Summary
With the uptick in recent adaptions of acclaimed horror author Stephen King’s novels and short stories from popular films likeITandseries like The Stand, there is no shortage of stories for the big and silver screen to bring to life. Even recent horror filmmaker Osgood Perkins brought to life the insane story ofThe Monkey, a wind-up monkey toy that seems to bring death to those who draw its ire. Yet the love for King’s works has not slowed once, with anticipated films like The Long Walk and series like The Dark Tower and Carrie both in the works and many others. Yet one story is just waiting to be told, one that uniquely explores the nature of duality:The Dark Half.
The story follows a writer whose pen name is discovered, and upon that outing, a deadly killer is born out of his worst impulses. The dark nature of the story and the mystery behind it fit perfectly into the same model and tone of the hit miniseriesThe Outsideron HBO (now MAX).Both featuring killers and creatures alike, Stephen King’sThe Dark Halfdeserves a limited series similar toThe Outsider.
The Dark Half, Explained
The Dark Halffollows author Thad Beaumont, whose struggles with alcoholism and little success using his name are overshadowed by the fame his alter ego and pen name, George Stark, enjoys after writing a series ofnovels about a psychopathic killer. However, Thad’s role as George Stark is revealed to the public, and soon, he and his wife hold a “mock” funeral for the writer, putting George Stark to bed for good. However, things turn dark when a hand emerges from the fake grave, and George Stark takes on physical form.
Soon, a series of gristly murders unfolds, with George targeting everyone in Thad’s life that he blames for the death of George Stark, including Thad’s agent, editor, and the journalist who broke the story on Thad’s alter ego to begin with. The localsheriff of King’s fictional town of Castle Rock, Alan Pangborn, suspects Thad is the killer when Thad’s fingerprints and voice are left behind at some of the murder sites, where messages of “The Sparrows Are Flying Again” are left as well, a call to a buried memory within Thad’s mind. Despite having clear alibis for the murders, Thad remains Alan’s main suspect, leaving Thad reeling and desperate to find the true culprit.
Dark nightmares soon reveal themselves as memories from a psychic connection he shares with the now-alive George Stark, with notes in George’s handwriting left behind whenever Thad wakes up.Noting the connection his twin son and daughter share, he determines he and George share a similar connection, and the sound of flying sparrows he begins hearing in his head are signs of psychopomps, creatures responsible for guiding new souls to the land of the dead.
Soon, Alan Pangborn discovers that Thad had an unborn twin that Thad absorbed in utero, and when Thad was a small child, he had a tumor removed from his brain, which had teeth, half-formed nostrils, and an eye inside. This causes Alan to question whether Stark is an evil spiritor an alternate personalityhoused inside Thad. A final battle between Thad and Stark ends with Stark being torn apart by a flock of sparrows Thad calls using a bird call, and Thad’s future is left uncertain as his wife begins to question how Thad, even unintentionally, could have created Stark in the first place.
Why The Dark Half Needs Its Own Miniseries
There are many similarities betweenThe Dark HalfandThe Outsiderthat speak to the dark nature of humanity and reality itself. Both speak of horrific crimes committed by unspeakably evil individuals, where innocent men are accused of the crimes instead. Both stories also feature a darker half that bears an uncanny resemblance to the innocent victims arrested instead, andboth stories feature a supernatural elementto the murder mystery story that draws ordinary lawmen into a battle with pure evil.
The question and theme of identity that plays acrossThe Outsiderperfectly matches the same themes thatThe Dark Halfexplores, but on a much more personal note in this case. Whereas the creature inThe Outsiderwas just that, the killer in this story was quite literally the darker half of the main protagonist, making the reader question how much of this madman existed before the mock funeral brought him to life. The idea of George Stark also calls into question life and death in general, with the story exploring an entity like Stark being born out of the “death” of the fake author to begin with andtaking on the traits of the psycho-killerthat Stark wrote in this famous novel. The moody, gritty nature of both stories and the complex characters that each story brings to life makesThe Dark Halfthe perfect novel to be adapted in the same style as HBO’sThe Outsider.
