Directed by David Cronenberg
Starring Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst and Martin Sheen
Out of all of Stephen King's novels, The Dead Zone is arguably the very best of the lot. His original triumverate of books (Google the chronology, kids) followed by the bona fide Moby Dick-style epic The Stand made the guy a superstar, but this is the book that solidified him as not only a megastar but a mega-talented writer. The story that is presented in this novel is not only scary but also infinitely powerful, boasting one of the most downright likable protagonists in any book I've read in Johnny Smith. Furthermore, it also contains a scene where a man commits suicide by headbutting a scissors. Added bonus for the gore hounds out there.
Released in 1983, the film version of Dead Zone came at a time when the film rights for his books were selling at a rate almost as quickly as the novels themselves were released. It was also the first in a series of King adaptations to be produced by Dino De Laurentiis, and it's easily the best of the five films with his name attached. Jeffrey Boam writes a very faithful script here, and it's much appreciated. Lesson learned for the modern-day Hollywood scribes: when your source material needs a fresh coat of paint, by all means, have at it. When it doesn't, leave it the fuck alone.
Christopher Walken is Johnny Smith, nice guy schoolteacher in the oft-used King locale Castle Rock. It goes without saying that Walken is an awesome actor, but this was the dude at the height of his powers and before he essentially became a caricature. The early portions of this film show his admittedly humdrum life dating colleague Sarah Bracknell (Brooke Adams), going to a theme park, getting invited in to her apartment to wreck that shit but politely turning down the offer...and then summarily getting in a horrific car wreck that leaves him in a coma. The movie makes the wise move to delete the LONG segue that the novel takes about what transpires in the five years after the wreck, so we not soon after flash forward five years as Johnny wakes up from his coma...and finds out that Sarah has married and had a child in the interim.
It doesn't take long until the supernatural element of this movie comes into full play. In a physical therapy session with his physician Sam Weizak (Herbert Lom, who is quite frankly an amazing actor and puts on a tour de force performance here), he discovers that he has a gift. Grabbing Weizak's hand, he sees a vision of incidents from Weizak's childhood as a victim of the Holocaust. More incidents involving his gift soon follow, and the police eventually come calling, wanting to use Smith to help solve a string of serial homicides involving young women around Castle Rock. Most movies drag in the middle, but this is a film that serves as one of the glorious exceptions, because a good portion of the middle of The Dead Zone involves the chase for this vicious serial killer. The scene where his identity is discovered followed by the sequence where the police and Smith raid his home is one of the most memorable things I've seen in any horror film, and the aforementioned suicide scene (recreated pretty much verbatim in the movie) was something that was on my mind after going off to bed the night that I caught this flick for the first time on TNT MonsterVision.
The movie also has Martin Sheen as U.S. Senatorial candidate Greg Stillson, whom Sarah is volunteering for. The sliminess that Sheen exudes in this role must be seen to be believed, and his acting in the "future" sequence when Johnny prognosticates his future is electric stuff. Suffice to say, this dude has some bad intentions for the future of the country, and the third trimester of The Dead Zone manages to keep the tension going with Johnny grappling with his morals regarding whether or not it is correct to kill a man to save a greater number of lives.
Of the five King films that De Laurentiis trotted out, this one was the only real financial success of the bunch, doubling its production budget, and for good reaosn. The director here is David Cronenberg, a pretty well-known guy in horror circles for The Fly (a.k.a. the greatest remake of all time not named The Thing) as well as his downright weird sensibilities. Dealing with a decidedly more human story here, he shows a really good touch with actors, and my guess is that the audience's connection with these characters (Johnny Smith in particular) led to its word-of-mouth success. It helps when you have such strong source material - the fact that Smith was heavily featured in the admittedly awesome TV series of the same name years later speaks volumes about the foundation.
If there's one complaint that I can make about this movie, it is that it does drag a bit in the sections where Johnny's relationship with the now-married Sarah Bracknell takes center stage. These bits are predictable, and by my vantage point not quite as emotional as they should be. Big deal. If you're looking for a suspense thriller with loads of genuine tension and great characters, check this one out. It's a movie that tends to get overlooked in 30-odd Stephen King adaptations that have been unrolled for us, so finding it on the cheap shouldn't be too difficult.
*** 1/2 out of ****. As Joe Bob Briggs said about it, this is a pretty dang good movie.
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