The Dark Half

When mild-mannered, sensitive author Thad Beaumont decides to kill of his hardboiled, bestselling pseudonym, George Stark, bad things start to happen to good people. Everyone even vaguely associated with Beaumont's secret alter ego are killed in diabolic ways - and all the evidence points in Thad's direction. But Thad knows who the real killer is, because he created him. Now, his only chance is to kill George Stark again - before Stark kills him.

COMMENTARY
The Dark Half marks the second meeting of two modern legends of horror: George Romero and Stephen King. King's novels have proved notoriously difficult for filmmakers to adept, given that the author's sly humor and self-referential rewards seldom translate well to a visual medium. Romero solves this challenge by gutting King's novel of its often self-indulgent musings, instead putting his faith in the skeleton plot.
Thad Beaumont's central conflict is his inability to accept the commercial success of his more resourceful alter ego, given the lackluster reaction to his own attempts at ''real'' literature. Romero, on the other hand, never seemed ashamed of his zombie movies before, and he isn't about to now. Saturating his movie in a dreary, fore bidding ambience, he gleefully lets Thad squirm in a predicament that literally grew out of his own subconscious.
On King's still growing list of Things To
Be Afraid Of, millions of sparrows now join the rabid household appliences and evil pets. Borrowing a clue from Hitchcock, the movie reveals in the visual impact of these critters its symbol of transcendence and dread. The gloom is juxtaposed with Hutton's delightful portrait of Stark, an Elvis loving menace with an advancing skin problem Romero's fans will recognize immediately. And in an outrageous western-style showdown, where pencils and babies are telling substitutes for six-shooters, Romero brings it all to a boil with a bravura shot of Stark, finally exposed to the elements that brought him into being. ':'
Sindre Kartvedt