Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

LeonLouisRicci Stephen King Adaptations are Plentiful and Range in Quality from God-Awful (Thinner 1996) to Great (Carrie 1976). Some Fall Somewhere in the Middle and This One is Right There Despite Romero Writing and Directing.Most of the Problems Lie With Explanations. It Never Really Explains or Pays Much Attention to Exactly Where the Doppelganger Comes From. Obviously, He is the Alter-Ego, Dark-Half, of the Writer. But Exploring the Methodology of the Psychological Manifestation, is He-It a Conjured Spirit, an Unwelcome Intrusion of Ancient Practices that Linger Today, etc, is Lacking. These are Touched Upon but Never Really "Fleshed Out". Weak Expositional Dialog from the Cop (Michael Rooker) About the Writer (Timothy Hutton in a Dual Role) Being Allowed to Roam Free While Damning Evidence is Everywhere and There Are Others.But These Weaknesses Do Not Make the Film Awful, Just Not as Good as It Could Have Been with a Deeper Script. The Acting is Passable with Hutton Maybe Straining a Bit Here and There and Amy Madigan as the Wife in a Thankless Role is OK. But The Twin Babies "Performances" Steal the Show in that Department.There are Some Romero Flourishes that are Graphic and Work Well, but the Film Overall Seems to Lack Any Energy or Style, and the Pacing is Off. Worth a Watch for Stephen King Fans, Horror Movie Buffs, and Romero Completest. Others Might Want to Take a Chance but be Advised...It's Not Great Stephen King and it's Not Great George Romero and as a Stand Alone Genre Piece it is Just Average.

poe426 THE DARK HALF opens with a scene worthy of David Cronenberg: during a brain operation, the doctor discovers an eye and some teeth growing inside writer Thad Beaumont's grey matter. Beaumont, like author Stephen King, has a pseudonym under which he writes horror novels and it's this alter ego who eventually manifests himself as a malevolent entity out to do his creator no good. Although I tend not to like doppelganger stories, director George Romero makes this one work by dint of some outstanding craftsmanship. Says Stark (the Evil Twin) to Beaumont: "You will die like no other man on Earth has ever died before." Later, when Beaumont and Stark square off in a story-writing contest and Stark falters uncertainly, Thad says: "You know the only way to do it is to do it." That could very well sum up this one: Romero gets the job done. It's not his best work- by a mile- but it showed at the time that he was more than capable of handling bigger budget films with big name stars.

Max Renn 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

mattkratz This was a decent adaptation of the Stephen King novel-another case, like Misery, where it was a horror story without the use of monsters or demons. Well, it did use a monster, but it was a human monster, the monster within. The best part of the movie was the use of the birds. It was reminiscent of the Hitchcock classic The Birds. Those scenes were very well done and scary. The story involves a writer who "kills off" his pseudonym in order to be rid of it and get on with his life. Unfortunately, the alter ego is not dead and wants to infiltrate the writer's life and aims to get to him and goes on a murderous rampage. The writer has no alibi or escape because the other guy is him and everything points to him. Stephen King novels tend to be difficult to translate to the screen, but this one holds its own due the the direction and performances, especially in the duel lead by Timothy Hutton. The ending is not to be missed.** 1/2 out of ****