Week of Review - The Dark Half (1993)

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Let’s talk for a minute about George Romero.  Romero is one of the all-time giants of the horror genre, a skilled and storied director most famed for introducing the world to the streamlined vision of zombies that was the “of the Dead” film series.  However, as excellent as that series is (the first four films and the Romero directed remake anyway) the man did a lot of other high-quality work that’s gone unfairly under-appreciated by the public at large such as Monkey Shines or Knight Riders.  

In 1993, Romero decided to dip his toes into the Stephen King pond and turned in one of the best King adaptations of the decade: The Dark Half.  Starring Timothy Hutton and Michael Rooker, The Dark Half is quintessential King viewing, hitting on a number of his favorite tropes and ideas while still realizing them in their best way.  The film also marks the first entry in this retrospective to tie into the Stephen King shared universe of stories, connecting as it does to the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine.  So, continuity, quality, and a number of name actors and creators who’ve become beloved in their own right- let’s talk about The Dark Half.

Week of Review - The Shining

And so we come to the end of another Week of Review, though admittedly a much shorter one.  American Horror Story: Hotel will be premiering later this tonight so for the final film in my hotel horror marathon I’ve chosen the most blatantly obvious example there is: The Shining.  The Shining is considered by many to be the greatest horror film ever made and its depth, complexity, and importance continues to echo down the long halls of cinema to this very day.  The film has been analyzed and deconstructed nearly to death with whole documentaries created about its possible meanings such as the death of the American family, the shameful treatment of Native Americans, and even claims that it was Stanley Kubrick’s confession to faking the Moon Landing. 

With a film this well known, this talked about, this discussed and considered by academia, nerdom, and the mass populous alike I normally wouldn’t talk about but I wanted to cover a certain subject that always tends to linger around the film; its connection to the book of the same name.  If you’ve never read it The Shining the book is actually an incredibly different animal to the film and a decidedly less interesting or terrifying horror story, and I’m going to talk about how and why.