The Dead Zone

The Dead Zone (1983)

Runtime: 103 minutes

Directed by: David Cronenberg

Starring: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Herbert Lom, Tom Skerritt, Martin Sheen

From: Paramount

Would you believe I had never seen this movie in full before I saw it on TV late Tuesday night? I swear this is true. I do think it's pretty good. Hear all about it below: 

I wasn't planning on seeing this but at almost the last moment I saw that it was on the El Rey Network and I figured it was finally time to see this film; sure, I've seen homages and even the parody that Walken did on Saturday Night Live, but I had somehow never seen this in full until Tuesday night.

I presume most are familiar with the plot of how Christopher Walken is John Smith, a teacher who is in a bad car wreck, is in a coma for 5 years, then when he awakens he has psychic powers that work when he grabs a hold of someone. It's more a curse than a good thing, though... once news gets out, everyone wants him to answer various mysteries about their loved ones, and he has vivid visions of many horrible things, as those visions are of bad & traumatic events. Then there's a candidate for a senatorial position named Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen)... I have to be honest here, his campaign speeches are pretty much of the “Make America Great Again!” tenor, so I couldn't help but think of the obvious there. Looking around online, I am not the first person to realize this, believe me. Let's just hope the horrific version as seen by Smith when he touches Stillson does not come true in real life with our President-elect, but who knows for certain...

Anyhow, I thought this was a pretty good movie; there are other Cronenberg movies I like more, but this is still pretty good. It was as nicely directed as you would expect, the Michael Kamen score was suitably creepy, the story always intrigues, and the cast full of familiar faces delivered. While I'll always wonder what it would have been like if BILL MURRAY would have been the lead-as originally planned-Walken ended up being perfect. He is so off-kilter in general, it is not hard to believe he would suddenly gain psychic powers, or he would freak out when he gets those visions.

What a final act it has also, as I alluded to. It has quite the horrifying final vision (although the most terrifying moment for me... I'll just say it involved a pair of scissors. Holy crap) and it raised quite the philosophical question. The ending scene itself, talk about haunting. I've never read the Stephen King story this was based upon but even he said that the movie did it better than the book. With such a gimmick, I am not surprised that this became a cable TV show in the early 2000's. Hopefully the show was as restrained with the visions and did not show them all the time; you only see them a few times in the film. I shudder to think what a remake would be like... let's hope it never happens.