Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

The Dark Half Blu-ray Movie Review

Half-ing it both ways.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 15, 2014

Fans of Stephen King know that the horror writing machine released a number of pieces under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. King went to perhaps ludicrous lengths to pretend that Bachman was a “real” entity, allegedly to discern whether his ability to sell untold millions of books rested more on the King brand than any inherent talent. Meddling fans soon unearthed the connection between King and Bachman, and King famously “killed” Bachman, at least more or less, in a brief allusion contained as an epigram in The Dark Half, King’s novel about, well, an author trying to kill off his best selling alter ego. King has regularly flirted with various “dark halves” in his writings, but both the whimsy as well as the literalness that informs The Dark Half proves to be an uneasy combo for this George A. Romero co-scripted and directed effort. Interestingly, King himself rehashed some of the same ideas that are present in The Dark Half in Secret Window, Secret Garden, which became the Johnny Depp starrer Secret Window (and which coincidentally co-starred The Dark Half’s Timothy Hutton). In that film there’s a relatively more nuanced ambiguity as to whether the events that are happening are real or simply the delusions of an addled author’s mind. In The Dark Half, the premise rests uneasily between the supernatural (can a pseudonym actually come to life?) and a somewhat preposterous realism (hinted at in an early scene when a young boy is found to have remnants of a fetal twin still embedded in his brain).

A prelude set in 1968 details the travails of a little boy who is obviously a budding writer. One day while scrawling out a school assignment with a vaunted Number 2 pencil, he’s beset by a weird sound of birds twittering and a horrible headache. A trip to the doctor reveals nothing too alarming, but when the little boy later suffers a near seizure while running to the school bus one morning, he’s hauled in for surgery, where the doctors make a gruesome discovery: the remnants of an “absorbed” fetal twin in the little boy’s brain. From that disturbing opening, The Dark Half then segues forward several decades.

The longstanding dialectic between Art and Commerce is the unspoken subtext of much of The Dark Half, though in typical Stephen King fashion it’s wrapped up in various supernatural phenomena and nefarious villainy. Thad Beaumont is a professor and writer of high-falutin’ “literature” which nonetheless does little to pay the bills. To take care of that little problem, Beaumont has been churning out best selling thrillers under the pseudonym George Stark. When an unctuous student thrusts a Stark book under Thad’s nose as an example of everything that’s wrong with writing (and perhaps offering a none too subtle threat), Thad’s wife Liz (Amy Madigan) suggests that killing off George might do double duty, preventing any potential future blowback should the pen name be divulged, and simultaneously freeing Thad to pursue his more intellectual writing.

A “fake” burial for George is set up as a photo opp, even though Liz feels that might be going a bit overboard. But shortly after that event, the photographer is found brutally murdered. We’ve already seen him stopping for a mysterious hitchhiker who did the deed, but Romero plays his cards fairly close to his vest for quite some time in ultimately revealing the identity of the culprit. In what really can’t be considered much of a spoiler, it turns out to be George Stark (also played by Timothy Hutton, albeit in a kind of Southern Gothic “greaser” style replete with leather jacket and pompadour). The photographer turns out to be just the first of several victims George stalks and dispatches, as the veritable noose tightens around Thad's hapless neck.

It’s here that The Dark Half begins its highwire act of attempting to balance perhaps incompatible theses. Is George simply a sick projection of Thad’s mind? That may be suspected by a well meaning local Sheriff named Pangborn (Michael Rooker), but the audience is already aware that George and Thad are different people. (That ultimately becomes apparent to the good Sheriff, as well.) That then starts to beg the question as to whether George is some kind of summoned spirit, albeit in the flesh, or something that’s relatively more banal to explain. The Dark Half wants it both ways, and unfortunately that means that a central plot point of the film is bifurcated and diluted as a result.

What still works admirably in The Dark Half is the palpable sense of menace, especially once the grimacing (and evidently decomposing) George personally confronts Thad. Hutton chews the scenery inimitably as George, and nicely underplays Thad as a counterweight. The supporting cast includes such luminaries as Julie Harris (as a pipe smoking therapist), that add a lot of color to the proceedings. The film goes in for a kind of Grand Guignol climax that is hobbled by less than spectacular special effects, but things are only fairly discursively explained in the long run. When an entire film utilizes a motif of sparrows and then attempts to sum up that use in what amounts to almost a throwaway line, it’s an indication that maybe a bit more light should have been shed on the darkness.

The Dark Half Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Dark Half is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The elements utilized for this transfer are in very good condition, with little even in the way of flecks or other distractions dotting the premises. In brightly lit outdoor scenes, sharpness and clarity are excellent, and colors pop with accuracy and excellent saturation (see screenshot 1). Some of the darker sequences suffer from a relative diminution of detail, but can still offer above average clarity (see screenshot 2). Grain is organic looking, spiking occasionally in some effects sequences and opticals. Contrast is also consistent, and there are no problematic signs of sharpening or filtering.

The Dark Half Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dark Half features DTS-HD Master Audio mixes in both 2.0 and 5.1. Perhaps surprisingly, there's not a massive uptick in the low end on the 5.1 mix, though Christopher Young's evocative score is certainly more spaciously presented in the surround version. Occasional well done sound effects (including the recurrent bird motif) are also nicely immersive in the 5.1 iteration. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly presented in both versions, and there are no issues of any kind to cause any concern.

The Dark Half Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Sparrows Are Flying Again: The Making of The Dark Half (1080p; 36:29) is another typically well done Scream Factory making of supplement, including some great interviews with George A. Romero and some less than flattering reminiscences about Timothy Hutton.


• Deleted Scenes (1080i; 7:50)


• Behind the Scenes Footage: Special Effects (1080i; 15:42)


• Behind the Scenes Footage: On the Set (1080i; 8:45)


• Storyboards for the Original Ending (1080p; 1:17)


• Original Electronic Press Kit (1080i; 6:43)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:37)


• TV Spot (1080i; 00:35)


• Vintage Interview Clips (1080i; 7:02)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 3:56)


• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director George A. Romero is hosted by Stuart Feedback Andrews of Cinephobia Radio. The typically affable Romero shares a lot of still vivid memories while occasionally lamenting things like the self-described "cheesy" special effects that cap the film.

The Dark Half Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The duality at the core of The Dark Half is intrinsically fascinating, and Hutton certainly has a field day depicting two sides of the same coin. But a different kind of duality also hobbles The Dark Half, for the film never quite decides exactly what it wants George to be, a hobgoblin bogeyman, a threatening wraith, or some kind of resurrected twin. There's a suitably spooky mood running through most of this film that is only partly undone by a fairly goofy (and resolutely traditional) ending, and that may be more than enough to sustain most horror fans' interest in the film. Technical merits are very good, the supplementary package is excellent, and The Dark Half comes Recommended.