Summary:
After a writer kills off his pseudonym the pseudonym manifests and terrorizes the writer and his family.
My Thoughts:
During my high school years I was on a bit of a Stephen King kick; at this point in my life I’ve probably read more than twenty of his novels, short story collections; I even read his autobiography/manifesto: On Writing. Like any artist, King has his ups and downs. Some of his books are great (“The Stand”) and some of them didn’t really work for me (“Bag of Bones”); The Dark Half fell right in the middle. I didn’t think the story told in Dark Half was particularly scary, but I thought it was an interesting idea. I was surprised, then, when I stumbled across this movie on Amazon Prime. I honestly didn’t know they had adapted this particular novel, and my first thought was, why this one, when there’s a probably more than a dozen better King stories out there just waiting to be told? Nevertheless, after learning that George A Romero (“Day of the Dead”) directed, and Timothy Hutton (“The Ghost Writer”) starred, I figured, what the heck, I could give this a watch.
It turns out my original bafflement at finding this film existed wasn’t unwarranted. It’s not that great.
“You are disturbing the peaceful mood I’m in.”
Writer Thad Beaumont (Hutton) writes his grittier, more disturbing novels under a pseudonym, George Stark. After a man named Fred Clawson (Robert Joy, forthcoming “The Goldfinch”) threatens to expose his secret, Thad consults his wife Liz (Amy Madigan, “Gone Baby Gone”), and together they decide that it’s best if they put George Stark to rest. Shortly after they ‘kill’ Stark, someone vandalizes the Beaumont family plot at their cemetery, and after that, a murder is committed and Thad’s fingerprints are found at the scene of the crime. Soon Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Michael Rooker, “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer”) approaches Thad and suggests that someone might be trying to frame him for murder. The truth is far more fantastical and far more sinister.
So, as I mentioned above, I was sort of surprised when I saw that this was turned into a film, mostly because I thought the novel was only middling when compared to King’s quality work. The novel and film have a few cool moments and a few really cool ideas, but beyond that, there’s not much to go on. Three or four cool concepts do not a story make. The concept of a pseudonym manifesting itself and coming after the author is pretty cool; I thought that some of the earlier stuff with George Stark as an ingrown twin was also pretty cool; and I thought (still think) the idea of sparrows as a vehicle for souls to move from the physical realm to the afterlife is really cool too. Beyond that, this movie is pretty schmaltzy.
Part of the problem is that this film is two hours long, and the story easily could’ve been told in an hour and a half. The scenes when George terrorizes Thad aren’t particularly terrifying because we know that George won’t actually do anything to Thad’s family lest he risk Thad not writing another book under George’s name (George is under the impression that if Thad continues writing under his pseudonym, then George’s life will be extended). As a result, it feels like we’re watching an hour-long Mexican standoff, where neither party is willing to budge on their demands and neither party is willing to walk away. The scenes should be tense, but instead, they’re kind of boring.
Timothy Hutton is alright as Thad/George, but he’s really the only one who gives a memorable performance. Even Michael Rooker looked sort of bored in his performance. I’ve never really thought of Romero as a great director, more a competent one with a few great films. This film was certainly not one that I would point to showcase Romero’s talents; most of the exposition scenes were boring and most of the horrific scenes were completely tensionless. What good is a horror film without at least some kind of tension?
Verdict:
I wasn’t really impressed with this film. Honestly, I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it to anyone; not even die-hard King fans. This is a mostly boring movie with a few cool concepts, but, as I mentioned before, a few good concepts don’t make a movie.
Review Written By: