The Dark Half

0:23 Lee Good evening and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.

0:26 Chris I'm Chris.

0:28 Adam I am Adam.

0:31 Chris Are you sure you're not your alter ego?

0:34 Adam My alter ego, Amos Daython. the world.

0:38 Adam Yeah. No, it's it's me tonight. I haven't got my hair gelled up or anything.

0:45 Lee so we are here this evening, to cover a film that was discussed in our Christmas we Three Kings episode, because none of us had seen it and

0:55 Lee Adam across the pond very much raved about this film, so we decided it's only fair we should go and track it down and give it a fair go.

1:05 Lee So we are talking about 1993's The Dark Half.

1:10 Lee there will be spoilers and there will be swearing.

1:13 Lee But before that, I think Adam, you've got some housekeeping you would like to cover.

1:17 Adam Yes, a couple of episodes ago, we put up, we put up a previous episode under the original under the new episode title.

1:28 Adam So we got it sorted and the proper episode was put out. It was one of our We Have Been Watching.

1:34 Adam but I just wanted to say a big thank you to Forest_Walking who was the listener who messaged me and just said, I think I mean anything. I think you put the wrong episode out.

1:45 Adam And it was at that point that was like, oh shit, I hadn't listened. So.

1:50 Lee That's very gracious of you Adam, for us to collectively take that responsibility. But let's be honest, I fucked up. I put the wrong episode out.

2:01 Lee Yeah, I don't know how I managed it. I just.

2:04 Chris To be fair, it's few and far between. You've done a a sterling job, I would say.

2:09 Adam Yeah, but in fairness, he messaged and it was on a night we were actually recording.

2:16 Adam So, you know, I could have listened at 9 o'clock in the morning when it went up and realized, but there we go. So I'm taking collective plane with you.

2:26 Adam So you remain sweet and innocent as always.

2:29 Chris Of course.

2:30 Lee I never listen. I don't listen to any of our episodes because I hate my voice and.

2:37 Lee I think if I.

2:38 Adam Yeah I know that.

2:40 Chris Who doesn't, you think like there you go all the things you could improve about it is so like it's so hard to shut that part of your brain down, isn't it when you're listening back?

2:49 Lee I think if I listened to a single episode, you would never hear me on this show again.

2:54 Adam In fairness, it's in fairness I don't really and it's there is an there is an element. It's the same I used to get in trouble in bands that I was in because I'd be like, well, we've played that song a lot and it's like, yeah, but it's not like we've recorded it or anything. Can we actually it's like, yeah, we've played it a lot. I'm bored of it now.

3:14 Adam And it's the same sort of thing. It's like, I don't want to hear what I've already said.

3:19 Adam Or go back and listen and go, oh no. Why did you fucking say that? Oh that's it.

3:28 Adam You've revealed too much there.

3:30 Lee That's part of why I stopped editing them, you know, and they now just go out literally as they as they go into the mics because if I go in and start editing stuff,

3:39 Lee yeah, then I go I didn't like what I said there. I didn't like this. I didn't I could have worded that better and then

3:44 Chris you end up with like two minutes of show.

3:47 Lee Yeah, exactly. I just cut myself out entirely. So it was like just let it go out and just forget about it, it's fine.

3:54 Adam We just end up with the stencil of an episode.

4:00 Adam What I've got a Stanley knife. That's how I'll do it.

4:05 Lee yes, so if we go over to Adam first cuz none of us had seen this film.

4:10 Lee So Adam, if you would like to start us off, what were your thoughts on this?

4:14 Adam Well, I had a listen back just cuz I wanted to I just had a listen back to the episode. So obviously it was Adam from Not For Everyone podcast and we're basically we did the episode where we discussed various Stephen King adaptations. both him and Bobby came up with ones that I think Bobby's one you'd seen, but me and Chris hadn't. And none of us had seen The Dark Half.

4:40 Adam Listening back to it, I've said, I think I might have seen it, but I don't remember it. And now I've seen it. Now, I've definitely not seen it.

4:48 Adam So, I don't know what I was talking about. I remember the cover from video shops cuz it was just a cool cover with like the half purple face and the birds like the the sparrows and everything.

5:00 Adam but yeah, I've never seen it. And I'm rather pleased I've ticked off another George Romero film.

5:08 Chris Because it's sort of, yeah.

5:10 Adam I was just, it's utterly it feels utterly 90s but also there's nothing in it that's like there's no shit effects really. You've got some great practical stuff.

5:25 Lee Yeah. And and some fucking harsh violence.

5:29 Adam Like there's there's bits in there where it's just like, no, that is I mean, the whole point is that it's this brutal other figure.

5:36 Adam That the author sort of spawns. but yeah, brutal is the fucking word because it there's no fucking around.

5:45 Adam The weirdest thing is though, and again, it's possibly the 90sness of it is that so obviously this is spoilers, you should have watched it, don't care anyway.

5:56 Adam But so the main character who is the author, Chad Beaumont, whose alter ego, what is it? Richard Stark.

6:05 Chris

6:06 Adam and Richard Stark is like the a brutal toper from his own imagination of this other author that he writes really harsh crime books under.

6:18 Adam And yeah, it's weird because basically it's like he's dressed like Tom Waits or Nick Cave.

6:25 Lee I thought that he looked like Tom Waits.

6:29 Adam Cuz it starts off and I'll give him his due. Timothy Hutton, I don't know if I know him from anything else.

6:36 Adam I've I've got like.

6:37 Chris He kind of he looks like he's sort of familiar and yet I don't think I've seen him in anything else.

6:42 Adam I don't think I'm I think he must have been in stuff I've seen.

6:45 Adam But apparently at one point the people people who were offered the same part, the Chad Beaumont and.

6:52 Lee Because obviously he plays both roles for Ted Ted Beaumont.

6:57 Adam Yeah, Ted Beaumont and Richard Stark.

7:01 Adam Is it Richard Stark?

7:02 Lee George Stark. That's it.

7:03 Adam Yeah, where where are we getting Richard Stark from?

7:05 Adam Oh, I'm overthinking myself. That's where I'm getting Richard Stark from because I know where Richard Bachman came from. So there we go.

7:13 Chris The dark half is appearing.

7:14 Adam Yeah, the dark half isn't appearing, but it's and I've completely disrailed myself there as well. That's that's a good start.

7:22 Chris Where Timothy Hutton might might have appeared.

7:24 Adam Yes, apparently other people who were offered the part were William Defoe and Gary Oldman.

7:31 Chris That's interesting.

7:33 Adam And so I don't know is Timothy Hutton like badass Evil Cooper Timothy Hutton, what we normally get from Timothy Hutton.

7:43 Lee Yeah, possibly, yeah.

7:45 Adam And you know, the nice guy that sort of every man bit is not the one we get usually.

7:50 Adam Because it reminded me when I watched The Shining with Claire and she said the only thing with it is you're just waiting for Jack Nicholson to be Jack Nicholson.

7:58 Lee Yeah.

7:59 Adam And it'd be the same if it was William Defoe or Gary Oldman, you'd be waiting for them to fucking flip out and be George Stark and be evil.

8:08 Lee Yeah.

8:09 Adam You know, so I don't know, like I say, I don't I don't know if anything sort of I mean I jotted it down, but I don't think there's anything I've seen.

8:16 Adam He's won an Oscar. He was best one best supporting actor for ordinary people. But yeah, I didn't really sort of recognize anything else that he'd been in.

8:26 Adam So I wasn't sort of like too sure.

8:29 Adam But I think he's really good.

8:31 Lee Oh, outstanding.

8:32 Chris What, yeah.

8:33 Adam Because it's only because I'd done the thing then the research for it that I knew that Timothy Hutton was playing both roles.

8:40 Adam Because initially, I think he does look strikingly different when he's George Stark.

8:49 Lee Yeah, to the point where I thought it was for the beginning, even when you saw his face for the first couple of scenes, I thought it was a different actor. He looked so completely different. And it makes sense to have a different actor, but actually, yeah, when you get to the end story and find out it is just the other part of his personality.

9:01 Lee You think well it has to look like him effectively because it's the idea is it's the same skin and a different part of his mind. So.

9:07 Adam Yeah, it's I think that the yeah, just his it did take me a moment even then.

9:18 Adam Especially because you've got Michael, he looks not when he's George Stark, he looks not unlike.

9:24 Lee Yeah, Michael Rooker. Yeah, similar hair, yeah.

9:27 Adam So we were watching it and Claire at first Claire said, oh, so it's the sheriff doing it.

9:33 Adam And then it was like, oh no, because I know because I knew what the thing was about and I know I've read, you know, unfortunately spoiled it slightly for myself, I suppose.

9:42 Adam But yeah.

9:43 Chris Now Michael Rooker, he doesn't seem to have aged ever cuz he looks very similar in this as I've now seen him in Slither and Guardians of the Galaxy.

9:54 Chris So Guardians was the first time I sort of knew of him as far as I knew, and then yeah when we saw him in Slither, but I don't think I've seen him in anything else. I know he has been in films.

10:08 Adam He's also the dad, the scary dad in More Ratz who gets stick palmed.

10:16 Adam And he is also Henry in Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer, which means that every time Michael Rooker shows up, my fucking asshole drops out because I'm like, he fucking done it.

10:25 Chris Yeah.

10:27 Adam Or it's like.

10:28 Adam He he was in the third series of True Detective and literally there's a bit the episode ended and you just got someone got a phone call from Michael Rooker and it was the first time he'd appeared in the show and it was just his voice. And I was like, well, you're dead.

10:44 Adam Michael fucking Rooker, that's it. You're fucked, mate.

10:49 Adam You know. Although policing.

10:54 Chris Not not not.

10:56 Chris Not the perfect role for him.

10:59 Adam No. I just I just mean the I think the sheriff was a bit sort of like, oh, I've come around here because you've done it, but now I'm just going to come over and have a couple of beers and discuss it with you.

11:10 Adam And at no point did anyone go, just lock him up.

11:14 Lee Yeah. if the murder happened, it weren't him.

11:16 Lee That's what I kept saying. I was like, just agree to be in a cell overnight and then when someone's get killed, you're 100% off the hook.

11:23 Lee Like just I know it's not exactly the Hilton, but you can put up with it for a night, surely to clear your own name.

11:30 Adam Yeah, it did seem a bit a trifle sort of weird.

11:34 Adam While we're talking of other names, Reggie, the like the Professor of Law folklore.

11:42 Lee Yeah.

11:42 Adam she's in she's from The Haunting. She's Eleanor in The Haunting.

11:47 Lee She was excellent in this. I thought she was walking around smoking that pipe.

11:52 Adam Yeah.

11:53 Chris Yeah.

11:54 Adam No, she's.

11:55 Chris I don't she had one of my favorite lines as well, The Almighty is on a sabbatical.

11:59 Lee Yeah.

12:00 Adam Oh, yes.

12:01 Chris Yeah.

12:02 Lee And while we're actually Beaumont's wife as well, Liz. I really recognized her and I, you know, I said at the time when we're watching it, I was like, I know her. She was in a she was a put upon wife in something else in the 80s.

12:16 Lee And Jennifer quite rightly pointed out, all wives in 80s films were much put upon. That was what women did in the 80s apparently.

12:24 Lee but yeah, it so it was Uncle Buck, it was driving me nuts, but yeah, she was the girlfriend of John Candy in Uncle Buck.

12:31 Adam Yeah, she was in Carnival as well. She was Mr. Krab's sister.

12:35 Lee Oh, I haven't seen that in such a long time. I need to rewatch it. I I really enjoyed it, but I remember just being pissed off when it got to the end because I was like, oh, now they've canceled it. We'll never find out the rest of the story.

12:48 Chris True.

12:49 Adam But yeah. yeah, Julie Harris, who was Reggie, who's in who's Eleanor in The Haunting, yeah.

12:55 Adam And

12:57 Adam Yeah, and also, Chad's I've said it again. Chad, Thad.

13:03 Chris Well, so I thought, I thought they did say Chad early on in the film, but I must have misheard it.

13:08 Chris Cuz I was like, so because it's that, isn't it? It's.

13:12 Adam Yeah, yeah.

13:13 Adam Which I can only hear me and Claire been re-watching the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes. So I can only hear the name Thadeus in a ridiculous Welsh accent because of the sign of four.

13:22 Adam So it's just Thadeus, you see.

13:26 Adam

13:27 Adam But also, there was, oh and and the guy Fred Clawson, the guy who tries to blackmail him at the start.

13:36 Chris

13:37 Adam That's what happens if Tim Roth had run really fast at Steve Buscemi.

13:40 Adam He's

13:43 Adam And but he's he's in he's in Land of the Dead. He's like the shotgun guy in Land of the Dead.

13:53 Lee I've just actually you saying about the cover of this, like the original VHS cover.

13:59 Lee It's funny, again, it clearly is Timothy Hutton in the photograph, but it looks like Stephen King.

14:07 Chris Yeah.

14:07 Adam Yeah.

14:09 Lee Again, another story about an author and the picture on the cover looks exactly like Stephen King.

14:14 Adam Well, they've got like the story that he writes, like the first story that he writes is a child.

14:21 Adam Is I did jot it down. Herbie Tigers is actually the first short story that Stephen King wrote.

14:30 Lee Yes.

14:30 Chris

14:31 Adam So that's there's a link in there. Also this is the lake house is in Castle Rock, which is obviously the Stephen King's fictional town.

14:41 Lee Yeah.

14:42 Adam and Sheriff Pangborn's in a few books. He's in Needful Things as well.

14:47 Lee Oh, yes.

14:48 Lee Of course, yes.

14:50 Adam But he's played by Ed Harris in that and like the and the deputy is the has the same name in Needful Things and this.

14:57 Adam And actually the weird thing is, Needful Things came out in 93, but this was this actually was made in 91. Orion Pictures went bankrupt.

15:07 Adam Then the another film they'd made, Silence of the Lambs, won every fucking Oscar.

15:14 Adam And suddenly they had a bit of a reprieve so they had the money to release it. So actually it came out the same year as Needful Things even though it's like it's actually two years up at that point.

15:25 Lee yeah, I I've got to put my cards on the table now and say, I quite enjoyed this film.

15:32 Lee But I don't think many Stephen King films make it particularly well to the screen.

15:41 Lee Even with George Romero, I wasn't terribly drawn in.

15:45 Lee But I mean, it was a good watch. I'm glad I watched it.

15:48 Adam Yeah.

15:50 Lee But yeah, they just.

15:51 Adam I don't know if I'd watch it again, but I would not mind watching it again.

15:55 Lee Yeah.

15:57 Lee If we if we were to if yeah, if we were to do it as a watch party or whatever.

16:03 Lee yeah, I'd definitely watch it. But yeah, I don't think I'd ever go to my shelf and go, oh, I need to need to pull that DVD back off the shelf. I think it's one that's going to just be there to make up the numbers.

16:14 Lee So Chris, what did you think?

16:16 Chris Yeah, well I I did enjoy it.

16:20 Chris

16:21 Adam Oh, absolutely enjoyed it.

16:23 Chris Oh, yeah, I'm trying to think I'd say maybe I I would say it could have been just a tad shorter and still still have achieved what it did.

16:33 Chris But like, it is a fascinating story.

16:36 Chris and it's an interesting idea, right? So so it's Stephen King is a writer writing about a writer.

16:44 Lee Who has what he always does.

16:45 Chris A dark half. Well, yeah, so.

16:49 Chris yeah, like, but it's interesting how many times he can do that and it still be effective.

16:56 Chris And and the idea that like in order to be able to write the kind of horror that he does, especially when when you anytime I've ever seen anything of Stephen King, he seems like a way too nice person to be able to come up with the sort of stuff he comes up with.

17:12 Lee Yeah.

17:12 Chris And yet that's exactly what this story is, is a guy who's way too nice and cannot come up with this stuff until he kind of releases this, you know, inner demonic half of of his brain.

17:25 Chris Like, and and then that's that is really what Stephen King has to do. He does have to kind of engage something that he doesn't want to use in everyday life because that wouldn't be very good for a successful life.

17:39 Chris Right, but so I mean, I find it it's really fascinating.

17:44 Adam Well, it's interesting. Apparently it's the first book he wrote sober.

17:48 Adam Like after he cleaned up.

17:50 Chris Yeah.

17:51 Chris So he cleaned up. Okay, so I didn't know anything about his.

17:55 Adam Which which I, I mean, I think he's I mean, he's been on record about drug use and drinking and so on and so forth.

18:04 Chris Okay.

18:05 Adam yeah, and fuck me, just watch the trailer for Maximum Overdrive if you want to see someone on coke. I mean, it's fucking unreal.

18:14 Adam But but but yeah, so he sort of.

18:21 Adam yeah, he'd cleaned up by the time he wrote this and I think that definitely sort of you see that in there.

18:27 Adam but also he'd done, because this is like his 27th book.

18:34 Lee Bloody hell.

18:35 Adam So, you know, there was a but.

18:36 Adam So he released other basically he himself, Stephen King himself had a alter ego called Richard Bachman.

18:45 Adam That's why I kept saying Richard Bachman.

18:46 Chris Yeah.

18:46 Lee Richard.

18:47 Chris Okay.

18:48 Adam Cuz I really, I'm I'm really melding the two. The brain is sloshing around like a whiskey ship.

18:56 Chris Well, yeah, right, who is this guy.

18:56 Chris So so Stephen King's got an alter ego.

18:59 Adam Yeah.

19:00 Adam And he wrote.

19:00 Adam Basically what happened was is that the publishing company that he like was was releasing his books would only let him do one a year.

19:08 Adam Because you're flooding the market basically, or you're going to make, you know, you're just sort of overdoing things.

19:17 Chris So he was able to write

19:19 Adam he was more than prolific he wanted to release more.

19:26 Adam It's a bit like when it's almost a bit like when Prince's record like Prince had the dispute with Sony, I think it was where it's like basically they wouldn't let him release even though he'd written like five albums.

19:39 Adam You know, they but they wouldn't let him release him because they were like, well, you know, you're just putting out too much prints.

19:45 Chris Too much prints.

19:45 Adam Yeah.

19:46 Adam And yeah, so they said said to him.

19:51 Adam So basically, he did it for that because he wanted to release books, but also, as he put it, he wanted to see if his success was through talent or luck.

20:00 Adam Which again, is one of the most cokey things I've ever heard in my life.

20:05 Adam I'll be honest, you know.

20:06 Chris I find that really interesting.

20:08 Adam Someone. What? I got to see if it's it's luck or or you know, it's it's talent or is it luck? You know, I'm driving myself mad with it.

20:16 Adam So he began releasing books as Richard Bachman. The first was or Bachman. the first was Rage, which was released in 1977, which is the same year as he writes The Shining and releases The Shining.

20:31 Adam So it's quite early in his career because I mean I think Carrie's like 72 or something like that.

20:37 Adam So he'd only written, I think he'd written Carrie, Salem's Lot, maybe something else and then but yeah, he wanted to, he wanted to release this this book Rage.

20:46 Adam Which actually has gone out of print. He allowed it to go out of print because it was about school shooting.

20:52 Adam And he's like, it's subsequently sort of dropped out of the anthologies and things like that. It's just yeah, he's just let that go out of print.

21:01 Chris was was it ever implicated in a school shooting?

21:04 Chris Oh, no, no, no, I hadn't I hadn't heard that.

21:07 Adam No, I think it was just Stephen King was just basically like, well, you can write about horror, but this was a bit too near the mark. So I'll just let it I'm just going to let it.

21:13 Chris Yeah, no, that's fair enough.

21:14 Adam Not be.

21:16 Adam because by then people and I think by the time that that decision was made, people knew that he was Rich Bachman or Richard Bachman.

21:23 Adam I'm going to go with Bachman because apparently it's named after Bachman Turner Overdrive.

21:28 Adam The band.

21:29 Adam Because that's what Stephen King was listening to when the publishers basically rang up and said, well, what the fuck do you want to call yourself?

21:37 Adam And yeah, so he's Richard Bachman.

21:40 Adam And yeah, so because so he created a fictional biography. So it's a different and so in the about the author blurb on the books, it's like a completely different life that Richard Bachman has.

21:55 Adam he did another four books, in Bachman's lifetime including The Running Man. So and actually The Running Man is is credited as Richard Bachman, not Stephen King.

22:04 Chris on the like on on the screen adoption.

22:08 Adam and then he then released Thinner in 1984 and a guy who worked in a book shop called Steve Brown noticed that Thinner read a lot like Stephen King.

22:16 Adam He just said there was similarities in the style, similarities in the language, whatever.

22:22 Adam And so this guy then looked into publisher's records at the library of Congress and found a document that listed Stephen King as the author of one of the Richard Bachman books.

22:36 Adam So this guy then rang the publishers and said I've worked this out that Stephen King's Richard Bachman, but I don't know what you want me to do?

22:48 Adam I don't think it wasn't like a black, it wasn't like in the film. I don't think like a blackmail thing or something like that.

22:52 Adam And then apparently Stephen King phoned him up. Like Stephen King himself phoned this guy this guy up and said to him write an article about it and you can interview me if you want. So he was pretty cool with it, you know.

23:09 Adam And and actually at the time Stephen King was working on Misery, which he was going to release as Richard Bachman, but he but obviously it all come out then so it just came out as Stephen King.

23:19 Adam after that all came out, King then declared that Bachman had died of cancer of the pseudonym.

23:28 Adam

23:29 Adam But but even better than that, they've also two further Richard Bachman books have been published posthumously in inverted commas. both have been found in his Bachman's personal effects by his equally fictitious wife, Claudia Innis Bachman.

23:42 Adam So they're sort of they're releasing them like sort of two pack from the archives of a completely fictional author.

23:50 Adam But that's sort of, but you can see how all of this subtly into The Dark Half and you know.

23:55 Lee It

23:56 Lee I mean it is a fantastic concept.

23:57 Lee I've got to say like I didn't dislike the film, you know, I I'm not to. But it's a fantastic concept and I think it was pretty well done.

24:05 Lee

24:06 Lee Yeah. But yeah, as you say, finding out the back story as well was even more intro.

24:10 Lee Like I did love the idea of them having the fake funeral so they could do the photo shooting that stuff like it's just all so well thought out.

24:16 Adam But also just that eerie thing where it's like they've cut out the the sort of tumor conjoined twin ingested twin rather.

24:26 Lee Yeah.

24:27 Lee and grown into a person effectively, which.

24:33 Adam It's really yeah.

24:35 Adam And that was the thing like Adam said there's there's bits of it.

24:38 Adam I mean it's like that was the point where Claire Claire just said to me, oh, and this is the film that Adam recommended is the bit where it was like, yeah, beaten to death with his own wooden leg.

24:51 Lee Yeah.

24:56 Lee Oh.

24:57 Lee Yeah.

24:57 Lee I mean I've got to go back to the effects. I know you mentioned them earlier. That final I say big spoiler. Yeah, the final death scene of Richard was yeah, it looked absolutely brilliant.

25:05 Lee Like some of the stuff where you see the flocks of birds in the distance looked a bit shonky.

25:09 Chris The actual.

25:11 Lee But yeah, that bit, which was the close-up, which must have been really hard to do, looked fantastic.

25:15 Chris Yeah.

25:16 Adam It is.

25:16 Lee It's grim as well, so gory.

25:19 Adam Cuz they used I think they used like 4,000 cutthroat finches like for for the birds in all the various sequences.

25:26 Adam But all that stuff in the house is all like digital overlay basically.

25:29 Adam And I don't think it looks bad.

25:31 Adam I don't think it looks.

25:31 Lee No.

25:32 Adam It's a bit like it's a bit like watching Ghostbusters where you're like, actually nothing seems too cranky or clunky in this. You know, nothing seems that dated or anything else like that. It's just yeah.

25:45 Adam Also, and if you can track it down, this is one one for Chris. I feel this one.

25:51 Adam There is an MS DOS adventure game based on the book on the film.

25:55 Adam It was like released as a tie in.

25:57 Adam Apparently it is so poorly received, basically no one good word to say about it.

26:02 Adam But it was like one of those old clicker games.

26:07 Chris I might have to.

26:08 Adam But yeah, apparently it's now a collector's item for both gaming fans and Stephen King fans because it just so such a weird little offshoot that's out there.

26:22 Adam But also the weirdest part was is George Romero, obviously he did Creepshow like Stephen King wrote Creepshow for.

26:30 Adam Like George Romero wrote it, fuck me.

26:33 Adam George Romero directed Creepshow, which was a screenplay by Stephen King, it wasn't adapted from his books, it was original screenplay.

26:41 Adam But I didn't know this, he's in he's in the film Nightriders, which is George Romero's weird film about people jousting on motorbikes.

26:50 Adam like Stephen King's in that.

26:51 Adam but also at various points, George Romero was attached to the original mini series of Salem's Lot, the original mini series of It, The Stand and the first adaption of Pet Sematary.

27:07 Lee Oh, wow.

27:08 Adam But just circumstances meant that he didn't, you know, he didn't finish like he was involved in the production initially, but he never actually sort of got to the end of the project or directed or anything like that. So this was kind of like the the first time that they actually got to do that like of George Romero adapting King, not like sort of going from his film script as it were.

27:20 Lee

27:22 Chris Yeah.

27:23 Lee It's yeah, it's a very I'm surprised I haven't heard more about this film.

27:29 Lee I mean it's compared to some of the other ones as you say that the fact that none of us have seen it, I I kind of half knew the name but not very well, but it definitely doesn't seem bad enough that it should have been forgotten to the, you know.

27:44 Lee I mean, people talk about Sleepwalkers more than they talk about this.

27:49 Adam Yeah.

27:50 Adam But then I think that's is that the thing though, is at least Sleepwalkers has that sort of element of, oh no, you got to see this. Whereas actually in fairness, there's not a single person I wouldn't say watch the Dark Half too.

28:00 Lee No, no, I agree.

28:02 Adam Yeah.

28:03 Adam You know. I think it's I think it holds its own.

28:06 Adam It's it's just yeah.

28:09 Adam I think what was it? again, I keep referring to Claire because she was just a very inspirational lady. Well, we're watching this.

28:20 Adam And what was it? silly, not stupid.

28:23 Lee Yeah.

28:25 Lee Yeah, I think that is a good way to with a lot of his stuff actually, that seems to be a good way of looking at it.

28:32 Lee Yeah, it's.

28:33 Lee It's kind of daft, but it never gets into that. So as you say, the sleepwalker's so mental you've got to see this because it's an insane concept.

28:47 Adam Yeah.

28:51 Chris And sleepwalker's has tons of cats.

28:53 Lee Yeah.

28:57 Chris Right, so so so tell me so the bit where he dies at the end, also did remind me a little bit of Fight Club, the fact which, you know, it's all go and he dies.

29:09 Chris But so.

29:10 Chris So nobody else could see him dying?

29:15 Adam I don't know. I mean, well the only two witnesses were the kids. And I just want to say, those kids seem to have a great time.

29:22 Adam You know what I mean?

29:22 Adam I never saw those kids stressed once.

29:25 Chris Yeah.

29:26 Adam You know, it's just it's always heartening to watch that, you know.

29:28 Adam So oh no, no one felt the need to scare a fucking like no one felt the need to scare a toddler just for the sake of a for the sake of a film.

29:40 Lee Well it's funny you say that about people not seeing because that was my comment was obviously Michael Rooker bursts into the room while his alter ego is still being destroyed and then as the birds fly off and carry away the last of the skeleton.

29:48 Lee I literally went good luck explaining that to the Marshall Rooker because there's no way they're going to believe you and they're going to you're going to have to explain where this killer was.

29:59 Lee Oh, there it definitely wasn't him. There definitely was a killer, but I watched a flock of birds carry him away.

30:05 Lee You like, yeah, good luck with that one. Oh, your mate, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we thought so.

30:09 Lee You're going down and all mate. It's But yeah, but then it just cuts. That's the end of the film.

30:16 Lee Like, no follow-up, no.

30:22 Adam I was so pleased with that though.

30:24 Adam Because no, no, cuz that's the point of the film. It's you just want to see, you know, does does the dark half win or not?

30:31 Adam And then anything after that, it was like, I don't want to have to watch Michael Rooker trying to explain this like with two guys with a camera going, you know, you you are aware that you're on tape, Sheriff.

30:41 Chris Yeah.

30:42 Adam Anything you say maybe in evidence. Now, run this bias again.

30:47 Adam about a flock of Sparrow.

30:52 Chris I suppose that's a good good sequel for two traumatized twins every time they're walking out in the countryside and the birds start tweeting. They go psycho and they have no idea why.

31:03 Adam There we go.

31:04 Adam Well, I mean, I mean, I suppose actually, it wouldn't have by the time the inquiry came round Sheriff Pangbones already involved in riots because the devil set up an antique shop.

31:13 Adam So I'd imagine that I'd imagine it's like that's one of those things where it's probably got lost in the lost in the paperwork somewhere.

31:25 Lee Oh, yeah, you you can imagine being the marshal is what's happening in Castle Rock now.

31:31 Lee Oh for fuck it's definitely that sheriff. He's at the heart of all of this stuff and it's all nonsense.

31:36 Lee None of it makes sense.

31:38 Adam I don't mean anything, but every time I see him, he's a different man.

31:41 Lee It's just

31:45 Lee Oh, yes. So, so we caught up with this one.

31:48 Lee on our next episode, we are going to be watching Dreamcatcher. if you thought this film was what the fuck, you wait and see what's coming.

31:59 Adam Oh, bet.

32:01 Adam I I only know I only know one thing about this film.

32:07 Adam And please please also correct me if I'm incorrect here because I might be going into it with a a song in my heart.

32:13 Adam But I do understand that the term shit weasel.

32:17 Lee Yes, I believe it is.

32:19 Adam Right. Okay.

32:20 Adam That's fine.

32:21 Lee so yeah, that's one to look forward to.

32:23 Chris Are we doing Maximum Overdrive after that?

32:26 Lee Oh, I am so Stephen King out. I will be after that. I couldn't do a third one.

32:31 Lee I'd go nuts.

32:32 Adam I think I think Maximum Overdrive should be that's that's distinctly a party episode.

32:37 Adam We'll save that for the summer.

32:39 Lee Yeah, yeah.

32:41 Lee Get a load of beer in, watch it and record straight afterwards when we're all off tanked up.

32:46 Lee

32:48 Lee Right, so thanks very much for listening everybody. Go and check out The Dark Half.

32:53 Lee Go and check out Dreamcatcher ready for our next episode and we'll see you all in a fortnight.

32:58 Lee Thanks very much for listening. Good night.

33:00 Adam Good night.

33:01 Chris You're just disturbing my peaceful state of mind. Good night.