whose score drives your adrenaline to the max. with a unique many layers soundtrack. The story in itself is a typical SK story, that doesn't clear up until the last twist whether the protagonists twin really has come to life by certain higher powers or not. Timothy Hutton's duel performance is absolutely convincing. He plays the balanced father well and is merciless as George Stark, who after spiking his hair up, goes around killing people, with a cigarette hanging from his lips and a bottle of whiskey close by. The large group of sparrows give the film an air of strangeness right from the start. The sparrows are there as a medium: they connect the earth and the other side and they are instrumental to the ending, which is, without being overly dramatic, THE WORLDS MOST DISGUSTING SCENE, it's a must see. Though it can be said of the film that there is more blood than the typical King adaptation this is not detrimental to it. Dark Half SK adaptation is to Shinning as Carlito's Way is to Scarface. Though Dark Half and Shinning work with similar material, they speck to difference audiences, their devices and budget was different so Dark Half remains a cult film amongst a certain section of horror fans. Romero tried to do his job perfectly, but unfortunately this only worked partially. Romero fans, who are more prone to like films that have a more serious mood with like it, King fans… well I'm not so sure… To me it's a 6/10. https://www.youtube.com/user/Videodromeblog

Perhaps, it was me, but damn, The Dark Half, one of the very few Stephen King film adaptations I hadn't seen until now, was so hard to get into. The story about a boy who had another boy living in his head – literally, began to make less and less sense as the movie progressed. Worse, the movie was sooo long.Now, I do own this book and, though I hadn't read that yet, it'll probably piece together some of the holes I couldn't follow. But, this movie did not encourage me to pick up Stephen King's novel any time soon.The movie was delayed in my viewing because, well, I am not a Timothy Hutton fan. Knowing he's playing a duel role, didn't add to the excitement I should've had for this. But, since it's October, I figured I'd finally see what this was all about 20 years after its release.From what I can recall, and forgive – it's been a couple of days, a boy's writing leads to headaches and mystical sounds of birds. Upon further examination, there was a twin lodged in his brain. We are to believe the second child, the "dark half" twin had been extracted and disposed of. Fast forward many years, and that boy, Thad (Hutton,) has grown up, married, had twins of his own and is a writer. Of course, in King fashion and true life, Thad has an alternative and secret name he writes under, darker stuff. Stuff that sells.But, when the idea to "kill" off this other penned name to avoid a blackmail subplot, all hell breaks loose. This "George Stark/Dark Half" writer doesn't want to "die," so he kills people and (inadvertently or not) pins the murders on Thad.Where I had a problem was: was this George a split personality? Or a ghost, or made up/made real being? Or, a grown up version of that twin in the brain that was supposed to be disposed of? That last one is the farthest stretch, and yeah, even more than a ghost. For, the twin in the brain was just an eyeball and cavity-infested teeth. Take that out, and in the 1960s, I doubt they could've reconstructed, somehow, the whole male.As I began this review, I stated this is perhaps this is my fault. Perhaps, my mind was elsewhere and it was hard to concentrate. It was over two hours and not well paced, after all. But, if this movie was interesting enough, I'm sure it would've engaged me away from real life. Sadly, it was not.* * * Final thoughts: Not recommended. Maybe read the book. I'm sure that's a ton better and there's no Hutton there.