The Dark Half (1993)
Directed by George A. Romero
Following the public's realization that Thad Beaumont and George Stark are one and the same, the former stages a mock funeral, only for a series of gruesome murders to begin occurring as in his books.
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What critics compared The Dark Half to
"The Dark Half," his novel published that same year, explores the same themes again, so it would take a real King novice (or movie novice for that matter) to find any thrills in this thriller.
It's a movie that aspires only to entertain with easy apprehension, and harbors no delusions that it's anything more than second-rate horror cobbled together from familiar bits of other King stories (notably "The Dark Half" and "Misery") -- in short, a corny goosepimpler for genre gourmets who wish more drive-in flicks were made with a crafty cinematic élan.
There are no real surprises here; King had already mined the psyche of an unhinged writer with more depth in his novel The Dark Half, which was made into a very good film by horror master George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead) in 1993.
If the stranger isn't distracting enough, Rainey still pines for his ex-wife, who's found some normalcy with her new beau (Timothy Hutton, who starred in 1993's underrated King adaptation, "The Dark Half").
I've seen four movie adaptations of Stephen King books that have writers as heroes -- The Shining (1980), Misery (1990), The Dark Half (1993), and now Secret Window -- and I know of a few others.
Throughout his extensive career, Stephen King has habitually attempted (in novels such as The Dark Half and Misery) to confront the relationship between the artist and his work, and that thematic preoccupation once again comes into play in David Koepp’s Secret Window.
The movie has a somewhat familiar set-up: Like The Shining and The Dark Half , Sinister is about the living hell of being a self-absorbed writer.
Rock lyrics and Red Sox references (several Kings), a character's ability to hide part of his mind ("The Dark Half") and a blizzard ("The Shining") contribute to the rehashed feel, as do the film's aliens which King acknowledges ripping off by calling them Ripleys.
There are riffs to many previous King adaptations (The Shining and The Dark Half for starters) and this Swedish cinephile understands the basic elements of suspense.