Funny, I just finished reading The Dark Half Sunday night (I've had it in my collection since it came out, but for some odd reason, never finished it), and saw it was just added to Netflix streaming sometime over the weekend.  So, I thought, what perfect timing for a watch and comparison.

First of all, like the novel, I've never watched the entire movie.  I've seen bits and pieces, but always baled for some reason...or maybe slept through it?  Not sure, but either way, I've been familiar with the story for many years, be it through the novel or the film.

In case some aren't familiar, Stephen King wrote this novel in 1989, in between The Tommyknockers and Needful Things.  At its heart, this is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type story, but King did a fairly good job on twisting it up and completely making it his own.  The film adaptation went to our old friend George A Romero, who wrote the screenplay and directed as well, revising his relationship with King from 1982's Creepshow.

Although I was not overly impressed with the novel, it still held my attention, painted lots of great visuals and memorable images, and worked for what it was meant to be.

I can't say anything positive for the film adaptation, although I've seen lots of praise online.

As I've said before, IMO, King's works are tough to transfer to film.  The guy's a great writer and the images he paints into your brain just don't come across very impressively on film (most of the time).  He's also such a thorough writer, who gives so much backstory and detail that the movie adaptations feel like a summary of the events, and the characters like cardboard cutouts of who we grew to know so well in the novel.

IMO, everything's a frickin' mess here.  The acting, first of all is not good.  The FX are poor to terrible.  The sets are weak and poorly imagined.  The dialogue completely unconvincing.  The scenes and scene transitions are terrible.  But worst of all, the story (the adapted script) is just awful - a terrible job from Romero and I'm shocked King even allowed this to get made like this.

There are so many huge omissions and changes, that at times, it feels like it was based on the crib notes of the novel.  Just a disaster, IMO.

There's almost zero tension or horror throughout.  Timothy Hutton is not remotely convincing as the main Protag, but far less convincing as the Antag, George Stark.  The finale is downright comical.

Such a disappointment.  Now I remember why I never got through this in its entirety...or just didn't remember it if I did, as there's nothing here worth remembering other than another great Stephen King opportunity completely squandered.

Tommyknockers killed Stephen King for me for about 20 years. It started out good, but then it seemed to just keep dragging on, and it felt too...Stephen Kingish if that makes any sense. His schtick was getting too well worn. He was writing 400 page stories that should have been half that.

But I did go back a few years ago when I stumbled on one of his Dark Tower series books. Worth reading.

Never ban much of a fan of his horror films, though. Non horror, like Green Mile and Stand By Me are classics though. I don't recall if I've seen Dark Half. I only remember something similar with Liam Neeson, but that was some comic book thing.

I didn't bother with the recent miniseries, but Bag of Bones is a very solid read from King's later works.  And his adaptations to film are spotty, but there are some pretty remarkable translations, not the least of which is Shawshank Redemption, though for pure scares you could do a lot worse than Tobe Hooper's 'Salem's Lot.

While I disagree that most adaptations of King (or those done by King himself) are poor, I do agree Dark Half was a disappointment to me when I first saw it. I watched it again last year (sadly, it was a P/S version) but my thoughts remained the same.

I'll always love the adaps of Dead Zone (the one directed by Cronenberg) Cujo and Christine. I have a guilty pleasure in Graveyard Shift. I thought both versions of The Shining were outstanding. The Mist was great.

This stunk. Not as ugly as Children Of the Corny, not as bad as Dreamcatcher...but somewhere between.