The Dark Half (film)
| The Dark Half | |
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Original 1993 theatrical poster
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| Directed by | George A. Romero |
| Produced by | Declan Baldwin Christine Forrest George A. Romero |
| Screenplay by | George A. Romero Paul Hunt Nick McCarthy |
| Based on | The Dark Half by Stephen King |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Christopher Young |
| Cinematography | Tony Pierce-Roberts |
| Edited by | Pasquale Buba |
| Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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121 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $10.6 million |
The Dark Half is a 1993 American horror film adaptation of the Stephen King 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 author of highbrow literary novels under his own name, Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton) is better known for the bestselling suspense-thrillers he writes under the pen name "George Stark". Beaumont wishes to retire the Stark name and symbolically buries Stark in a mock grave.
However, Stark has become a physical entity (also portrayed by Hutton) and is terrorizing Beaumont's family and friends after he emerges from the grave. Stark then kills local photographer Homer Gamache and steals his truck. He also kills Thad's editor, agent, and his agent's ex-wife, and kills a man named Fred Clawson, who was trying to blackmail Thad for being a con artist that should not have written books under a false name.
When the police suspect Thad of murdering Gamache, he tries to convince Sheriff Alan Pangborn of Castle Rock, Maine he had nothing to do with it. After putting an all-points bulletin on Clawson, who was accused of the death of Homer, the New York police find him castrated and his throat slit. They find a message on the wall, written in Clawson's blood, "The sparrows are flying again." Thad starts to think that he may have a psychic connection to the killer.
While in his office, Thad begins to receive messages from Stark, and begins to worry about the next victim. He and his family start to receive threatening phone calls from Stark. Pangborn initially suspects the phone calls are a prank by Thad until Stark begins to describe how he is going to kill Thad's family, disturbing Pangborn.
State Police find Homer's truck with Thad's fingerprints all over it. For some reason, Stark wants to live after he appeared in a set of Beaumont's best selling books. Beaumont writes, but he is not alone in suspecting something strange: Sheriff Pangborn is equally suspicious and continues investigating. Thad begins to realize that Stark is, in fact, his twin brother who died at "child birth."
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