The Dark Half (film)

The Dark Half is a 1993 American horror film adaptation of Stephen King's 1989 novel of the same name. The film was directed by George A. Romero and stars Timothy Hutton as Thad Beaumont and George Stark, Amy Madigan as Liz Beaumont, Michael Rooker as Sheriff Alan Pangborn, and Royal Dano in his final film.

The Dark Half
Original 1993 theatrical poster
Directed by	George A. Romero
Produced by	Declan Baldwin Christine Forrest George A. Romero
Screenplay by	George A. Romero
Based on	The Dark Half by Stephen King
Starring	Timothy Hutton Amy Madigan Julie Harris Michael Rooker
Music by	Christopher Young
Cinematography	Tony Pierce-Roberts
Edited by	Pasquale Buba
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date	April 23, 1993 (1993-04-23)
Running time	121 minutes
Language	English
Box office	$10.6 million[1]

Plot

In 1968, Thad Beaumont (Patrick Brannan) is a schoolboy and budding author in Castle Rock, Maine. He periodically suffers onsets of intense pain, accompanied by an auditory hallucination of sparrows singing. During surgery in Bangor to correct the problem, doctors discover a fetus — an undeveloped parasitic twin — in his brain. As they remove it, a huge flock of sparrows swarm around the hospital, battering themselves against its windows. No one tells Thad about the twin, and he believes that the surgeon removed a tumor from his brain.

In 1991, Thad, now an adult (Timothy Hutton), has a wife and twin infant children, and is a college English professor and an author of highbrow literary novels. During one of Thad's classes — in which he has discussed how any person has both an outer being he or she shows to the world and an inner one he or she keeps secret, while a fiction writer must show his or her inner being to the world in stories — he experiences the sparrow hallucination again. After the class ends, a man named Fred Clawson (Robert Joy) approaches Thad and reveals that a woman who works for Thad's publisher in New York City has informed him that George Stark, a bestselling writer of murder-mystery suspense-thrillers, is actually Thad writing under a pen name. Knowing that Stark's books are far more profitable than those Thad writes under his own name and that a revelation that Thad and Stark are one and the same would be scandalous, Clawson attempts to blackmail Thad, demanding payment to keep Thad's secret. While talking with Clawson, Thad hears the sparrows as his tone toward Clawson briefly takes a dark and threatening turn.

When Thad discusses Clawson with his wife Liz (Amy Madigan), she tells Thad that he (Thad) sometimes displays an ugly side that appears to inspire Stark's writings, and Thad protests that that side is part of him, too. Liz convinces him to go public without paying Clawson, and Thad's publishers — Rick Cowley (Tom Mardirosian) and Rick's wife Miriam (Rutanya Alda), separated from Rick but still his business partner — agree. Thad and the Cowleys put together a public relations rollout for the revelation of Stark's true identity, including an article in People magazine by journalist Mike Donaldson (Kent Broadhurst) with photographs by Homer Gamache (Glenn Colerider). They visit a rural cabin where Thad does his writing, and during an interview with Donaldson there at the desk where Thad writes George Stark novels, Thad explains that Stark always writes with a pencil, never on a typewriter as Thad does, and that when he writes as Stark it as if a different person has taken over and is doing the writing; Donaldson tells him that it sounds like symptoms of schizophrenia. Back in Castle Rock, Gamache stages a photograph at the town cemetery of Thad and Liz holding a pick and shovel in front of a headstone for George Stark, signifying the "burial" of Stark next to the graves of Thad's parents.

Shortly thereafter, Gamache is murdered when he stops to pick up a hitchhiker he thinks is Thad. The gravedigger at the cemetery, Digger Holt (Royal Dano in his final film role), reports a hole in the ground large enough to bury a man at the spot where George Stark was "buried," which the local sheriff, Alan Pangborn (Michael Rooker), dismisses as mere vandalism just before responding to a call about the discovery of Gamache's body. A Connecticut State Police trooper soon finds Gamache's stolen pickup truck abandoned in a used car lot in Connecticut near the New York state line, bloody and with Thad's fingerprints on it. When Thad returns from a business trip to New York City, Pangborn confronts him with the evidence. Thad denies wrongdoing and Thad and Liz suggest that Clawson may be trying to frame him. When New York City police visit Clawson, they find him brutally murdered — castrated and with his throat slit, his tongue cut out, and his penis stuffed into his mouth, a method of murder Liz previously had heard Thad describe — and a message on the wall written in Clawson's blood that reads "The sparrows are flying again." Clawson's murder occurs while Thad is visiting New York, and again police find his fingerprints at the scene. While writing in his office at the college, Thad hears sparrows singing and finds he has written "The sparrows are flying again" in pencil on his manuscript without remembering writing it. He confides in Liz that he has started to hear the sparrows again and that he is worried that he may be doing things he does not remember. Alone in his office at the college again, Thad hears sparrows, goes into a trance, takes on a different, leering persona, and begins writing in pencil.

In New York City, a man resembling Thad attacks Miriam Cowley in her apartment and forces her to phone Thad and leave him an answering machine message telling Thad that he is there, then slits her throat. Thad reports the message to Pangborn, who informs the New York police, who find Miriam's body. Thad starts to think that he may have a psychic connection to the killer, and he tells Pangborn that he knows who the murderer is, provides a description of the murderer and his car that matches his own vision of what George Stark would look like and the kind of car he would drive, and says that he expects the man to attempt to kill Mike Donaldson and Rick Cowley. In New York, as Thad predicted, the man murders Donaldson.

Thad explains to Liz and Pangborn that he believes that the murderer is George Stark (also portrayed by Hutton), who somehow has come to life, does not want to be "dead" anymore, and is methodically murdering those who "killed" and "buried" him. Pangborn replies that the murderer more likely is someone who is imitating the George Stark character. In New York, the police put Rick Cowley under their protection, but Stark murders the police officers protecting Cowley and Cowley himself, then escapes by using a window cleaner's rig, presumably having killed the window cleaner as well. While the police listen in, Stark phones Thad at his home in Castle Rock, tells him that he has also killed the woman who told Clawson about Thad's pen name, and claims to be done with his killing spree. Thad replies that he knows Stark is coming for him, and that he will know Stark is coming because he will hear the sparrows. Pangborn knows that Thad was in Castle Rock during the most recent murders, but investigates the possibility that the call was a tape recording that Thad made and that Thad could be working with an accomplice in New York because Thad's description of the killer and his car — reported stolen from the lot where the police found Gamache's truck — were correct.

The Maine State Police place Thad and his family under their protection. While Thad is visiting a convenience store, Stark calls him on the store's phone and demands that Thad begin a new Stark book, threatening to come to Castle Rock and kill Thad if he does not. At his office at the college, Thad goes into a trance in which he communicates with Stark while sparrows sing and gather outside his window. Stark makes him write a message in pencil explaining that Thad must write another Stark book for Stark to remain alive and that without it Stark — who is showing signs of disfigurement — will lose physical cohesion and die. Thad's colleague and confidante at the college, Reggie Delesseps (Julie Harris), helps him leave the college without the police noticing and begins to research the strange phenomena afflicting Thad while Thad drives to Bangor to visit his childhood physician, Dr. Pritchard. Pritchard tells him the story of the parasitic twin — which Thad until then thought had been a tumor — and that his parents had insisted that the twin be treated as human remains and be buried at the family plot in Castle Rock. The doctor also tells him about the sparrow attack on the hospital on the day of his surgery. When Pritchard leaves the room, Stark arrives and slits Pritchard's throat. After Thad finds Pritchard's body, he realizes that Stark can always find him and is headed for Castle Rock to attack his family. He calls Liz and tells her to get herself and their children out of the house and not tell Thad where they are going so that Stark cannot learn of their whereabouts via his psychic connection with Thad. Pangborn, who does not believe Stark exists, refuses to let her or the children leave, and orders the Maine State Police officer protecting the family to arrest Thad if he shows up at the house.

Thad visits Reggie at her home to hear the results of her research, and she informs him that Stark is a conjuration of Thad's dark half that came to be because Thad wanted so badly for him to exist, and who took control of Thad's parasitic twin aided by the force of Thad's will. She says that Stark is trying to take life from Thad so that he can survive on his own, but in the meantime cannot kill Thad without dying himself, and therefore only can kill people around Thad. She also tells Thad that sparrows are a type of psychopomp, an entity which conducts human souls between the land of the living and the land of the dead. Stark calls Thad at Reggie's home to tell him that he is at Thad's home in Castle Rock, has killed the police officer protecting Thad's family, and is taking Liz and the children to Thad's cabin, where he expects Thad to meet him. As Thad leaves Reggie's house, a huge flock of sparrows streams overhead, and Reggie says that they will conduct the loser of the struggle between Thad and Stark to the land of the dead.

Wanted by the police for the murder of Pritchard and the policeman outside Thad's house, Thad heads for the cabin, where Stark, now heavily bandaged and in a more advanced state of disfigurement, has tied up Liz and is holding the children and her hostage. When Thad arrives, Stark tells him that he will kill Liz and the children if Thad does not write a new George Stark novel depicting Stark as alive in the real world. Liz tells Thad that Stark is actually trying to take Thad's life from him, but Thad assures both Stark and her that Stark will be unsuccessful. Stark and Thad go into the room where Thad writes George Stark novels, and Thad begins to write. Thad soon offers Stark the opportunity to do the writing and talks him into trying it. Stark is hesitant at first, but as he writes, he becomes more enthusiastic, his face begins to heal, and Thad's face begins to show the first signs of disfigurement. A huge flock of sparrows begins to arrive at the cabin and beat against its windows. When Thad attempts to grab Stark's gun, a fight breaks out between them, which ends only when Thad stabs Stark in the neck with one of the pencils he uses to write George Stark novels. Stark staggers and collapses, but recovers and attacks Thad again. Stark tells Thad that he will write the ending of the novel rather than Thad, but Thad tells him that in fact he (Thad) is writing the ending. The sparrows, swarming outside with greater intensity, begin to poke holes in the cabin's walls, and Stark begins to panic. He attempts to shoot Thad's children, but Thad stops him. The wall bursts open, and a swarm of sparrows enter the room.

Pangborn arrives in the midst of the sparrow attack, and unties Liz as sparrows swarm throughout the cabin's interior. Liz and Pangborn go to the room where Stark, Thad, and the children are, and find Stark in agony as the sparrows tear at his flesh. The sparrows quickly skeletonize Stark, break up his skeleton, and carry his dismembered remains into a glowing patch in the sky. The swarm of sparrows disappears into the sky along with Stark, leaving Thad, Liz, the children, and Pangborn unharmed.

Cast

• Timothy Hutton as Thad Beaumont and George Stark
• Amy Madigan as Liz Beaumont
• Michael Rooker as Sheriff Alan Pangborn
• Julie Harris as Reggie Delesseps
• Robert Joy as Fred Clawson
• Chelsea Field as Annie Pangborn
• Royal Dano as Digger Holt
• Rutanya Alda as Miriam Cowley
• Beth Grant as Shayla Beaumont
• Kent Broadhurst as Mike Donaldson
• Tom Mardirosian as Rick Cowley
• Glenn Colerider as Homer Gamache

Production

The movie was filmed in part at Washington & Jefferson College, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[2] Notable in the film are the chapel in the Old Main, seen at the beginning of the film as Beaumont's classroom, and the office of the college chaplain, used as Beaumont's office.[2] Members of the faculty and student body served as extras in the film.[3]

The residence featured in the film is a home located on Maple Avenue in the Edgewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The film was Romero's second foray into filming with the support of a major film production company (his first being Monkey Shines), causing some problems for the notoriously low-budget director.[3]

The film was shot from October 1990 until March 1991. It was not released for two years because of Orion Pictures' bleak financial situation at the time. The film eventually saw release in April 1993, taking in just over $10 million domestically.[4]

Reception

In its opening week The Dark Half ranked in the box office charts at number 6, gathering a total of $3,250,883 from 1,563 theatres.[5]

Critics gave the film mixed reviews, though they praised Timothy Hutton's performance in the film as well as the screenplay. On Rotten Tomatoes, it currently holds a 58% from 33 reviews with an average score of 5.78/10. The critics consensus reads, ”The Dark Half is a highly serious psychological study that can be faulted for being more curious than actually scary.” [6]

Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, praising Hutton's against type performance as Stark that "definitively shed his nice-guy image". However, Ebert faulted The Dark Half for failing to "develop its preternatural opening theme" and never offering a satisfactory explanation for Stark's existence.[7]

Awards

• Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films
  • Saturn Award Best Director - George A. Romero - Nominated
  • Saturn Award Best Horror Film - Nominated
  • Saturn Award Best Makeup - John Vulich, Everett Burrell - Nominated
  • Saturn Award Best Supporting Actress - Julie Harris - Nominated
• Fantafestival
  • Best Actor - Timothy Hutton - Won
  • Best Film - George A. Romero - Won
  • Best Screenplay - Paul Hunt, Nick McCarthy - Won [8]

References

1. https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=darkhalf.htm
2. "W&J Up Close" (PDF). W&J Magazine. Washington & Jefferson College. Winter 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2010-04-19.
3. Winks, Michael (October 22, 1990). "Romero kicks off star-studded "Dark Half" here". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
4. The Dark Half (1993)
5. https://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=1993&wknd=17&p=.htm
6. "The Dark Half (1993)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
7. Ebert, Roger, "The Dark Half," rogerebert.com, 23 April 1993
8. Awards for The Dark Half on IMDb

External links

• The Dark Half on IMDb
• The Dark Half at the American Film Institute Catalog
• The Dark Half at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Dark Half at AllMovie
• The Dark Half official site at MGM.