Häufig gestellte Fragen (FAQ) for
The Dark Half (1993)

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. It is assumed that no one who is diligently avoiding spoilers will be visiting this page in the first place.

Yes. The Dark Half (1989) was written by American horror novelist Stephen King.

No. This is one movie in which he doesn't appear.

Those who have both seen the movie and read the book say that this is probably one of the closest adaptations yet of a Stephen King novel. Yet, there are some differences noted. Probably the biggest departure from the book was having Timothy Hutton play both Thad Beaumont and George Stark. In the book they were radically different physical types (one dark and thin, the other blond and muscular). Also, Stark's deterioration is much more severe in the book, as his appearance is described as being very grotesque, pretty much to the point of being inhuman. In addition, Stark has more one-liners in the movie than in the book. Finally, there are a LOT more sparrows in the book.

There are several films with the title Doppelgänger. There is Doppelganger (1993), in which a woman is followed to LA by what appears to be her evil twin and Dopperugengâ (2003), in which a stressed out inventor is aided by his Doppelgänger. In Doppelganger (1997) the Doppelgänger is actually a clone, and in Doppelgänger (1969) aka Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, the Doppelgangers are exact duplicates of people that exist on a parallel Earth located on the other side of the sun. A film not called Doppelgänger but possessing one anyway is The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970) about a man who finds that he has a Doppelgänger after he survives a car crash. Other films that have been recommended as featuring characters with split identities, but not necessarily true Doppelgängers, include Mulholland Dr. (2001), Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951) and Vertigo (1958), Lost Highway (1997), Possession (1981), Dead Ringers (1988), Identity (2003), Cet obscur objet du désir/The Obscure Object of Desire (1977), and Double vie de Véronique, La/The Double Life of Veronique (1991). That should be enough to get you started.