The Dark Half is a film I wouldn't go out of my way to show to my friends for the first time like other films by George A. Romero (Living-dead pictures, and some of the obscurities), or a few choice Stephen King adaptations (The Shining and Shawshank Redemption being tops). But if it shows up on TV I tend to take a gander for a few, and end up watching it till the unusual, nerve-chilling ending. There's some part of King's writing that at times goes too much for the cheap scares, or rather, doesn't do enough to earn them. This time, however, Romero does catch enough of the smoke in the fire of King's book here; I'd love to sit down and actually read the whole book myself, to see how much was incorporated from King's often brilliant, if perpetually odd, writing, into the final project. It's also territory for Romero that isn't very new, though isn't one of his worst pictures either.
Timothy Hutton, usually in lesser quality pictures, stars here as a writer who happens to have a certain 'alias' in his writing. Unfortunately, whenever he hears a certain calling card- being the sparrows- it sets him off into territory he's afraid to go into, especially with a wife and family. The divide between Thad Beaumont, the common garden-variety writer of Hutton's character, and George Stark, the madman writer of pulp fiction also played by Hutton, makes for the more intriguing parts to the film. Thankfully, unlike Secret Window, the sort of duality of man, or of the writer in this case, isn't saved up for some over-the-top climax. Here it's meant more as a psychological study, and it's here that Romero scores his best points in his adapting the material. Like his film Martin, he knows how to up the ante on the terror involved inside of the mind. In fact, it's scenes showing Beaumont/Stark writing ala the birds that end up becoming more chilling than those with the usual horror violence in them.
Thanks to Hutton, a solid supporting cast, and an ending that does keep one guessing more than could be expected of the material, Romero has a pretty decent work here, and a King adaptation that shouldn't be as much of an embarrassment as some of the others. Individual scenes end up even being mini-masterpieces, even amidst a script that loses its energy and goes into the mundane and usual. Besides, any film with a line like this: "You always were the clumsy one, old hoss", deserves a little recognition, however minor. Under-appreciated and very watchable, though nothing wildly spectacular. 7.5/10
