Hidden Horrors: The Dark Half (1993) - Movie Review

hey everyone it's strange Michael and I'd like to welcome you back to another hidden Horrors movie review where when I find hidden gems from either my past or something I recently found that I watched I like to talk about them here on the channel to recommend them to you in case you haven't seen them before or even heard about the reputation they may or may not have this is one that I've loved since I was in high school about I want to say 12 13 years ago when I started getting into Stephen King books I started reading a lot of his stuff and I started hunting down a lot of movie adaptations from Stephen King's work and I came across on YouTube when you could watch movies in parts by the way this particular movie that I also found on VHS about a month ago and I showed you guys in a movie haul video I did this is The Dark Half it is a George Romero film from 1993 he wrote and directed it and based it with a really cool poster and everything on the Stephen King book by the same name that I've never read I've had this book in my collection forever I miss when Stephen King covers looked like this with this style and a a aesthetic and also this price this was an $8 book this book now on these goofy ass tall paperbacks are like 30 bucks who's going to pay 30 bucks for a paperback why would you do that that's stupid and they're just as heavy as hard covers people bought paperbacks back in the day as a small rant by the way because they were cheaper than hard covers and they were easier on your hands and on your arms for that matter the dark half is a blast of a film I think it's a film that does not get the appreciation it deserves at all therefore it's a hidden horor horror movie review for me I never hear people talk about it I've never heard anybody I know in real life mention this movie not once I'm not the hardcore George Romero fan that you may think most horror fans are I love Night of the Living Dead which my channel is named after I think it's a fantastic movie uh the best zombie film probably ever made aside from Zack Snider's remake of the second film that Romero made Dawn of the Dead Dawn of the Dead I've never been a fan of the original at least I've never really been impressed with it I've only seen it like one time I've seen one cut by the way there's like four cuts of that movie I haven't seen the other ones I know all of them are pretty much up on YouTube now that the film's been out of print for so long I may or may not try to watch it sometime this year to review for the channel I really want to watch a lot of the films cuz there's like seven of these and a book that Romero was writing before he died that another guy was brought in to finish called uh the living dead so I respect Romero I think that the original night and day of the day are some of the best things he ever did in his career but he's also worked with Stephen King on Creep Show in case you didn't know that I don't remember if Romero was involved with Creep Show 2 or not maybe he wrote it and didn't direct it I don't know I did a brief look over on IMDb and I can't remember what he did or did not do with Creep Show 2 but Dark Half I think is fantastic whether it be the concept some of the visuals you see in this movie I don't know what kind of budget they had this looks to me like one of the most well-shot Romero movies ever easily a lot of his stuff I think even dating back to night to the Living Dead looks kind of simple and kind of lowbudget this movie doesn't really look like that for its time in 1993 it's a blast man basically I'll get into the plot now you have this guy named Thad Thad Bowmont who happens to be a famous uh writer but not by his own name he's riding under another name I think it's George Stark and I think I remember that because of Tony Stark and uh this other author name that he had to come up with is really the money maker his actual name that he writes under doesn't really get anything uh popularity wise he mainly just kind of writes serious drama and fiction and then when he's writing under the George Stark name he basically makes uh just really skimpy [ __ ] [ __ ] that people like myself would probably review on their channel uh so this is the kind of thing that makes a person popular because you know it happened Stephen King admitted to that a long time ago it's happened with people and you can tell this is a a very personal story to Stephen King with he and his fake name Richard Bachman that he used to write under years ago I think that's really interesting that he brought that idea into this book and it's cool again I haven't read the book but this movie in the story is really interesting to me but basically kind of the film begins with Thad when he's a kid and he has a lot of headaches and they eventually do a surgery on him and find out he had some kind of like unborn twin that was combined into his body and that was horrific many years later after he's gotten married he's had a couple of kids uh things begin to go a little weird the headaches begin to come back and some strange things begin to happen to this college professor writer whatever he is I don't really know what he does for a living I think he's both but still things are beginning to happen to him and uh when he has encounters with people who are you know trying to uh rip him off for example this one guy that finds out that Thad also writes the George Stark books um he basically gets a vendetta in his mind against that guy and then the dude turns up dead right and nobody knows what's going on and this begins to repeatedly happen to that and Michael Rooker his friend who happens to be a cop begins to investigate Thad Bowmont and everything around him all the people he's encountered and whatever but like I said people begin to show up dead constantly there's also this big theme not really theme but this big uh thing about you know Ravens and crows and [ __ ] which is what the cover depicts here as well they're swarming all over this movie for many a reason I think that that really pays off in the end now you kind of have with the title itself referring to a dark half there is kind of this confusing thing that I think would be explained better in the Stephen King book maybe maybe not maybe I missed a couple of lines in here I don't know but it seems like there's this possibly Supernatural element to this which it's not as simple as um SI twin growing up it's a very interesting thing how this takes uh its performance it kind of has to do with twins quite a bit I thought that was pretty interesting too and I like it I think it has a lot going for it when it comes to that stuff despite the film seemingly mishandling that but I don't want to say mishandling it because Stephen King books a lot of the time trying to adapt those to screen like the crazy Turtle sequences from the Stephen King book it if you've read that you probably know what I'm talking about when Stephen King goes all Cosmic and Supernatural and weird a lot of the time if it's not simplistic like The Shining or carry with a telekinetic girl or a haunted hotel or whatever and a psychic kid it gets too outlandish and it gets too hard to transfer to screen for audiences and I think if I had to bet money this is probably one of those cases where George Romero could only do so much to adapt what king had to screen they haven't gotten every detail corrected I know a lot of people that [ __ ] about this movie are saying all of this nonsense like uh the George Stark character in the film having blonde hair in the book and just basically having brown hair in this movie very interesting complaints that really at the end of the day don't [ __ ] matter Timothy Hutton the dad from Haunting of Hill House from Mike Flanigan plays The Fad Bowmont character here and the bad guy George Stark and I think he's really good in both roles he's amazing as thatat and I think as George he's kind of uh a little too goofy sometimes and I blame that on Romero and I blame that on the script from Romero I don't so much blame Timothy Hutton he doesn't have a massive name in Hollywood but I do like him I think he just has this likable quality to him I think the young lady playing his wife is Good Michael Rooker is good hell even the two twin babies on the film of Thad Bowmont they're good for the small role they play in here but the George Stark character gets a little silly and a little goofy sometimes and I could see that being kind of uh the missing point for a lot of people that they watch this movie they're into it and then as soon as his cowboy boot wearing ass shows up they're like nope I'm done and kind of back out of the whole situation and just put the movie off but I would ask you to please even if you are that person stick through it cuz it has some surprises for you by the end of the movie that I think you'll enjoy and again it has this small scale pH feel to it that a lot of movies don't really do that anymore a lot of them really don't the closest I've seen in recent years aside from a VHS sequel is uh you know let's say cobweb for example cobweb does that very well it's a small scale mostly one location movie that takes advantage of that in a wonderful way Dark Half is kind of like that but in 1993 that was the common thing to do with smaller budget Hollywood movies this film has a lot to offer and I will say the Practical effects in it are shocking shocking dude whether we're talking about in the where they kind of combine practical with a little bit of CGI that stuff looks really good for the most part except for a couple of things involving Ravens and birds uh mainly when they fly they look like [ __ ] but there's a scene in the beginning with the surgery with the doctors that to this day puts a chill down my spine and makes me squirm because of how gross it is um but this film has a couple of gross moments but it's not really focused on that think of it more of like a film that's mostly a family drama maybe not so much a family drama because his marriage is good but this struggle with this antagonist killer guy that that is being blamed for um and framed I guess too think about that but also having some body horror elements involved in that project that's basically what Dark Half is and I think it's really good for that this is not overly complicated or overly complex but some of the logic doesn't make sense because of like I said probably the adaptation from Stephen King's book to this movie If I had to bet it it kind of flops in that way sometimes but the film itself I do think is entertaining it's fun to watch and I have a good time every time I watch it and I do recommend it alone based on that it has a decent Musical soundtrack and score I do like that pretty good uh kind of cheesy but it fits I like it it's a very '90s movie overall and it looks good like I said in case I everg got to mention this again uh I think it's one of the most well-shot George Romero films it just has this very distinct look to it that doesn't feel like Romero is the one shooting it it feels like it's better looking than something like you know creep show or the dead films or anything like that to me personally Dark Half has a lot to offer it's not perfect by any means but between the performances and the Practical effects when they're there and even some of the CGI when that's there too this is a hell of a film man I bet the book is better but this is a good movie and I recommend it quite a bit whether it be as a person who happens to be watching this looking for Stephen King movie reviews to check out uh some new Stephen King adaptations they'd never seen I'd recommend it for that if you're looking for just a cool Romero film you haven't seen or if you're going through his backlog of stuff before he passed away sadly this is a good one this is one that will stand out to you it's one of my favorites of his possibly my top three movies he ever made I haven't seen everything he did but this is up there for me I think it's a really cool interesting movie but at the end of the day Dark Half is a massively underappreciated film that I recommend highly it has so much to provide for you as a viewer that if you're into horror and you don't mind kind of not so serious horror not saying horror comedy but just not so serious horror doesn't mind being cheesy like a lot of the Romero stuff is this is a good one this is something I think you'll appreciate and enjoy for the most part if you give it a shot but anyway Dark Half I like it a lot I recommended it's a good nostalgic movie for me from my high school days I remember watching this on YouTube so much like I said I probably saw it two or three times on YouTube because of how much I enjoyed it and to my surprise uh it was just something that stood out amongst many adaptations of Stephen King's work I didn't know who Romero was at that point I didn't know that he had this reputation he had but I'm just sad to see people not talk about this movie it deserves it it deserves love and uh you should comfort it you should buy a copy and comfort it good luck finding it on Blu-ray or something I've never seen this out in the wild on Blu-ray or DVD or anything had to find a VHS copy randomly at a store at a thrift store like I said nonetheless and uh I got it thank God so really cool flick I recommend it it kind of fits this time of the year when you're not really into summer but it's sometimes especially in the flashbacks when that as a kid has this summer look to it that I love um very cool very cool film The Dark Half have you seen it what do you think about it I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments about it down in the comment section down below what is your most I guess big recommendation of a Romero film that's not talked about this would easily be mine at the current moment and if I had to rate the film by the way uh after you leave all that down in the comment section down below for me some recommendations by the way at some point I plan on marathoning uh Romero's entire entire career just like I plan on doing like you know John Carpenter's horror films and such and such later on at some point probably not this year but eventually I will do something like that I do want to do kind of director series like James Juan movies and so on and so on but when it comes to Dark Half I was going to say this a moment ago if iated it on a festar basis I would probably give this about a four out of five stars I think I love it a lot more than most people do but let me tell you a little anecdote real quick my wife hates horror she hates Stephen King she's reading bag of bones for the first time her first Stephen King book ever right now and she hates that [ __ ] but let me tell you I was watching this over there on a couch and she was over there in the same room putting something together that she was going to put in a garden outside and she got bored she wanted to take a break and she came over to the couch and sat down beside me and she admitted she'd been listening to the film she doesn't watch movies horror or otherwise she sat over there listened to this film as I was watching it and was so curious she came over to the couch and watched the rest of the movie with me now let me tell you if you are married to someone who is not a horror fan much less a movie fan if you see things like that happen you know something has some kind of charm to it some kind of specialty to it that it's doing well let me tell you she liked the film she even said by the end of it that she really dug this so take that into mind if you're somebody that thinks this doesn't sound like your kind of movie take the shot just watch it it's usually on Tu and stuff too I think from what I've seen it may even still be on YouTube in Parts I don't know uh so check it out let me know what you think about it I'd love to hear everything you have to say about this and the book let me know which one's better if you've read and watched both thank you all for watching guys God bless you all catch you later on another hidden Horrors movie review at some point probably not anytime soon but I have some stuff I have to review anyway after this that are not the biggest recommendations so hopefully you tune in for that too thank you all for watching guys once again God bless you again and goodbye

Channel: Night Of The Living Dude

Views: 85

Keywords: night, of, the, living, dude, strange, michael, hidden, horrors, dark, half, 1990s, 90s, 1993, movie, movies, film, films, review, reviews, horror, #horror, scary, twin, twins, saimese, eerie, stephen, king, adaptation, george, romero, dead, zombies, zombie, day, dawn, survival, diary, series, franchise, gross, practical, effects, good, evil, family, drama, book, books, classic, forgotten, fun, stark, author, fake, name, writing, writer, typewriter, cool, ending, raven, ravens, cgi, gore, gory, blood, bloody, comedy, goofy, silly

Id: We_xwXowN9U

Length: 15min 18sec (918 seconds)

Published: Wed May 08 2024